Commentary - Ecclesiastes 6:1-2

Bird's-eye view

The Preacher, Qoheleth, here identifies a particular kind of misery that is both profound and common. It is a specific calamity that illustrates the broader theme of the book: that life "under the sun," lived apart from the fear of God, is a chasing after the wind. The evil described is not poverty or disaster in the typical sense, but rather a prosperity that is cursed. A man receives from God's own hand all the external markers of a successful life, riches, wealth, and honor, to the point where he lacks nothing his heart could desire. But then, in a staggering display of divine sovereignty, the same God who gave the gifts withholds the ability to enjoy them. This is not a random tragedy; it is a divinely ordained frustration. The passage serves as a stark warning against placing our hope in material blessings, demonstrating that possession and enjoyment are two entirely separate gifts of God. Without the second, the first becomes a source of bitter vexation, a "sickening evil."

This is a key pivot in the Preacher's argument. He is dismantling the simplistic formula that righteousness plus hard work equals a happy and prosperous life. While that is often the general pattern of God's blessing, it is not an ironclad guarantee that we can leverage against God. The Lord remains utterly free. He gives the gift, and He gives the ability to enjoy the gift, and He does not always give them together. This drives us to the only sane conclusion, which is the conclusion of the whole book: fear God and keep His commandments. Our contentment must be in the Giver, not the gifts.

Outline

Context In Ecclesiastes

This passage directly builds on the themes developed in chapter 5. There, the Preacher concluded that the ability to eat, drink, and find enjoyment in one's labor and wealth is a "gift of God" (Eccl 5:19). He established that enjoyment is not an automatic byproduct of possession. Now, in chapter 6, he provides the dark inverse of that principle. What happens when God gives the possession but withholds the gift of enjoyment? The result is not neutral; it is a positive misery, a "sickening evil." This section intensifies the book's central argument about the nature of hevel, or vanity. The problem is not just that life is fleeting and accomplishments are temporary. The problem is that life under the sun is filled with these kinds of maddening paradoxes, where blessings become burdens and success feels like failure. This prepares the reader for the book's ultimate conclusion that true meaning and satisfaction are found not in manipulating the circumstances of life, but in submitting to the sovereign God who ordains them.

Key Issues

The Gift and the Gall

One of the central tenets of a robust, biblical worldview is the absolute sovereignty of God. This is not a fine-print doctrine for theologians to quibble over; it is the bedrock of all Christian sanity. And nowhere is this doctrine presented with such raw, existential force as in the book of Ecclesiastes. Here, the Preacher is not content to say that God is in charge of the big things, like the rising of the sun or the destiny of nations. He insists that God is sovereign over the small things, the intimate things, even down to the spiritual taste buds of a man's soul.

What does it profit a man to be given a thousand cans of peaches, but no can opener? Who is wealthier, the man with one can and a can opener, or the man with a warehouse full of cans and no way to get at the fruit? The Preacher here presents us with the man who has the warehouse. God Himself has stocked it for him. But God, in His inscrutable wisdom, has withheld the can opener. This is a hard providence, and it is designed to teach us a fundamental lesson. The good life is not something we can build for ourselves by accumulating enough stuff. The good life, which is the ability to enjoy the stuff, is a gift of grace, dispensed entirely according to the good pleasure of God. To possess without enjoyment is not a blessing. It is gall.

Verse by Verse Commentary

1 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun and it is prevalent among men,

The Preacher begins with the tone of an experienced observer of the human condition. He is a philosopher, but not an armchair philosopher. He has "seen" this. The word for "evil" here does not primarily mean moral wickedness or sin, but rather a calamity, a grievous misfortune, a raw deal. It is something that is deeply wrong with the way the world works. And this is not a freak occurrence, a one-in-a-million tragedy. It is prevalent among men. It is common. This is a regular feature of life in a fallen world. The phrase "under the sun" is crucial; it is the Preacher's shorthand for the world viewed from a purely horizontal, observational perspective, without reference to God's covenant promises. From this vantage point, such evils are simply baffling and cruel.

2a a man to whom God gives riches and wealth and honor so that his soul lacks nothing of all that he desires;

Here is the case study. Notice the first and most important thing: it is God who gives these things. This man is not a thief. He has not acquired his station through wickedness, at least not necessarily. His prosperity is, in one sense, a divine blessing. And the blessing is comprehensive. Riches, wealth, and honor cover the spectrum of worldly success. He has material abundance and a sterling reputation. The Preacher uses hyperbole to drive the point home: "his soul lacks nothing of all that he desires." He has arrived. He has won the game. By every worldly metric, this man should be the happiest, most contented man on the block. He has everything a man could want.

2b yet God does not empower him to eat from them, for a foreigner eats from them.

And here is the devastating turn. The same God who gave the gifts now withholds the capacity for enjoyment. The Hebrew for "empower him" is a word of sovereignty and dominion. God does not grant him the authority or the ability to partake of his own prosperity. This can happen in any number of ways. Perhaps he is a workaholic who cannot slow down to enjoy his earnings. Perhaps he is consumed by anxiety and fear of losing it all. Perhaps he has a chronic illness that ruins his appetite for the fine food he can afford. Or perhaps, as the text specifies in this case, something catastrophic happens. War, invasion, political collapse, a lawsuit, and a foreigner, a stranger, ends up consuming everything he worked for. The irony is excruciating. The man has the title deed, but the stranger eats the meal.

2c This is vanity and a sickening evil.

The Preacher renders his verdict. First, it is vanity. This is the Hebrew word hevel, which means vapor, smoke, or a frustrating enigma. It is not that the wealth itself is nothing. A pile of gold is not literally smoke. But the situation, the whole arrangement, is like trying to grab smoke. It is insubstantial, fleeting, and maddeningly absurd. To have everything and yet have nothing is the height of hevel. Second, it is a sickening evil, or a sore affliction. It is a grievous, painful, soul-crushing disease. It is a misery that makes the heart sick. This is not a minor inconvenience; it is a profound tragedy that exposes the futility of a life centered on the accumulation of things.

Application

The application of this text must strike us right where we live, because the temptation it addresses is the native language of our materialistic age. We are constantly told, by a thousand different voices, that contentment is just one more purchase away, one more promotion away, one more success away. This passage pulls the emergency brake on that entire train of thought.

First, we must learn to distinguish between God's gifts and God Himself. It is possible to be showered with God's common grace, His material blessings, while being under His curse. The man in this passage was given much by God, but he was not given the one thing necessary: the power to enjoy it. This power is a separate gift of grace. The ability to sit down to a simple meal with your family and to enjoy it with a glad and grateful heart is a miracle of grace. Do not despise it. The wealthiest man in the world who eats at his banquet table with a heart full of anxiety is a pauper compared to the Christian laborer who eats his bread with joy.

Second, this drives us to Christ. The ultimate "sickening evil" is to have the gift of life itself but to lack the power to truly live. This is the state of every man outside of Christ. The gospel is the good news that God, in Christ, not only provides for us but also gives us a new heart, new spiritual taste buds, to enjoy Him and His gifts. As Paul says, it is God "who gives us richly all things to enjoy" (1 Tim. 6:17). The enjoyment is part of the gift of salvation. When we are content in Christ, we are freed from the tyranny of our circumstances. Whether we have much or little, we can do all things through Him who strengthens us. He is the can opener for every can of peaches, and He is the sweetness of the fruit within.