🌀WEB · Ecclesiastes 5:13

What does Ecclesiastes 5:13 mean?

"There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: wealth kept by its owner to his harm."

— Ecclesiastes 5:13 (World English Bible)

Surrounding context

10

He who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he who loves abundance, with increase: this also is vanity.

11

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?

12

The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much; but the abundance of the rich will not allow him to sleep.

13

There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: wealth kept by its owner to his harm.

14

Those riches perish by misfortune, and if he has fathered a son, there is nothing in his hand.

15

As 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.

16

This 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?

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