Scripture Daily

Context No. 260 of 4322 · Ecclesiastes

Context · Reflection

Ecclesiastes 5:13-20: in context

13There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: wealth kept by its owner to his harm. 14Those riches perish by misfortune, and if he has fathered a son, there is nothing in his hand. 15As he came out of his mother’s womb, naked shall he go again as he came, and shall take nothing for his labor, which he may carry away in his hand. 16This also is a grievous evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go. And what profit does he have who labors for the wind? 17All his days he also eats in darkness, he is frustrated, and has sickness and wrath. 18Behold, that which I have seen to be good and proper is for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy good in all his labor, in which he labors under the sun, all the days of his life which God has given him; for this is his portion. 19Every man also to whom God has given riches and wealth, and has given him power to eat of it, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labor—this is the gift of God. 20For he shall not often reflect on the days of his life, because God occupies him with the joy of his heart.

Ecclesiastes keeps circling the same hard facts, and here the subject is money. The Teacher names a specific tragedy he has watched happen: wealth hoarded by its owner to his own harm. The man guards his riches, and then they are lost in a bad venture, and there is nothing left in his hand, not even for the son he meant to leave it to. And even if nothing goes wrong, the deeper fact stands. Naked he came from his mother's womb, and naked he will go, and he carries none of his labor away in his hand. What profit is there, the Teacher asks, in laboring for the wind?

The picture he draws of the hoarder is bleak. He eats in darkness, in constant frustration, with sickness and anger. Then the Teacher makes his counter-move, the one answer he keeps returning to across the whole book. What is good, he says, is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in your work, because that is your portion. And he adds something easy to miss: both the wealth and the power to enjoy it are the gift of God. You can have riches and lack any ability to take pleasure in them, and the capacity to enjoy your lot is a separate gift that no amount of acquiring can buy.

The last line is the quiet reward. A person who lives this way will not brood much on how short his life is, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart. The problem was never having too little. It was hoarding what he had lost the ability to enjoy. What am I guarding so carefully that I have stopped being able to enjoy it at all?

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