Ecclesiastes 6:1-9
New King James Version
Wealth Is Not the Goal of Life
6 There(A) is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men: 2 A man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor, (B)so that he lacks nothing for himself of all he desires; (C)yet God does not give him power to eat of it, but a foreigner consumes it. This is vanity, and it is an evil [a]affliction.
3 If a man begets a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with goodness, or (D)indeed he has no burial, I say that (E)a [b]stillborn child is better than he— 4 for it comes in vanity and departs in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness. 5 Though it has not seen the sun or known anything, this has more rest than that man, 6 even if he lives a thousand years twice—but has not seen goodness. Do not all go to one (F)place?
7 (G)All the labor of man is for his mouth,
And yet the soul is not satisfied.
8 For what more has the wise man than the fool?
What does the poor man have,
Who knows how to walk before the living?
9 Better is [c]the (H)sight of the eyes than the wandering of [d]desire.
This also is vanity and grasping for the wind.
Footnotes
- Ecclesiastes 6:2 disease
- Ecclesiastes 6:3 Or miscarriage
- Ecclesiastes 6:9 What the eyes see
- Ecclesiastes 6:9 Lit. soul
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.