Even the king milks the land for his own profit!
Parallel translations
- WEB Moreover the profit of the earth is for all. The king profits from the field.
- KJV Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served by 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.
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 4:7–23Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, who provided food for the king and his household. Each man had to make provision for a month in the year.
- Ps 115:16The heavens are the heavens of Yahweh; but the earth has he given to the children of men.
- Gen 1:29–30God said, “Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree, which bears fruit yielding seed. It will be your food.
- Ps 104:14–15He causes the grass to grow for the livestock, and plants for man to cultivate, that he may produce food out of the earth:
- 1 Sam 8:12–17He will appoint them to him for captains of thousands, and captains of fifties; and he will assign some to plow his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and the instruments of his chariots.
- Prov 27:23–27Know well the state of your flocks, and pay attention to your herds:
- Gen 3:17–19To Adam he said, “Because you have listened to your wife’s voice, and ate from the tree, about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ the ground is cursed for your sake. You will eat from it with much labor all the days of your life.
- Jer 40:10–12As for me, behold, I will dwell at Mizpah, to stand before the Chaldeans who will come to us; but you, gather wine and summer fruits and oil, and put them in your vessels, and dwell in your cities that you have taken.”
- Prov 13:23An abundance of food is in poor people’s fields, but injustice sweeps it away.
- Prov 28:19One who works his land will have an abundance of food; but one who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty.
- 1 Chr 27:26–31Over those who did the work of the field for tillage of the ground was Ezri the son of Chelub;
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 5:9 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.