3 A man may father a hundred children and live for many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he is unsatisfied with his prosperity and does not even receive a proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. 4 For a stillborn child enters in futility and departs in darkness, and his name is shrouded in obscurity.
Ecclesiastes 6:3–4
Semantically similar passages
Job 3:15–17
15 or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver. 16 Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like an infant who never sees daylight? 17 There the wicked cease from raging, and there the weary find rest.
Sirach 44:8–10
8 Some of them have left a name behind them, so that others declare their praises. (WEB) 9 But of others, there is no memory. They perished as though they had not been. They become as though they had not been born, they and their children after them. (WEB) 10 But these were men o… (WEB)
Job 18:16–18
16 The roots beneath him dry up, and the branches above him wither away. 17 The memory of him perishes from the earth, and he has no name in the land. 18 He is driven from light into darkness and is chased from the inhabited world.
Psalms 49:18–20
18 Though in his lifetime he blesses his soul— and men praise you when you prosper— 19 he will join the generation of his fathers, who will never see the light of day. 20 A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish.
Wisdom of Solomon 3:15–17
15 For good labors have fruit of great renown. The root of understanding can’t fail. (WEB) 16 But children of adulterers will not come to maturity. The seed of an unlawful union will vanish away. (WEB) 17 For if they live long, they will not be esteemed, and in the end, their old a… (WEB)
Sirach 28:20–22
20 For its yoke is a yoke of iron, and its bands are bands of brass. (WEB) 21 Its death is an evil death, and Hades is better than it. (WEB) 22 It will not have rule over godly men. They will not be burned in its flame. (WEB)
Ecclesiastes 4:2–4
2 So I admired the dead, who had already died, above the living, who are still alive. 3 But better than both is he who has not yet existed, who has not seen the evil that is done under the sun. 4 I saw that all labor and success spring from a man’s envy of his neighb…
Proverbs 17:20–22
20 The one with a perverse heart finds no good, and he whose tongue is deceitful falls into trouble. 21 A man fathers a fool to his own grief; the father of a fool has no joy. 22 A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.
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