Ecclesiastes 5:17

And so, this has seemed good to me: that a person should eat and drink, and should enjoy the fruits of his labor, in which he has toiled under the sun, for the number of the days of his life that God has given him. For this is his portion.

Catholic Public Domain Version

In The King James Version

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

In Context

16All the days of his life he consumes: in darkness, and with many worries, and in distress as well as sadness.

18And this is a gift from God: that every man to whom God has given wealth and resources, and to whom he has granted the ability to consume these, may enjoy his portion, and may find joy in his labors.

Read all of Ecclesiastes 5

Cross References

Genesis 3:17Yet truly, to Adam, he said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree, from which I instructed you that you should not eat, cursed is the land that you work. In hardship shall you eat from it, all the days of your life.

2 Kings 1:2And Ahaziah fell down through the lattices of his upper room, which he had in Samaria, and he was injured. And he sent messengers, saying to them, “Go, consult Beelzebub, the god of Ekron, as to whether I may be able to survive this infirmity of mine.”

2 Kings 5:27So then, the leprosy of Naaman shall adhere to you, and to your offspring forever.” And he departed from him a leper, as white as snow.

2 Chronicles 24:24And although certainly there had arrived a very small number of Syrians, the Lord delivered into their hands an immense multitude. For they had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers. Also, against Joash they executed disgraceful judgments.

Psalms 102:9He will not be angry forever, and he will not threaten for eternity.

Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 5:10-18

The Vanity of Riches. 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 that eat them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes? 12 The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.… Read the whole commentary →

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