Scripture · Old Testament
Ecclesiastes 2:21
Ecclesiastes 2:21 is verse 21 of Ecclesiastes chapter 2, shown here in the Berean Standard Bible.
Berean Standard Bible
When there is a man who has labored with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, and he must give his portion to a man who has not worked for it, this too is futile and a great evil.
King James Version
For there is a man whose labour is in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity; yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it for his portion. This also is vanity and a great evil.
World English Bible
For there is a man whose labor is with wisdom, with knowledge, and with skillfulness; yet he shall leave it for his portion to a man who has not labored for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.
Read in context
Ecclesiastes 2:19–23 · Berean Standard Bible
19 And who knows whether that man will be wise or foolish? Yet he will take over all the labor at which I have worked skillfully under the sun. This too is futile.
20 So my heart began to despair over all the labor that I had done under the sun.
21 When there is a man who has labored with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, and he must give his portion to a man who has not worked for it, this too is futile and a great evil.
22 For what does a man get for all the toil and striving with which he labors under the sun?
23 Indeed, all his days are filled with grief, and his task is sorrowful; even at night, his mind does not rest. This too is futile.
Read all of Ecclesiastes 2Hebrew words
Data created by STEPBible.org based on work at Tyndale House Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Study Ecclesiastes 2:21
Cross-references
The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge lists these related verses. Scripture text comes from the Berean Standard Bible.
Ecclesiastes 2:17So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. For everything is futile and a pursuit of the wind.
Ecclesiastes 2:18I hated all for which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who comes after me.
Ecclesiastes 9:18Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.
2 Chronicles 31:20So this is what Hezekiah did throughout Judah. He did what was good and upright and true before the LORD his God.
2 Chronicles 31:21He was diligent in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law and the commandments, in order to seek his God. And so he prospered.
2 Chronicles 33:2And he did evil in the sight of the LORD by following the abominations of the nations that the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.
2 Chronicles 33:3For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had torn down, and he raised up altars for the Baals and made Asherah poles. And he worshiped and served all the host of heaven.
2 Chronicles 33:4Manasseh also built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “My Name will remain in Jerusalem forever.”
2 Chronicles 33:5In both courtyards of the house of the LORD, he built altars to all the host of heaven.
2 Chronicles 33:6He sacrificed his sons in the fire in the Valley of Hinnom. He practiced sorcery, divination, and witchcraft, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did great evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger.
2 Chronicles 33:7Manasseh even took the carved image he had made and set it up in the house of God, of which God had said to David and his son Solomon, “In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will establish My Name forever.
2 Chronicles 33:8I will never again cause the feet of the Israelites to leave the land that I assigned to your fathers, if only they are careful to do all that I have commanded them through Moses—all the laws, statutes, and judgments.”
2 Chronicles 33:9So Manasseh led the people of Judah and Jerusalem astray, so that they did greater evil than the nations that the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites.
2 Chronicles 34:2And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and walked in the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right or to the left.
2 Chronicles 35:18No such Passover had been observed in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. None of the kings of Israel ever observed a Passover like the one that Josiah observed with the priests, the Levites, all Judah, the Israelites who were present, and the people of Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 36:5Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. And he did evil in the sight of the LORD his God.
2 Chronicles 36:6Then Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against Jehoiakim and bound him with bronze shackles to take him to Babylon.
2 Chronicles 36:7Nebuchadnezzar also took to Babylon some of the articles from the house of the LORD, and he put them in his temple in Babylon.
2 Chronicles 36:8As for the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, the abominations he committed, and all that was found against him, they are indeed written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah. And his son Jehoiachin reigned in his place.
2 Chronicles 36:9Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months and ten days. And he did evil in the sight of the LORD.
2 Chronicles 36:10In the spring, King Nebuchadnezzar summoned Jehoiachin and brought him to Babylon, along with the articles of value from the house of the LORD. And he made Jehoiachin’s relative Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem.
Jeremiah 22:15Does it make you a king to excel in cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He administered justice and righteousness, and so it went well with him.
Jeremiah 22:17“But your eyes and heart are set on nothing except your own dishonest gain, on shedding innocent blood, on practicing extortion and oppression.”