Ecclesiastes 5:8-20

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

⁸ If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and right, do not be amazed at the matter, for the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them.^{(A) 9} But all things considered, this is an advantage for a land: a king for a plowed field.^[a]

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

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.^(C)

¹³ There is a grievous ill that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owners to their hurt,^{(D) 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.^{(E) 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?^{(F) 17} Besides, all their days they eat in darkness, in much anger and sickness and resentment.^(G)

¹⁸ This is what I have seen to be good: it is fitting to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of the life God gives us, for this is our lot.^{(H) 19} Likewise, all to whom God gives wealth and possessions and whom he enables to enjoy them and to accept their lot and find enjoyment in their toil—this is the gift of God.^{(I) 20} For they will scarcely brood over the days of their lives because God keeps them occupied with the joy of their hearts.