Ecclesiastes 6:3 - Revised Version with Apocrypha 1895

³ If a man beget an hundred children and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, but his soul be not filled with good, and moreover he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he:

More versions

King James Version (Oxford) 1769

³ If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he.

Amplified Bible - Classic Edition

³ If a man begets a hundred children and lives many years so that the days of his years are many, but his life is not filled with good, and also he is given no burial [honors nor is laid to rest in the sepulcher of his fathers], I say that [he who had] an untimely birth [resulting in death] is better off than he, [Job 3:16.]

American Standard Version (1901)

³ If a man beget a hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul be not filled with good, and moreover he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he:

Common English Bible

³ Some people may have one hundred children and live a long life. But no matter how long they live, if they aren’t content with life’s good things, I say that even a stillborn child with no grave is better off than they are.

Catholic Public Domain Version

³ If a man were to produce one hundred children, and to live for many years, and to attain to an age of many days, and if his soul were to make no use of the goods of his resources, and if he were lacking even a burial: concerning such a man, I declare that a miscarried child is better than he.

Douay-Rheims version of The Bible - 1752 version

³ If a man beget a hundred children, and live many years, and attain to a great age, and his soul make no use of the goods of his substance, and he be without burial: of this man I pronounce, that the untimely born is better than he.

Ecclesiastes 6:3 Cross References

Genesis 33:5

And he lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, Who are these with thee? And he said, The children which God hath graciously given thy servant.

Genesis 47:9

And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.

2 Kings 10:1

Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. And Jehu wrote letters, and sent to Samaria, unto the rulers of Jezreel, even the elders, and unto them that brought up the sons of Ahab, saying,

2 Kings 9:35

And they went to bury her: but they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands.

1 Chronicles 28:5

And of all my sons, (for the LORD hath given me many sons,) he hath chosen Solomon my son to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of the LORD over Israel.

2 Chronicles 11:21

And Rehoboam loved Maacah the daughter of Absalom above all his wives and his concubines: (for he took eighteen wives, and threescore concubines, and begat twenty and eight sons and threescore daughters.)

Esther 5:11

And Haman recounted unto them the glory of his riches, and the multitude of his children, and all the things wherein the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king.

Esther 7:10

So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified.

Job 3:11

Why died I not from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?

Job 3:16

Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; As infants which never saw light

Psalm 58:8

Let them be as a snail which melteth and passeth away: Like the untimely birth of a woman, that hath not seen the sun.

Proverbs 17:6

Children's children are the crown of old men; And the glory of children are their fathers.

Ecclesiastes 4:3

yea, better than them both did I esteem him which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 6:4

for it cometh in vanity, and departeth in darkness, and the name thereof is covered with darkness;

Jeremiah 22:19

He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

Jeremiah 36:30

Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost.

Jeremiah 8:2

and they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth.

Matthew 26:24

The Son of man goeth, even as it is written of him: but woe unto that man through whom the Son of man is betrayed! good were it for that man if he had not been born.