Bible Study: Ecclesiastes 5:10-20 — October 6, 2024

Ecclesiastes 5:10–20 (NKJV)

10 He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver;

Nor he who loves abundance, with increase.

This also is vanity.

11 When goods increase,

They increase who eat them;

So what profit have the owners

Except to see them with their eyes?

12 The sleep of a laboring man is sweet,

Whether he eats little or much;

But the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep.

13 There is a severe evil which I have seen under the sun:

Riches kept for their owner to his hurt.

14 But those riches perish through misfortune;

When he begets a son, there is nothing in his hand.

15 As he came from his mother’s womb, naked shall he return,

To go as he came;

And he shall take nothing from his labor

Which he may carry away in his hand.

16 And this also is a severe evil—

Just exactly as he came, so shall he go.

And what profit has he who has labored for the wind?

17 All his days he also eats in darkness,

And he has much sorrow and sickness and anger.

18 Here is what I have seen: It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life which God gives him; for it is his heritage. 19 As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor—this is the gift of God. 20 For he will not dwell unduly on the days of his life, because God keeps him busy with the joy of his heart.