4 It comes without meaning, it departs in darkness, and in darkness its name is shrouded.
4 For he cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness.
4 For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered.
4 It gets its start in a mist and ends up in the dark - unnamed.
4 for it comes in vanity and departs in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness.
4 His birth would have been meaningless, and he would have ended in darkness. He wouldn't even have had a name,
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Ecclesiastes 6:4
Commentary on Ecclesiastes 6:1-6
(Read Ecclesiastes 6:1-6)
A man often has all he needs for outward enjoyment; yet the Lord leaves him so to covetousness or evil dispositions, that he makes no good or comfortable use of what he has. By one means or other his possessions come to strangers; this is vanity, and an evil disease. A numerous family was a matter of fond desire and of high honour among the Hebrews; and long life is the desire of mankind in general. Even with these additions a man may not be able to enjoy his riches, family, and life. Such a man, in his passage through life, seems to have been born for no end or use. And he who has entered on life only for one moment, to quit it the next, has a preferable lot to him who has lived long, but only to suffer.