When good things increase, those who consume them increase. So what is the advantage to their owners except to look at them?
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?
- 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?
- 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, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, isn’t the Father’s, but is the world’s.
- Hab 2:13Behold, isn’t it of Yahweh of Armies that the peoples labor for the fire, and the nations weary themselves for vanity?
- Ps 119:36–37Turn my heart toward your statutes, not toward selfish gain.
- Prov 23:5Why do you set your eyes on that which is not? For it certainly sprouts wings like an eagle and flies in the sky.
- Eccl 6:9Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.
- Gen 12:16He dealt well with Abram for her sake. He had sheep, cattle, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.
- Josh 7:21–25When I saw among the plunder a beautiful Babylonian robe, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, then I coveted them and took them. Behold, they are hidden in the ground in the middle of my tent, with the silver under it.”
- Eccl 11:9Rejoice, young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth, and 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 into judgment.
- 1 Kgs 5:13–16King Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel; and the levy was thirty thousand men.
- Neh 5:17–18Moreover there were at my table, of the Jews and the rulers, one hundred fifty men, besides those who came to us from among the nations that were around us.
- Gen 13:2Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.
- Gen 13:5–7Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks, herds, and tents.
- 1 Kgs 4:22–23Solomon’s provision for one day was thirty cors of fine flour, sixty measures of meal,
- Jer 17:11As the partridge that sits on eggs which she has not laid, so is he who gets riches, and not by right; in the middle of his days they shall leave him, and at his end he shall be a 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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