Ecclesiastes 5:14
But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand.
Ecclesiastes 5:14 in other translations
| BSB | or wealth lost in a failed venture, so when that man has a son there is nothing to pass on. |
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| WEB | Those riches perish by misfortune, and if he has fathered a son, there is nothing in his hand. |
| ASV | and those riches perish by evil adventure; and if he hath begotten a son, there is nothing in his hand. |
| YLT | And that wealth hath been lost in an evil business, and he hath begotten a son and there is nothing in his hand! |
| DARBY | or those riches perish by some evil circumstance, and if he have begotten a son, there is nothing in his hand. |
| BBE | And I saw the destruction of his wealth by an evil chance; and when he became the father of a son he had nothing in his hand. |
| Webster | But those riches perish by evil labor: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand. |
What does Ecclesiastes 5:14 mean?
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Ecclesiastes 5:13-14
13-14. Proofs of God's judgments even in this world (Pr 11:31). The rich oppressor's wealth provokes enemies, robbers, &c. Then, after having kept it for an expected son, he loses it beforehand by misfortune ("by evil travail"), and the son is born to be heir of poverty. Ec 2:19, 23 gives another aspect of the same subject.
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 5:14 in the original Hebrew
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Cross references for Ecclesiastes 5:14
- Ecclesiastes 2:26
For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.
- Haggai 2:16-17
Since those days were, when one came to an heap of twenty measures, there were but ten: when one came to the pressfat for to draw out fifty vessels out of the press, there were but twenty. I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands; yet ye turned not to me, saith the Lord.
- Haggai 1:9
Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house.
- Job 20:15-29
He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly. He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper’s tongue shall slay him. He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter. That which he laboured for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down: according to his substance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice therein. …
- 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.
- Job 5:5
Whose harvest the hungry eateth up, and taketh it even out of the thorns, and the robber swalloweth up their substance.
- Matthew 6:19-20
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
- 1 Samuel 2:36
And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left in thine house shall come and crouch to him for a piece of silver and a morsel of bread, and shall say, Put me, I pray thee, into one of the priests’ offices, that I may eat a piece of bread.
- 1 Kings 14:26
And he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king’s house; he even took away all: and he took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made.
- Job 27:16-17
Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare raiment as the clay; He may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver.
- Psalms 39:6
Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.
- Psalms 109:9-12
Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places. Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labour. Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children.
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Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Context
- Ecclesiastes 5:13
There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.
- Ecclesiastes 5:14
But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand.
- Ecclesiastes 5:15
As he came forth of his mother’s womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand.
Ecclesiastes 5:14 in other languages
| Spanish Reina-Valera 1909 | Las cuales se pierden en malas ocupaciones, y á los hijos que engendraron nada les queda en la mano. |
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| French Bible J.N. Darby 1885 | Comme il est sorti du ventre de sa mère, il s’en retournera nu, s’en allant comme il est venu, et de son travail il n’emportera rien qu’il puisse prendre dans sa main. |
| German Elberfelder 1871 | Solcher Reichtum geht nämlich durch irgend ein Mißgeschick verloren; und hat er einen Sohn gezeugt, so ist gar nichts in dessen Hand. |
| Latin Clementine Vulgate | Sicut egressus est nudus de utero matris suæ, sic revertetur, et nihil auferet secum de labore suo. |