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Ecclesiastes 6 from Scroll 4Q103 Qoheleta (Ecclesiastes)

1 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is heavy on men:

[..]

3 If a man fathers a hundred children, and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not filled with good, and moreover he has no burial; I say, that a stillborn child is better than he:[1] 4 for it comes in vanity, and departs in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness.[2] 5 Moreover it has not seen the sun nor known it. This has rest rather than the other. 6 Yes, though[3] he live a thousand years twice told, and yet fails to enjoy good, don’t all go to one place? 7 All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled. 8 For what advantage has the wise more than the fool? What has the poor man, that knows how to walk before the living?

[..]

12 For who knows what is good for man in life, all the days of his vain life which he spends like a shadow? For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?

 

 



[1] Word order is reversed, but the meaning is the same.

[2] This verse has a correction by a later scribe. The earlier scribe wrote: “For it comes in vanity, and in darkness his name is covered.”

[3] Words are different but the meaning is the same.

How to read these pages:

•      The translation to the left is based on the World English Bible. Words in regular black font are words in the scrolls matching the traditional text for that passage.

•      Words in italics cannot be seen in the scroll, since the scroll is fragmentary. These words are supplied for readability by the World English Bible translation.

•      Words present in the scroll but with some letters unreadable or missing are in blue like this: blue. One Hebrew word often is translated into multiple English words, and when this occurs, all the English words are in blue.

•      Words present in the scroll but with spelling differences that do not affect the meaning are in green like this: green. This is common in Hebrew.

•      If the scroll is different from the traditional text, words in the traditional text that are missing from the text of the scroll are marked through in red like this: strike-through.

•      If the scroll is different from the traditional text, words in the scroll that are not in the traditional text are underlined in red like this: new words.