The Parable of the Rich Fool

^13 (A)Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” ¹⁴ But he said to him, ^(B)“Man, ^(C)who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” ¹⁵ And he said to them, ^(D)“Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” ¹⁶ And he told them a parable, saying, ^(E)“The land of a rich man produced plentifully, ¹⁷ and he thought to himself, ^(F)‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ ¹⁸ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my ^(G)barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. ¹⁹ And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up ^(H)for many years; relax, ^(I)eat, drink, be merry.”’ ²⁰ But God said to him, ^(J)‘Fool! ^(K)This night ^(L)your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, ^(M)whose will they be?’ ²¹ So is the one ^(N)who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

6 ^(A)There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: ² a man ^(B)to whom ^(C)God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he ^(D)lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God ^(E)does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity;^[a] it is a grievous evil. ³ If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that ^(F)the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life's ^(G)good things, and he also has no ^(H)burial, I say that ^(I)a stillborn child is better off than he. ⁴ For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered. ⁵ Moreover, it has not ^(J)seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds ^(K)rest rather than he. ⁶ Even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy^[b] no good—do not all go to the one place?

^7 (L)All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied.^{[c] 8} For what advantage has the wise man ^(M)over the fool? And what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living? ⁹ Better ^(N)is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite: this also is ^(O)vanity and a striving after wind.