When good things increase, so do those who consume them; what then is the profit to the owner, except to behold them with his eyes?
Parallel translations
- WEB When goods increase, those who eat them are increased; and what advantage is there to its owner, except to feast on them with his eyes?
- KJV When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?
- NKJV When goods increase, They increase who eat them; So what profit have the owners Except to see them with their eyes?
- NASB When good things increase, those who consume them increase. So what is the advantage to their owners except to look at them?
- NLT The more you have, the more people come to help you spend it. So what good is wealth—except perhaps to watch it slip through your fingers!
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
As wealth grows, so do those who consume it, leaving the owner only the sight of it. It matters because increased riches bring increased demands rather than real benefit.
Overview
The Preacher notes that growing prosperity multiplies dependents and expenses, so the owner gains little beyond merely looking at his goods. The observation deflates the assumption that more wealth means more enjoyment. It reinforces the futility of hoarding and points toward treasure that truly satisfies, the heavenly treasure Jesus commends over earthly accumulation (Matthew 6:19-21).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- 1 Jn 2:16For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not from the Father but from the world.
- Hab 2:13Is it not indeed from the LORD of Hosts that the labor of the people only feeds the fire, and the nations weary themselves in vain?
- Ps 119:36–37Turn my heart to Your testimonies and not to covetous gain.
- Prov 23:5When you glance at wealth, it disappears, for it makes wings for itself and flies like an eagle to the sky.
- Eccl 6:9Better what the eye can see than the wandering of desire. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.
- Gen 12:16He treated Abram well on her account, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, menservants and maidservants, and camels.
- Josh 7:21–25When I saw among the spoils a beautiful cloak from Shinar, two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”
- Eccl 11:9Rejoice, O young man, while you are young, and let your heart be glad in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes, but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment.
- 1 Kgs 5:13–16Then King Solomon conscripted a labor force of 30,000 men from all Israel.
- Neh 5:17–18There were 150 Jews and officials at my table, besides the guests from the surrounding nations.
- Gen 13:2And Abram had become extremely wealthy in livestock and silver and gold.
- Gen 13:5–7Now Lot, who was traveling with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents.
- 1 Kgs 4:22–23Solomon’s provisions for a single day were thirty cors of fine flour, sixty cors of meal,
- Jer 17:11Like a partridge hatching eggs it did not lay is the man who makes a fortune unjustly. In the middle of his days his riches will desert him, and in the end he will be the fool.”
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 5:11 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
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