“If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he.”
The statement that though a person has a hundred children and lives many years, if their soul finds no satisfaction and there is no burial, a stillborn child is better off than this person, extends the dark assessment of 4:2-3 into the realm of family and progeny. The large number of children and long life—indicators of blessing in biblical tradition—prove worthless if the person cannot enjoy them. The denial of proper burial (a grave insult in ancient understanding) adds another dimension to the nullification; even in death, the unsuccessful person receives no honor.
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