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Friday, August 22nd, 2025
the Week of Proper 15 / Ordinary 20
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Read the Bible

Myles Coverdale Bible

Ecclesiastes 6:4

For he cometh to naught, & goeth his waye in to darcknes, and his name is forgotten.

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

1 There is yet a plage vnder ye Sonne, & it is a generall thinge amonge me: 2 when God geueth a man riches, goodes & honoure, so that he wanteth nothinge of all that his herte can desyre: and yet God geueth him not leue to enioye the same, but another man spedeth them. This is a vayne thinge & a miserable plage. 3 Yf a man begett an hundreth children, and lyue many yeares, so that his dayes are many in nombre, and yet can not enioye his good, nether be buried: as for him I saye, that an vntymely byrth is better then he. 4 For he cometh to naught, & goeth his waye in to darcknes, and his name is forgotten. 5 Morouer, he seyth not the Sonne, and knoweth of no rest nether here ner there: 6 Yee though he lyued two thousande yeares, yet hath he no good life. Come not all to one 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 make it after this fashion: The length shal be thre hundreth cubites, the bredth fiftie cubites, and the heyght thirtie cubites.
Genesis 6:20
Of foules after their kynde, of beastes after their kynde, and of all maner wormes of the earth after their kinde. Of euery one of these shal there a payre go in vnto the, that they maye lyue.
Genesis 6:21
And thou shalt take vnto the all maner of meate that maye be eaten, and shalt laye it vp in stoare by the, that it maye be meate for the and them.
Genesis 6:22
And Noe dyd acordinge to all that God commaunded him.
Genesis 11:4
And sayde: Come, let vs buylde a cite & a tower, whose toppe maye reach vnto heaue, yt we maye make vs a name, afore we be scatred abrode in all londes.
Numbers 13:33
We sawe giauntes there also, yee giauntes as the children of Enack: and we semed in oure sighte as ye greshoppers, and so dyd we in their sighte.
Numbers 16:2
tode vp agaynst Moses, with certayne men amonge the childre of Israel, two hundreth & fyftie captaynes of the congregacion, councelers, & famous men.
Deuteronomy 3:11
For onely Og the kynge of Basan remayned ouer of the giauntes. Beholde, his yron bed is here at Rabath amonge the children of Ammon, nyne cubites longe, and foure cubites brode, after the cubite of a man.
1 Samuel 17:4
Then stepte there forth from amoge the Philistynes a stoute bolde man, named Goliath of Gath, sixe cubites and an hande breth hye,

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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