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?
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?
- BSB 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?
- 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 lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
- Hab 2:13Behold, is it not of the LORD of hosts that the people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity?
- Ps 119:36–37Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.
- Prov 23:5Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.
- Eccl 6:9Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this is also vanity and vexation of spirit.
- Gen 12:16And he entreated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and she asses, and camels.
- Josh 7:21–25When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.
- Eccl 11:9Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.
- 1 Kgs 5:13–16And king Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel; and the levy was thirty thousand men.
- Neh 5:17–18Moreover there were at my table an hundred and fifty of the Jews and rulers, beside those that came unto us from among the heathen that are about us.
- Gen 13:2And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.
- Gen 13:5–7And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents.
- 1 Kgs 4:22–23And Solomon’s provision for one day was thirty measures of fine flour, and threescore measures of meal,
- Jer 17:11As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.
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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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