or wealth lost in a failed venture, so when that man has a son there is nothing to pass on.
Parallel translations
- WEB Those riches perish by misfortune, and if he has fathered a son, there is nothing in his hand.
- KJV But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand.
- NKJV But those riches perish through misfortune; When he begets a son, there is nothing in his hand.
- NASB When that wealth was lost through bad business and he had fathered a son, then there was nothing to support him.
- NLT Money is put into risky investments that turn sour, and everything is lost. In the end, there is nothing left to pass on to one’s children.
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
Hoarded riches can be lost through misfortune, leaving even a man's son with nothing to inherit. It matters because earthly wealth is fragile and offers no guaranteed security.
Overview
The Preacher illustrates how quickly fortunes vanish through a 'bad venture' or calamity, leaving heirs empty-handed. The instability of riches exposes the folly of trusting them. This realism prepares the reader to seek a more enduring inheritance, the imperishable inheritance kept in heaven for those who belong to Christ (1 Peter 1:4).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Eccl 2:26To the man who is pleasing in His sight, He gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner He assigns the task of gathering and accumulating that which he will hand over to one who pleases God. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.
- Matt 6:19–20Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
- Hag 2:16–17from that time, when one came expecting a heap of twenty ephahs of grain, there were but ten. When one came to the winepress to draw out fifty baths, there were but twenty.
- Job 20:15–29He swallows wealth but vomits it out; God will force it from his stomach.
- Job 5:5The hungry consume his harvest, taking it even from the thorns, and the thirsty pant after his wealth.
- Prov 23:5When you glance at wealth, it disappears, for it makes wings for itself and flies like an eagle to the sky.
- Hag 1:9You expected much, but behold, it amounted to little. And what you brought home, I blew away. Why? declares the LORD of Hosts. Because My house still lies in ruins, while each of you is busy with his own house.
- 1 Sam 2:36And everyone left in your house will come and bow down to him for a piece of silver or a morsel of bread, pleading, “Please appoint me to some priestly office so that I can eat a piece of bread.”’”
- Job 27:16–17Though he heaps up silver like dust and piles up a wardrobe like clay,
- 1 Kgs 14:26He seized the treasures of the house of the LORD and of the royal palace. He took everything, including all the gold shields that Solomon had made.
- 1 Sam 2:6–8The LORD brings death and gives life; He brings down to Sheol and raises up.
- Ps 39:6Surely every man goes about like a phantom; surely he bustles in vain; he heaps up riches not knowing who will haul them away.
- Ps 109:9–12May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.
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 5:14 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.