Ecclesiastes 6 Bible study: The wandering of the desire

The chapter opens the way 5:13 did: "There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is heavy on men" (6:1), beside "There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun" (5:13). Then comes the man: "a man to whom God gives riches, wealth, and honor, so that he lacks nothing for his soul of all that he desires, yet God gives him no power to eat of it, but an alien eats it" (6:2). Chapter 5 set this verse beside one a few verses earlier: "Every man also to whom God has given riches and wealth, and has given him power to eat of it, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labor—this is the gift of God" (5:19). Riches and wealth are the same two Hebrew words in both verses, osher and nekhasim (tap wealth), and power is the same verb, shalat, in a form Ecclesiastes has only in these two verses (tap power). The Preacher calls the one "the gift of God" (5:19), and the other "vanity, and it is an evil disease" (6:2). The chapter doesn't say why God gives this man no power to eat, and it names no sin of his (see the honest questions below).

נֶפֶשׁnefeshsay NEH-fesh

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "soul, living being, life, self, person, desire, appetite, emotion, and passion". Ecclesiastes has the word seven times, and four of them are in this chapter, where the WEB gives it three ways. Soul: "so that he lacks nothing for his soul" (6:2), and "but his soul is not filled with good" (6:3). Appetite: "yet the appetite is not filled" (6:7). Desire: "than the wandering of the desire" (6:9). The desires of 6:2, "of all that he desires" (6:2), is a different word, the verb avah. The book's other uses include "make his soul enjoy good in his labor" (2:24).