also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.
Parallel translations
- WEB Also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy good in all his labor, is the gift of God.
- KJV And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.
- BSB and also that every man should eat and drink and find satisfaction in all his labor—this is the gift of God.
- NKJV and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God.
- NASB moreover, that every person who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor—this is the gift of God.
- NLT And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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
Eating, drinking, and enjoying one's labor are the gift of God. Everyday satisfaction is to be received gratefully from His hand.
Overview
The Preacher repeats that the ability to enjoy ordinary provision and work is God's gracious gift. This guards against both anxious striving and ungrateful discontent. By rooting enjoyment in God as giver, the verse teaches a contentment that finds its fullest expression in thankful dependence on the Lord who supplies all good things.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Eccl 9:7Go your way — eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works.
- Eccl 2:24There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and make his soul enjoy good in his labor. This also I saw, that it is from the hand of God.
- Isa 65:21–23They will build houses, and inhabit them. They will plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.
- Ps 128:2For you will eat the labor of your hands. You will be happy, and it will be well with you.
- Eccl 5:18–20Behold, that which I have seen to be good and proper is for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy good in all his labor, in which he labors under the sun, all the days of his life which God has given him; for this is his portion.
- Deut 28:30–31You will betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her. You will build a house, and you won’t dwell in it. You will plant a vineyard, and not use its fruit.
- Judg 6:3–6So it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites, the Amalekites, and the children of the east came up against them.
- Deut 28:47–48Because you didn’t serve Yahweh your God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things;
- Eccl 6:2a man to whom God gives riches, wealth, and honor, so that he lacks nothing for his soul of all that he desires, yet God gives him no power to eat of it, but an alien eats it. This is vanity, and it is an evil disease.
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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 3:13 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.