Ecclesiastes 6:4

THE MESSAGE

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.

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

¹I looked long and hard at what goes on around here, and let me tell you, things are bad. And people feel it. There are people, for instance, on whom God showers everything—money, property, reputation—all they ever wanted or dreamed of. And then God doesn't let them enjoy it. Some stranger comes along and has all the fun. It's more of what I'm calling smoke. A bad business. ³Say a couple have scores of children and live a long, long life but never enjoy themselves—even though they end up with a big funeral! I'd say that a stillborn baby gets the better deal. It gets its start in a mist and ends up in the dark—unnamed. It sees nothing and knows nothing, but is better off by far than anyone living. ⁶ Even if someone lived a thousand years—make it two thousand!—but didn't enjoy anything, what's the point? Doesn't everyone end up in the same place?

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

his name: Psalms 109:13

Reciprocal: Exodus 10:21 - darkness

Cross-References

Genesis 6:22
Noah did everything God commanded him to do.

Genesis 11:4
Then they said, "Come, let's build ourselves a city and a tower that reaches Heaven. Let's make ourselves famous so we won't be scattered here and there across the Earth."

Deuteronomy 3:11
Og king of Bashan was the last remaining Rephaite. His bed, made of iron, was over thirteen feet long and six wide. You can still see it on display in Rabbah of the People of Ammon.

1 Samuel 17:4
A giant nearly ten feet tall stepped out from the Philistine line into the open, Goliath from Gath. He had a bronze helmet on his head and was dressed in armor—126 pounds of it! He wore bronze shin guards and carried a bronze sword. His spear was like a fence rail—the spear tip alone weighed over fifteen pounds. His shield bearer walked ahead of him.

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.