Ecclesiastes 5:11
Verse 11 of 20. The 5th of 12 chapters in Ecclesiastes, in Poetry and Wisdom.
7For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou God.
8If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they.
9Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served by the field.
10He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.
11When 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?
12The 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.
13There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.
14But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand.
15As 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 5:11 in the World English Bible
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?Read Ecclesiastes 5:11 in the WEB
Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 5:11
The more men have the more occasion they have for it, and the more they have to do with it, so that it is as broad as it is long: When goods increase, they are increased that eat them, v. 11. The more meat the more mouths. Does the estate thrive? And does not the family at the same time grow more numerous and the children grow up to need more?
Read Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 5:9–17: The Vanity of Riches.
Pray Ecclesiastes 5:11 with someone reading it aloud.
Start praying with Pray.comKing James Version. Public domain. Set as prose throughout, including the poetry, because the text is published to us without its lines.