Ecclesiastes 5:16

This too is a grievous affliction: Exactly as a man is born, so he will depart. What does he gain as he toils for the wind?

Majority Standard Bible

In The King James Version

And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?

In Context

15As a man came from his mother’s womb, so he will depart again, naked as he arrived. He takes nothing for his labor to carry in his hands.

17Moreover, all his days he eats in darkness, with much sorrow, sickness, and anger.

Read all of Ecclesiastes 5

Cross References

1 Samuel 12:21Do not turn aside after worthless things that cannot profit you or deliver you, for they are empty.

Ecclesiastes 1:3What does a man gain from all his labor, at which he toils under the sun?

Ecclesiastes 5:13There is a grievous evil I have seen under the sun: wealth hoarded to the harm of its owner,

Jeremiah 2:8The priests did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD?’ The experts in the law no longer knew Me, and the leaders rebelled against Me. The prophets prophesied by Baal and followed useless idols.

Mark 8:36What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world yet forfeits his soul?

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 →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Ecclesiastes 5:16