Ecclesiastes 5:10-20

10 If you love money, you will never be satisfied; if you long to be rich, you will never get all you want. It is useless.
11 The richer you are, the more mouths you have to feed. All you gain is the knowledge that you are rich.
12 Workers may or may not have enough to eat, but at least they can get a good night's sleep. The rich, however, have so much that they stay awake worrying.
13 Here is a terrible thing that I have seen in this world: people save up their money for a time when they may need it,
14 and then lose it all in some bad deal and end up with nothing left to pass on to their children.
15 We leave this world just as we entered it - with nothing. In spite of all our work there is nothing we can take with us. 1
16 It isn't right! We go just as we came. We labor, trying to catch the wind, and what do we get?
17 We get to live our lives in darkness and grief, worried, angry, and sick.
18 Here is what I have found out: the best thing we can do is eat and drink and enjoy what we have worked for during the short life that God has given us; this is our fate.
19 If God gives us wealth and property and lets us enjoy them, we should be grateful and enjoy what we have worked for. It is a gift from God.
20 Since God has allowed us to be happy, we will not worry too much about how short life is.

Images for Ecclesiastes 5:10-20

Cross References 1

  • 1. 5.15Job 1.21;Psalms 49.17;1 Timothy 6.7.

Footnotes 2

  • [a]. for . . . it; [or] to their own hurt.
  • [b]. [Some ancient translations] in darkness and grief; [Hebrew] eating in darkness.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.