Ecclesiastes 5:10–20

The Folly of Riches

^10aHe who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income. This too is ¹vanity.

^11aWhen good things increase, those who consume them increase. So what is the advantage to their owners except to ¹look on?

¹²The sleep of the working man is ^apleasant, whether he eats little or much; but the ¹full stomach of the rich man does not allow him to sleep.

¹³There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: ^ariches being ¹hoarded by their owner to his hurt.

¹⁴When those riches were lost through ¹a bad investment and he had fathered a son, then there was nothing ²to support him.

^15aAs he had come naked from his mother’s womb, so will he return as he came. He will ^btake nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand.

¹⁶This also is a grievous evil—exactly as a man ¹is born, thus will he ²die. So ^awhat is the advantage to him who ^btoils for the wind?

¹⁷Throughout his life ^ahe also eats in darkness with ^bgreat vexation, sickness and anger.

¹⁸Here is what I have seen to be ^agood and ¹fitting: to eat, to drink and ²enjoy oneself in all one’s labor in which he toils under the sun during the few ³years of his life which God has given him; for this is his ^4breward.

¹⁹Furthermore, as for every man to whom ^aGod has given riches and wealth, He has also ^bempowered him to eat from them and to receive his ¹reward and rejoice in his labor; this is the ^cgift of God.

²⁰For he will not often ¹consider the ²years of his life, because ^aGod keeps ³him occupied with the gladness of his heart.