Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served by the field.
Parallel translations
- WEB Moreover the profit of the earth is for all. The king profits from the field.
- BSB The produce of the earth is taken by all; the king himself profits from the fields.
- NKJV Moreover the profit of the land is for all; even the king is served from the field.
- NASB After all, a king who cultivates the field is beneficial to the land.
- NLT Even the king milks the land for his own profit!
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
The land's produce benefits everyone, and even the king depends on the cultivated field. It matters as a reminder that all, high and low, are sustained by the same God-given earth.
Overview
This compact and somewhat debated verse affirms the value of agriculture as a common good. Even royalty profits from the worked land, underscoring shared dependence on God's provision. While the Hebrew is difficult, the general sense commends the dignity of labor and the providence by which God supplies all people, the same providence that crowns the year with His goodness (Psalm 65:11).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- 1 Kgs 4:7–23And Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, which provided victuals for the king and his household: each man his month in a year made provision.
- Ps 115:16The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’s: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.
- Gen 1:29–30And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
- Ps 104:14–15He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth;
- 1 Sam 8:12–17And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.
- Prov 27:23–27Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds.
- Gen 3:17–19And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
- Jer 40:10–12As for me, behold, I will dwell at Mizpah, to serve the Chaldeans, which will come unto us: but ye, gather ye wine, and summer fruits, and oil, and put them in your vessels, and dwell in your cities that ye have taken.
- Prov 13:23Much food is in the tillage of the poor: but there is that is destroyed for want of judgment.
- Prov 28:19He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough.
- 1 Chr 27:26–31And over them that did the work of the field for tillage of the ground was Ezri the son of Chelub:
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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 5:9 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.