Ecclesiastes 6:3

God's Word

Suppose a rich person wasn’t satisfied with good things ⌞while he was alive⌟ and didn’t even get an honorable burial ⌞after he died⌟. Suppose he had a hundred children and lived for many years. No matter how long he would have lived, it ⌞still⌟ would have been better for him to have been born dead.

Cross References

Genesis 33:5

When he saw the women and children, Esau asked, “Who are these people here with you?” “The children God has graciously given me, sir,” Jacob answered.

Genesis 47:9

Jacob answered Pharaoh, “The length of my stay on earth has been 130 years. The years of my life have been few and difficult, fewer than my ancestors’ years.”

2 Kings 10:1

Ahab had 70 male heirs in Samaria. So Jehu wrote letters to the officials of Jezreel, the respected leaders, and the guardians of Ahab’s descendants in Samaria. The letters read,

2 Kings 9:35

But when they went out to bury her, they couldn’t find any of her body except her skull, feet, and hands.

1 Chronicles 28:5

And of all my sons (the Lord has given me many sons) he chose my son Solomon to sit on the throne of the Lord’s kingdom to rule Israel.

2 Chronicles 11:21

Rehoboam loved Maacah, Absalom’s granddaughter, more than all his other wives and concubines. (He had 18 wives and 60 concubines. He fathered 28 sons and 60 daughters.)

Esther 5:11

Then Haman began to relate in detail to them how very rich he was, the many sons he had, and all about how the king promoted him to a position over the officials and the king’s advisers.

Esther 7:10

So servants hung Haman’s ⌞dead body⌟ on the very pole he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king got over his raging anger.

Job 3:11

“Why didn’t I die as soon as I was born and breathe my last breath when I came out of the womb?

Job 3:16

I would be buried like a stillborn baby. I would not exist. I would be like infants who never saw the light.

Psalm 58:8

Let them become like a snail that leaves behind a slimy trail or like a stillborn child who never sees the sun.

Proverbs 17:6

Grandchildren are the crown of grandparents, and parents are the glory of their children.

Ecclesiastes 4:3

But the person who hasn’t been born yet is better off than both of them. He hasn’t seen the evil that is done under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 6:4

A stillborn baby arrives in a pointless birth and goes out into the darkness. The darkness then hides its name.

Jeremiah 22:19

He will receive a donkey’s burial. He will be dragged off and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem.

Jeremiah 36:30

This is what the Lord says about King Jehoiakim of Judah: He will have no one to sit on David’s throne, and his own corpse will be thrown out and exposed to the heat of day and the cold of night.

Jeremiah 8:2

They will be spread out and exposed to the sun, the moon, and all the stars in the sky. These are the things that they had loved, served, gone after, sought, and worshiped. Their bones will not be gathered or buried, but they will become manure on the ground.

Matthew 26:24

The Son of Man is going to die as the Scriptures say he will. But how horrible it will be for that person who betrays the Son of Man. It would have been better for that person if he had never been born.”