Ecclesiastes 5:10-17

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹⁰ The lover of money will not be satisfied with money, nor the lover of wealth with gain. This also is vanity.^(A)

¹¹ When goods increase, those who eat them increase, and what gain has their owner but to see them with his eyes?

¹² Sweet is the sleep of laborers, whether they eat little or much, but the abundance of the rich will not let them sleep.^(B)

¹³ There is a grievous ill that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owners to their hurt,^{(C) 14} and those riches were lost in a bad venture; though they are parents of children, they have nothing in their hands. ¹⁵ As they came from their mother’s womb, so they shall go again, naked as they came; they shall take nothing for their toil that they may carry away with their hands.^{(D) 16} This also is a grievous ill: just as they came, so shall they go, and what gain do they have from toiling for the wind?^{(E) 17} Besides, all their days they eat in darkness, in much anger and sickness and resentment.^(F)