World English Bible · The united kingdom
Ecclesiastes 6
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There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is heavy on men: a man to whom gives riches, wealth, and , so that he lacks nothing for his of all that he , yet gives him no to eat of it, but an alien eats it. This is , and it is an evil disease. If a man fathers a hundred children, and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his is not filled with good, and moreover he has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better than he; for it comes in , and departs , and its name is covered with . Moreover it has not seen the sun nor known it. This has rest rather than the other. Yes, though he live a thousand years twice told, and yet fails to enjoy good, don't all go to one place? All the labor of man is for his , and yet the appetite is not filled. For what advantage has more than the fool? What has man, that knows how to walk before the living? Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the . This also is and a chasing after wind. Whatever has been, its name was given long ago; and it is known what man is; neither can he contend with him who is mightier than he. For there are many words that create . What does that profit man? For who knows what is good for man in life, all the days of his life which he spends like a shadow? For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · The united kingdom, 1050 BC to 931 BC ›
Saul, David, and Solomon. A rare window when both Egypt and Mesopotamia are weak, which is how a small kingdom in the corridor between them could briefly become a regional power.
- The power vacuum
- This is the whole political explanation for the united kingdom. Egypt is fragmented, Assyria is recovering but still local, the Hittites are gone, and nobody is in a position to object to a strong state in the corridor. It lasts about a century, and Israel's golden age fits exactly inside it.
- Phoenicia
- Tyre under Hiram is the commercial power of the coast, and supplies the cedar, the craftsmen, and the shipping for Solomon's building programme. The alliance is trade, not charity: Israel had grain and a land route, Tyre had timber and ships.
- Egypt
- Weak enough that a pharaoh gives a daughter in marriage to an Israelite king, which is the opposite of Egyptian practice in stronger centuries. Late in the era it recovers under a new house, and Shishak will invade within five years of Solomon's death.
- Further afield
- Greece is still in its dark age but beginning to recover, and will adopt the Phoenician alphabet within a century or two. Carthage is founded by settlers from Tyre by tradition in 814 BC. In the Americas the Olmec centre shifts to La Venta.