Ecclesiastes 5:8-18

English Standard Version

The Vanity of Wealth and Honor

^8 (A)If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and righteousness, ^(B)do not be amazed at the matter, ^(C)for the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them. ⁹ But this is gain for a land in every way: a king committed to cultivated fields.^[a]

¹⁰ He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. ¹¹ When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes? ¹² Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.

^13 (D)There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owner to his hurt, ¹⁴ and those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he is father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand. ^15 (E)As he came from his mother's womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand. ¹⁶ This also is a grievous evil: just as he came, so shall he go, and what ^(F)gain is there to him who ^(G)toils for the wind? ¹⁷ Moreover, all his days he ^(H)eats in darkness in much vexation and sickness and anger.

¹⁸ Behold, what I have seen to be ^(I)good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment^[b] in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his ^(J)lot.