For who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him?
Parallel translations
- WEB For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I?
- KJV For who can eat, or who else can hasten hereunto, more than I?
- BSB For apart from Him, who can eat and who can find enjoyment?
- NKJV For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I?
- NLT For who can eat or enjoy anything apart from him?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
No one can truly eat or enjoy life apart from God. Genuine enjoyment depends entirely upon Him.
Overview
The Preacher stresses that the capacity to enjoy life rightly comes only from God. Even simple pleasures lose their savor when detached from the Giver. This points to the truth that all good gifts come from above, and that fullness of joy is found ultimately in God's presence through Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 2
- Eccl 2:1–12I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with mirth: therefore enjoy pleasure”; and behold, this also was vanity.
- 1 Kgs 4:21–24Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines, and to the border of Egypt. They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The search that finds everything 'under the sun' to be vapor exposes the emptiness of life without God and drives us to the one who alone gives meaning, the resurrection that makes our labor not in vain.
How Ecclesiastes 2:25 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.