Tafsiran Pengkhotbah 4:15: Tze'enah Ure'enah, Rashi & Kohelet Rabbah

“I saw” [4:15]. I saw Noah and his children, from whom the whole world is derived. There is no end to the great nation that came from them. They became pregnant from their husbands and had children on the third day of their pregnancy. There is no limit to the good that they had and everything was soon lost when after a tragedy the evil inclination followed.⁵⁷Rashi, Ecclesiastes, 4:15–16.

I observed that all the living, etc. I found in the Midrash of this Book, that this refers to the generation of the flood, about which it is stated, “And of every living thing.”²⁶Bereishis 6:19.

“I saw all the living that walk under the sun, with the second child, who will stand in his stead” (Ecclesiastes 4:15).
“I saw all the living that walk under the sun” – these are the actions of the righteous. What caused them to be living? It is because they walk under the sun, “with the second child” – this is the good inclination.

Were supportive of the young successor. Who will exist instead of that generation, i.e., No’ach and his sons.