Ecclesiastes, Chapters 5-6, verses 9-12: BIBLE, New American Standard Bible == BIBLE-CENTER

Ecclesiastes, Chapter 5, verses 9-20

⁹ After all, a king who cultivates the field is an advantage to the land.

¹⁰ He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income. This too isⁿvanity. ¹¹ When good things increase, those who consume them increase. So what is the advantage to their owners except to^olook on? ¹² The sleep of the working man is pleasant, whether he eats little or much; but the^pfull stomach of the rich man does not allow him to sleep.

¹³ There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches being^qhoarded by their owner to his hurt. ¹⁴ When those riches were lost through^ra bad investment and he had fathered a son, then there was nothing^sto support him. ¹⁵ As he had come naked from his mother’s womb, so will he return as he came. He will take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand. ¹⁶ This also is a grievous evil—exactly as a man^tis born, thus will he^udie. So what is the advantage to him who toils for the wind? ¹⁷ Throughout his life he also eats in darkness with great vexation, sickness and anger.

¹⁸ Here is what I have seen to be good and^vfitting: to eat, to drink and^wenjoy oneself in all one’s labor in which he toils under the sun during the few^xyears of his life which God has given him; for this is his^yreward. ¹⁹ Furthermore, as for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them and to receive his^zreward and rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God. ²⁰ For he will not often^aaconsider the^abyears of his life, because God keeps^achim occupied with the gladness of his heart.

Ecclesiastes, Chapter 6

¹ There is an evil which I have seen under the sun and it is prevalent^aamong men— ² a man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor so that his soul lacks nothing of all that he desires; yet God has not empowered him to eat from them, for a foreigner^benjoys them. This is^cvanity and a severe affliction. ³ If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, however many^dthey be, but his soul is not satisfied with good things and he does not even have a proper burial, then I say, “Better the miscarriage than he, ⁴ for it comes in futility and goes into obscurity; and its name is covered in obscurity. ⁵ It never sees the sun and it never knows anything;^eit is better off than he. ⁶ Even if the other man lives a thousand years twice and does not^fenjoy good things—do not all go to one place?”

⁷ All a man’s labor is for his mouth and yet the^gappetite is not^hsatisfied. ⁸ For what advantage does the wise man have over the fool? What advantage does the poor man have, knowing how to walk before the living? ⁹ What the eyes see is better than what the soulⁱdesires. This too is futility and a striving after wind.

¹⁰ Whatever exists has already been named, and it is known what man is; for he cannot dispute with him who is stronger than he is. ¹¹ For there are many words which increase futility. What then is the advantage to a man? ¹² For who knows what is good for a man during his lifetime, during the few^jyears of his futile life? He will^kspend them like a shadow. For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?


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