Ecclesiastes 6:7-9
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
7 All human toil is for the mouth,[a] yet the appetite is never satisfied. 8 What profit have the wise compared to fools, or what profit have the lowly in knowing how to conduct themselves in life? 9 “What the eyes see is better than what the desires wander after.”[b] This also is vanity and a chase after wind.
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- 6:7 The mouth: symbolic of human desires.
- 6:9 Compare the English proverb, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” However, it could also mean, “The seeing of the eyes is better than the wandering of the desire,” with the emphasis on the actions of seeing and desiring. Seeing is a way of possessing whereas desire, by definition, can remain frustrated and unfulfilled.
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