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Monday, June 9th, 2025
the Week of Proper 5 / Ordinary 10
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The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Ecclesiastes 6:4

For he enters in futility and departs in darkness, and his name is shrouded in obscurity.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Thompson Chain Reference - Memory-Oblivion;   Oblivion;   Wicked, the;  

Dictionaries:

- Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Darkness;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Birth;  

Devotionals:

- Every Day Light - Devotion for September 8;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
For he comes in futility and he goes in darkness, and his name is shrouded in darkness.
Hebrew Names Version
for it comes in vanity, and departs in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness.
King James Version
For he cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness.
English Standard Version
For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered.
New American Standard Bible
for a miscarriage comes in futility and goes into darkness; and its name is covered in darkness.
New Century Version
A baby born dead is useless. It returns to darkness without even a name.
Amplified Bible
for the miscarriage comes in futility (in vain) and passes into obscurity; and its name is covered in obscurity.
World English Bible
for it comes in vanity, and departs in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness.
Geneva Bible (1587)
For he commeth into vanitie and goeth into darkenesse: and his name shall be couered with darkenesse.
Legacy Standard Bible
for that one comes in vanity and goes into darkness; and that one's name is covered in darkness.
Contemporary English Version
That child will never live to see the sun or to have a name, and it will go straight to the world of darkness. But it will still find more rest than you,
Complete Jewish Bible
For the arrival of a stillborn baby is a futile thing, and its departure is in darkness; its name is [forgotten,] covered in darkness;
Darby Translation
For it cometh in vanity, and departeth in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness;
Easy-to-Read Version
It is senseless when a baby is born dead. The baby is quickly buried in a dark grave, without even a name.
George Lamsa Translation
For he comes in with vanity, and shall go into darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness.
Good News Translation
It does that baby no good to be born; it disappears into darkness, where it is forgotten.
Lexham English Bible
For he comes into vanity and departs into darkness, and his name is shrouded in darkness.
Literal Translation
For he comes in with vanity, and goes out in darkness; his name shall be covered in darkness.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For he cometh to naught, & goeth his waye in to darcknes, and his name is forgotten.
American Standard Version
for it cometh in vanity, and departeth in darkness, and the name thereof is covered with darkness;
Bible in Basic English
In wind it came and to the dark it will go, and with the dark will its name be covered.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
for it cometh in vanity, and departeth in darkness, and the name thereof is covered with darkness;
King James Version (1611)
For he commeth in with vanitie, and departeth in darkenesse, and his name shall be couered with darkenesse.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
For he commeth to naught, & spendeth his tyme in darknesse, and his name is forgotten.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
For he came in vanity, and departs in darkness, and his name shall be covered in darkness.
English Revised Version
for it cometh in vanity, and departeth in darkness, and the name thereof is covered with darkness;
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
For he cometh in veyn, and goith to derknessis; and his name schal be don a wei bi foryetyng.
Update Bible Version
for it comes in vanity, and departs in darkness, and the name thereof is covered with darkness;
Webster's Bible Translation
For he cometh with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness.
New English Translation
Though the stillborn child came into the world for no reason and departed into darkness, though its name is shrouded in darkness,
New King James Version
for it comes in vanity and departs in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness.
New Living Translation
His birth would have been meaningless, and he would have ended in darkness. He wouldn't even have had a name,
New Life Bible
For this child comes for nothing and goes into darkness, and in darkness its name is covered.
New Revised Standard
For it comes into vanity and goes into darkness, and in darkness its name is covered;
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For, in vain, it came in, and, in darkness, it departeth, - and, with darkness, its name, is covered:
Douay-Rheims Bible
For he came in vain, and goeth to darkness, and his name shall be wholly forgotten.
Revised Standard Version
For it comes into vanity and goes into darkness, and in darkness its name is covered;
Young's Literal Translation
For in vanity he came in, and in darkness he goeth, and in darkness his name is covered,
New American Standard Bible (1995)
for it comes in futility and goes into obscurity; and its name is covered in obscurity.

Contextual Overview

1There is another evil I have seen under the sun, and it weighs heavily upon mankind: 2God gives a man riches, wealth, and honor, so that he lacks nothing his heart desires; but God does not allow him to enjoy them. Instead, a stranger will enjoy them. This is futile and a grievous evil. 3A man may father a hundred children and live for many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he is unsatisfied with his prosperity and does not even receive a proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. 4For he enters in futility and departs in darkness, and his name is shrouded in obscurity.5A stillborn child has more rest than he-though never seeing the sun or knowing anything- 6if he lives a thousand years twice over, but fails to enjoy his prosperity. Do not all go to the same place?

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

his name: Psalms 109:13

Reciprocal: Exodus 10:21 - darkness

Cross-References

Genesis 6:15
And this is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high.
Genesis 6:20
Two of every kind of bird and animal and crawling creature will come to you to be kept alive.
Genesis 6:21
You are also to take for yourself every kind of food that is eaten and gather it as food for yourselves and for the animals."
Genesis 6:22
So Noah did everything precisely as God had commanded him.
Genesis 11:4
"Come," they said, "let us build for ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of all the earth."
Numbers 13:33
We even saw the Nephilim there-the descendants of Anak that come from the Nephilim! We seemed like grasshoppers in our own sight, and we must have seemed the same to them!"
Numbers 16:2
a rebellion against Moses, along with 250 men of Israel renowned as leaders of the congregation and representatives in the assembly.
Deuteronomy 3:11
(For only Og king of Bashan had remained of the remnant of the Rephaim. His bed of iron, nine cubits long and four cubits wide, is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites.)
1 Samuel 17:4
Then a champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out from the Philistine camp. He was six cubits and a span in height,

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For he cometh in with vanity,.... The Targum adds, "into this world." Some understand this of the abortive, and render it, "though he cometh in with vanity" x, yet is to be preferred to the covetous man: others interpret it of the covetous man himself; and scrape of both: or, however, they may be compared together in these instances; the abortive comes into the world in vain, for nothing, and answers no purpose, as can well be observed; and the same may be said of a covetous rich man; he walks in a vain show, and is altogether vanity, in his coming in, in his life, and going out;

and departeth in darkness; or, "into darkness" y; goes out of the world without any notice taken of him; and goes down to the dark grave, where he lies in obscurity;

and his name shall be covered with darkness; the abortive has no name, and is never spoken of; and so the name and memory of such a man as is here described rot and perish: and in this respect the abortive has the preference to him; for though he is covered with darkness, yet no ill is ever spoken of him; whereas the name of the wicked covetous man is cursed.

x כי בא "quamvis venit", Drusius. y בחשך "in tenebrositatem", Montanus; "in tenebras", Tigurine version, Mercerus, so Broughton.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He ... his - Rather, it ... its. The untimely birth is spoken of.


 
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