New American Standard Bible 2020

Ecclesiastes 5:9-20

9After all, a king who cultivates the field is beneficial to the land.

10 1One who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor one who loves abundance with its income. This too is futility. 11 2When good things increase, those who consume them increase. So what is the advantage to their owners except to 3look at them? 12The sleep of the laborer is 4sweet, whether he eats little or much; but the 5full stomach of the rich person does not allow him to sleep.

13There is a sickening evil which I have seen under the sun: 6wealth being 7hoarded by its owner to his detriment. 14When that wealth was lost through bad business and he had fathered a son, then there was nothing 8to support him. 15 9As he came naked from his mother’s womb, so he will return as he came. He will 10take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand. 16This also is a sickening evil: exactly as a person 11is born, so will he 12die. 13What then is the advantage for him who 14labors for the wind? 17All his life 15he also eats in darkness with 16great irritation, sickness, and anger.

18Here is what I have seen to be 17good and 18fitting: to eat, to drink, and 19enjoy oneself in all one’s labor in which he labors under the sun during the few 20years of his life which God has given him; for this is his 21 22reward. 19Furthermore, as for every person to whom 23God has given riches and wealth, He has also 24given him the opportunity to 25enjoy them and to receive his 26reward and rejoice in his labor; this is the 27gift of God. 20For he will not often call to mind the 28years of his life, because 29God keeps 30him busy with the joy of his heart.

Read all of Ecclesiastes 5

Notes

1. Ecclesiastes 5:10 Eccl 1:8; 2:10, 11; 4:8 ↩
2. Ecclesiastes 5:11 Eccl 2:9 ↩
3. Ecclesiastes 5:11 Lit see with their eyes ↩
4. Ecclesiastes 5:12 Prov 3:24 ↩
5. Ecclesiastes 5:12 Lit satiety ↩
6. Ecclesiastes 5:13 Eccl 6:2 ↩
7. Ecclesiastes 5:13 Lit guarded ↩
8. Ecclesiastes 5:14 Lit in his hand ↩
9. Ecclesiastes 5:15 Job 1:21 ↩
10. Ecclesiastes 5:15 Ps 49:17; 1 Tim 6:7 ↩
11. Ecclesiastes 5:16 Lit comes ↩
12. Ecclesiastes 5:16 Lit go ↩
13. Ecclesiastes 5:16 Eccl 1:3; 2:11; 3:9 ↩
14. Ecclesiastes 5:16 Prov 11:29 ↩
15. Ecclesiastes 5:17 Ps 127:2 ↩
16. Ecclesiastes 5:17 Eccl 2:23 ↩
17. Ecclesiastes 5:18 Eccl 2:24 ↩
18. Ecclesiastes 5:18 Lit beautiful ↩
19. Ecclesiastes 5:18 Lit see good ↩
20. Ecclesiastes 5:18 Or days ↩
21. Ecclesiastes 5:18 Or share ↩
22. Ecclesiastes 5:18 Eccl 2:10 ↩
23. Ecclesiastes 5:19 2 Chr 1:12; Eccl 6:2 ↩
24. Ecclesiastes 5:19 Eccl 6:2 ↩
25. Ecclesiastes 5:19 Lit eat from it ↩
26. Ecclesiastes 5:19 Or share ↩
27. Ecclesiastes 5:19 Eccl 3:13 ↩
28. Ecclesiastes 5:20 Or days ↩
29. Ecclesiastes 5:20 Ex 23:25 ↩
30. Ecclesiastes 5:20 As in LXX ↩

Notes

Commentaries on Ecclesiastes 5