Ecclesiastes 5:14
Those riches perish by misfortune, and if he has fathered a son, there is nothing in his hand.
World English Bible Classic
In The King James Version
But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand.
In Context
13There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: wealth kept by its owner to his harm.
Cross References
1 Samuel 2:36It will happen that everyone who is left in your house will come and bow down to him for a piece of silver and a loaf of bread, and will say, “Please put me into one of the priests’ offices, that I may eat a morsel of bread.”’”
Job 1:21He said, “Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked will I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the LORD’s name.”
Job 20:15He has swallowed down riches, and he will vomit them up again. God will cast them out of his belly.
Psalms 39:6“Surely every man walks like a shadow. Surely they busy themselves in vain. He heaps up, and doesn’t know who shall gather.
Psalms 109:9Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.
Ecclesiastes 2:26For to the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he gives travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.
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 →