Ecclesiastes 5:8-20

21st Century King James Version

⁸ If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter; for he that is higher than the highest regardeth, and there are higher than they.

⁹ Moreover the profit of the earth is for all; the king himself is served by the field.

¹⁰ He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with increase. This is also vanity.

¹¹ When goods increase, they are increased who eat them; and what good is there to the owners thereof, except the beholding of them with their eyes?

¹² The sleep of the laboring man is sweet whether he eat little or much, but the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep.

¹³ There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely: riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.

¹⁴ But those riches perish by evil travail; and when he begetteth a son, there is nothing in his hand.

¹⁵ As he came forth from his mother’s womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labor which he may carry away in his hand.

¹⁶ And this also is a sore evil: that in all ways as he came, so shall he go. And what profit hath he that hath labored for the wind?

¹⁷ All his days also he eateth in darkness, and hath much sorrow and wrath with his sickness.

¹⁸ Behold that which I have seen: It is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him; for it is his portion.

¹⁹ Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given power to eat thereof and to take his portion and to rejoice in his labor, this is the gift of God.

²⁰ For he shall not much remember the days of his life, because God answereth him in the joy of his heart.