Ecclesiastes 5:11
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?
Ecclesiastes 5:11 in other translations
| BSB | When good things increase, so do those who consume them; what then is the profit to the owner, except to behold them with his eyes? |
|---|---|
| WEB | When goods increase, those who eat them are increased; and what advantage is there to its owner, except to feast on them with his eyes? |
| ASV | When goods increase, they are increased that eat them; and what advantage is there to the owner thereof, save the beholding of them with his eyes? |
| YLT | In the multiplying of good have its consumers been multiplied, and what benefit is to its possessor except the sight of his eyes? |
| DARBY | When goods increase, they are increased that eat them; and what profit is there to the owner thereof, except the beholding of them with his eyes? |
| BBE | When goods are increased, the number of those who take of them is increased; and what profit has the owner but to see them? |
| Webster | When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good is there to the owners of them, saving the beholding of them with their eyes? |
What does Ecclesiastes 5:11 mean?
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain
Adam Clarke's Commentary
Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Ecclesiastes 5:9-17
The goodness of Providence is more equally distributed than appears to a careless observer. The king needs the common things of life, and the poor share them; they relish their morsel better than he does his luxuries. There are bodily desires which silver itself will not satisfy, much less will worldly abundance satisfy spiritual desires. The more men have, the better house they must keep, the more servants they…
Ecclesiastes 5:11 in the original Hebrew
Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.
Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).
Cross references for Ecclesiastes 5:11
- 1 John 2:16
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
- Habakkuk 2:13
Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts that the people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity?
- Psalms 119:36-37
Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness. Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.
- Proverbs 23:5
Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.
- Ecclesiastes 6:9
Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this is also vanity and vexation of spirit.
- Genesis 13:5-7
And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents. And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together: for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together. And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram’s cattle and the herdmen of Lot’s cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land.
- Joshua 7:21-25
When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it. So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran unto the tent; and, behold, it was hid in his tent, and the silver under it. And they took them out of the midst of the tent, and brought them unto Joshua, and unto all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the Lord. And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them unto the valley of Achor. …
- Ecclesiastes 11:9
Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.
- Genesis 13:2
And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.
- Nehemiah 5:17-18
Moreover there were at my table an hundred and fifty of the Jews and rulers, beside those that came unto us from among the heathen that are about us. Now that which was prepared for me daily was one ox and six choice sheep; also fowls were prepared for me, and once in ten days store of all sorts of wine: yet for all this required not I the bread of the governor, because the bondage was heavy upon this people.
- 1 Kings 5:13-16
And king Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel; and the levy was thirty thousand men. And he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month by courses: a month they were in Lebanon, and two months at home: and Adoniram was over the levy. And Solomon had threescore and ten thousand that bare burdens, and fourscore thousand hewers in the mountains; Beside the chief of Solomon’s officers which were over the work, three thousand and three hundred, which ruled over the people that wrought in the work.
- Genesis 12:16
And he entreated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and she asses, and camels.
Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).
Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Context
- Ecclesiastes 5:10
He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.
- Ecclesiastes 5:11
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?
- Ecclesiastes 5:12
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.
Ecclesiastes 5:11 in other languages
| Spanish Reina-Valera 1909 | Cuando los bienes se aumentan, también se aumentan sus comedores. ¿Qué bien, pues, tendrá su dueño, sino ver los con sus ojos? |
|---|---|
| French Bible J.N. Darby 1885 | Le sommeil est doux pour celui qui travaille, qu’il mange peu ou beaucoup; mais le rassasiement du riche ne le laisse pas dormir. |
| German Elberfelder 1871 | Wenn das Gut sich mehrt, so mehren sich, die davon zehren; und welchen Nutzen hat dessen Besitzer, als das Anschauen seiner Augen? - |
| Latin Clementine Vulgate | Dulcis est somnus operanti, sive parum sive multum comedat; saturitas autem divitis non sinit eum dormire. |