Ecclesiastes 5:14

Read in context

Ecclesiastes 5:12–16 · Berean Standard Bible

12 The sleep of the worker is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of the rich man permits him no sleep.

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

14 or wealth lost in a failed venture, so when that man has a son there is nothing to pass on.

15 As 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.

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

Hebrew words

Data created by STEPBible.org based on work at Tyndale House Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Study Ecclesiastes 5:14

Read the commentary on Ecclesiastes 5

Cross-references

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge lists these related verses. Scripture text comes from the Berean Standard Bible.

Ecclesiastes 2:26

To the man who is pleasing in His sight, He gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner He assigns the task of gathering and accumulating that which he will hand over to one who pleases God. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

Job 5:5

The hungry consume his harvest, taking it even from the thorns, and the thirsty pant after his wealth.

Job 20:15

He swallows wealth but vomits it out; God will force it from his stomach.

Job 20:16

He will suck the poison of cobras; the fangs of a viper will kill him.

Job 20:17

He will not enjoy the streams, the rivers flowing with honey and cream.

Job 20:18

He must return the fruit of his labor without consuming it; he cannot enjoy the profits of his trading.

Job 20:19

For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor; he has seized houses he did not build.

Job 20:20

Because his appetite is never satisfied, he cannot escape with his treasure.

Job 20:21

Nothing is left for him to consume; thus his prosperity will not endure.

Job 20:22

In the midst of his plenty, he will be distressed; the full force of misery will come upon him.

Job 20:23

When he has filled his stomach, God will vent His fury upon him, raining it down on him as he eats.

Job 20:24

Though he flees from an iron weapon, a bronze-tipped arrow will pierce him.

Job 20:25

It is drawn out of his back, the gleaming point from his liver. Terrors come over him.

Job 20:26

Total darkness is reserved for his treasures. A fire unfanned will consume him and devour what is left in his tent.

Job 20:27

The heavens will expose his iniquity, and the earth will rise up against him.

Job 20:28

The possessions of his house will be removed, flowing away on the day of God’s wrath.

Job 20:29

This is the wicked man’s portion from God, the inheritance God has appointed him.”

Job 27:16

Though he heaps up silver like dust and piles up a wardrobe like clay,

Job 27:17

what he lays up, the righteous will wear, and his silver will be divided by the innocent.

Psalms 39:6

Surely every man goes about like a phantom; surely he bustles in vain; he heaps up riches not knowing who will haul them away.

Proverbs 23:5

When you glance at wealth, it disappears, for it makes wings for itself and flies like an eagle to the sky.

Haggai 1:9

You expected much, but behold, it amounted to little. And what you brought home, I blew away. Why? declares the LORD of Hosts. Because My house still lies in ruins, while each of you is busy with his own house.

Haggai 2:16

from that time, when one came expecting a heap of twenty ephahs of grain, there were but ten. When one came to the winepress to draw out fifty baths, there were but twenty.

Haggai 2:17

I struck you—all the work of your hands—with blight, mildew, and hail, but you did not turn to Me, declares the LORD.

Matthew 6:19

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.

Matthew 6:20

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

1 Samuel 2:6

The LORD brings death and gives life; He brings down to Sheol and raises up.

1 Samuel 2:7

The LORD sends poverty and wealth; He humbles and He exalts.

1 Samuel 2:8

He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. He seats them among princes and bestows on them a throne of honor. For the foundations of the earth are the LORD’s, and upon them He has set the world.

1 Samuel 2:36

And everyone left in your house will come and bow down to him for a piece of silver or a morsel of bread, pleading, “Please appoint me to some priestly office so that I can eat a piece of bread.”’”

1 Kings 14:26

He seized the treasures of the house of the LORD and of the royal palace. He took everything, including all the gold shields that Solomon had made.

Psalms 109:9

May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.

Psalms 109:10

May his children wander as beggars, seeking sustenance far from their ruined homes.

Psalms 109:11

May the creditor seize all he owns, and strangers plunder the fruits of his labor.

Psalms 109:12

May there be no one to extend kindness to him, and no one to favor his fatherless children.