Qoheleth here gives a more concrete illustration of the ideas found in verse 2.

If a man begets a hundred children: the illustration begins with the conditional if. It asks the reader to imagine such a situation, one that is almost impossible in real life. It needs to be made clear in translation that this is hyperbole, or deliberate exaggeration. Qoheleth then suggests a conclusion based on the unlikely possibility of fathering so many children. The conclusion is presented at the end of the verse in the words I say …. In giving the sense of this phrase, it is not required that we preserve the conditional form. For example, Good News Translation reads “We may have…,” and Jerusalem Bible says “Or perhaps a man has….” We may also show its illustrative purpose by something like “Consider the case of a man who…,” “Just imagine the [unlikely] case of a man who…,” or “What if a man were to….”

Begets: see comments on this verb in 5.14, “is the father of.”

A hundred children: Hebrew merely says “a hundred,” so we need to supply the object children or “offspring” in our translation. Jerusalem Bible is inaccurate when it translates “a hundred sons and as many daughters.”

And lives many years: in Israel a long life was considered one of the signs of divine blessing. As the commandment to honor parents reminds us (Exo 20.12), the whole community could expect to live long in the land if they lived obedient lives. Many years can be translated literally, or more idiomatically as in Good News Translation “live a long time.”

So that the days of his years are many: in many languages this phrase will be redundant because it simply repeats what was in the previous clause. Some translations therefore omit this phrase. The repetition in Hebrew does, however, add emphasis. The whole clause is widely understood to be a concessive clause, meaning that it suggests that some other conditions may apply to the situation described. So the sense is then “even though…” or “no matter how many….” This can be seen in Good News Translation, “no matter how long we live,” and similarly in New American Bible. The Hebrew structure, placing “much,” “many” at the beginning of the clause, indicates that the focus lies with the number of years the person lives. For translation we may suggest:

• But no matter how long his life is….

• Even though his life is very long….

The clause can also be reduced to a shorter expression:

• But despite this, if….

• Even though this is the case, ….

But he does not enjoy life’s good things is literally “his being [nefesh] is not satisfied with the good things.” We saw that in verse 2 the verb “eat” had an idiomatic use conveying the idea of enjoying something (see also 5.11, 12). It was linked with the theme of satisfaction, and this same feature is present here. Despite having many children and living a long life, the person is unable to find satisfaction in them (Revised Standard Version does not enjoy).

The Revised Standard Version translation life’s good things appears to bring the Hebrew term for “life” (nefesh) from the front of the clause to link it with the noun form good things. However, this seems unwarranted. Nefesh, coming literally from the word for “throat,” has a wide range of meanings in Hebrew. It can mean “life” or “appetite.” It is the same word that appears in Psalm 103, “Bless the LORD, O my soul [nefesh],” designating the total person. A better translation of “and his nefesh does not enjoy the good” is simply “If this person does not enjoy the good things [in life]” or “If he is not satisfied by these good things.” It is interesting to note that nefesh sounds very much like the word for “still born,” nefel, so it is likely this is a play on words. We also note that the word nefesh recurs twice in the verses that follow (verses 7 and 8), though with a slightly different sense.

Good things is the noun form of the adjective “good” used on numerous occasions and indicating material benefits. Jerusalem Bible conveys this idea with the word “estate.” Of course Qoheleth has already indicated that material goods can never fully satisfy a person (5.10-12), so in a sense there is nothing surprising in his comment here. Good News Translation “if we do not get our share of happiness” does not identify the source of that happiness and is perhaps too general.

Some translation models are:

• If he gets no satisfaction from anything he has….

• If he cannot enjoy the good things he has….

• If he cannot enjoy his good fortune….

And also has no burial: the sudden mention of burial in this illustration may seem at first unusual. However, the contrast that Qoheleth will make between a person who outwardly was blessed with riches and long life on the one hand, and the stillborn child on the other hand, makes this feature more understandable. It is unthinkable that a person with such a huge family should be left unburied when he dies. Qoheleth could be using this as an illustration of some final deep humiliation. The text itself is simple: the man was not buried. Some translations interpret this to mean that he was not given a lavish or appropriate burial (see Good News Translation, New International Version). Jerusalem Bible and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible suggest “not even a tomb to call his own,” which appears to mean that he was placed in someone else’s grave. When we bear in mind that this is only an illustration, and that there is an even more unusual note injected in verse 6 of a man who lived for two thousand years, we can appreciate that Qoheleth is here using hyperbole, that is, deliberate exaggeration to stress his point. So our translation can remain: “and if this man was not buried when he died….”

Some languages will require that we identify an agent carrying out the burial. If this is the case then an indefinite subject can be used, “and if no one buries the man…” or “and if they [impersonal] do not bury him.”

I say that an untimely birth is better off than he: this sentence rounds off the conditional clause. To indicate this fact we can use a connective “then” or its equivalent to show this feature in a more obvious way. I say can be translated literally if a similar expression exists in the translator’s language. If not, it can be rendered more idiomatically as “in my opinion,” or “I think.” In this manner Qoheleth declares that if there should ever be a case such as he has just described, then an untimely birth is better. How it is better will be explained in the next verse. Revised Standard Version‘s rendering an untimely birth is a euphemism, or indirect way of referring to a fetus that dies before birth, either through miscarriage or abortion. Some languages have a general term that covers both situations. It is probably better to retain such a general term than to be too specific (“aborted fetus”) or too euphemistic like the Revised Standard Version form here. Good News Translation “a baby born dead” may be appropriate, though it may suggest the baby has developed to the point of birth. The thought of the verse is similar to that of 4.3. Although Qoheleth uses the “better” saying, the evaluation does not simply give a comparison; it declares that the miscarried child is the only fortunate one. This saying can be rendered in one of the following ways:

• then, in my opinion, it is best to be born dead.

• Then I think the stillborn child is better off.

• To my way of thinking, a stillborn child is more fortunate than he is.

• I think it is better to be stillborn than to be that person!

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Zogbo, Lynell. A Handbook on the Book of Ecclesiates. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .