Ecclesiastes 5:10-17
New American Standard Bible
The Foolishness of Riches
10 (A)One who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor one who loves abundance with its income. This too is futility. 11 (B)When good things increase, those who consume them increase. So what is the advantage to their owners except to [a]look at them? 12 The sleep of the laborer is (C)sweet, whether he eats little or much; but the [b]full stomach of the rich person does not allow him to sleep.
13 There is a sickening evil which I have seen under the sun: (D)wealth being [c]hoarded by its owner to his detriment. 14 When that wealth was lost through bad business and he had fathered a son, then there was nothing [d]to support him. 15 (E)As he came naked from his mother’s womb, so he will return as he came. He will (F)take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand. 16 This also is a sickening evil: exactly as a person [e]is born, so will he [f]die. (G)What then is the advantage for him who (H)labors for the wind? 17 All his life (I)he also eats in darkness with (J)great irritation, sickness, and anger.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Ecclesiastes 5:11 Lit see with their eyes
- Ecclesiastes 5:12 Lit satiety
- Ecclesiastes 5:13 Lit guarded
- Ecclesiastes 5:14 Lit in his hand
- Ecclesiastes 5:16 Lit comes
- Ecclesiastes 5:16 Lit go
New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.
Bible Gateway Recommends
