Ecclesiastes 5:16

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Ecclesiastes 5:14–18 · Berean Standard Bible

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?

17 Moreover, all his days he eats in darkness, with much sorrow, sickness, and anger.

18 Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in all the labor one does under the sun during the few days of life that God has given him—for this is his lot.

Hebrew words

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

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Cross-references

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

Ecclesiastes 5:13

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

Ecclesiastes 2:22

For what does a man get for all the toil and striving with which he labors under the sun?

Ecclesiastes 2:23

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.

1 Samuel 12:21

Do not turn aside after worthless things that cannot profit you or deliver you, for they are empty.

Jeremiah 2:8

The priests did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD?’ The experts in the law no longer knew Me, and the leaders rebelled against Me. The prophets prophesied by Baal and followed useless idols.

Mark 8:36

What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?

Ecclesiastes 1:3

What does a man gain from all his labor, at which he toils under the sun?

Proverbs 11:29

He who brings trouble on his house will inherit the wind, and the fool will be servant to the wise of heart.

Isaiah 26:18

We were with child; we writhed in pain; but we gave birth to wind. We have given no salvation to the earth, nor brought any life into the world.

Hosea 8:7

For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. There is no standing grain; what sprouts fails to yield flour. Even if it should produce, the foreigners would swallow it up.

John 6:27

Do not work for food that perishes, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on Him God the Father has placed His seal of approval.”