ä¼ é“ä¹¦ 5:11

Chinese NCV (Simplified)

財物增加，吃用的人也增加，物主除了眼看以外，還有甚麼益處呢？

Parallel Translations

Chinese Union (Simplified)
货 物 增 添 ， 吃 的 人 也 增 添 ， 物 主 得 甚 麽 益 处 呢 ？ 不 过 眼 看 而 已 ！

Contextual Overview

⁹ The wealth of the country is divided up among them all. Even the king makes sure he gets his share of the profits. ¹⁰ Whoever loves money will never have enough money; Whoever loves wealth will not be satisfied with it. This is also useless. ¹¹ The more wealth people have, the more friends they have to help spend it. So what do people really gain? They gain nothing except to look at their riches. ¹² Those who work hard sleep in peace; it is not important if they eat little or much. But rich people worry about their wealth and cannot sleep. ¹³ I have seen real misery here on earth: Money saved is a curse to its owners. ¹⁴ They lose it all in a bad deal and have nothing to give to their children. ¹⁵ People come into this world with nothing, and when they die they leave with nothing. In spite of all their hard work, they leave just as they came. ¹⁶ This, too, is real misery: They leave just as they came. So what do they gain from chasing the wind? ¹⁷ All they get are days full of sadness and sorrow, and they end up sick, defeated, and angry.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

they: Genesis 12:16, Genesis 13:2, Genesis 13:5-7, 1 Kings 4:22, 1 Kings 4:23, 1 Kings 5:13-16, Nehemiah 5:17, Nehemiah 5:18, Psalms 119:36, Psalms 119:37

what: Ecclesiastes 6:9, Ecclesiastes 11:9, Joshua 7:21-25, Proverbs 23:5, Jeremiah 17:11, Habakkuk 2:13, 1 John 2:16

Reciprocal: Genesis 13:6 - General Exodus 20:17 - thy neighbour's house Proverbs 27:20 - so Ecclesiastes 1:8 - the eye Ecclesiastes 2:22 - hath man Ecclesiastes 6:8 - what hath the wise Matthew 13:22 - the deceitfulness John 6:27 - the meat

Gill's Notes on the Bible

When goods increase, they are increased that eat them,.... When a man's substance increases by trade, or otherwise, very often so it is that his family increases, and he has more mouths to feed, and backs to clothe; or his estate growing larger, if he lives suitably to it, he must keep more servants; and these, as they have but little work to do, are described by their eating, rather than by their working; and besides, such a growing man in the world has more friends and visitors that come about him, and eat with him, as well as the poor, which wait upon him to receive his alms: and if his farms, and his fields, and his flocks, are enlarged, he must have more husbandmen, and labourers, and shepherds to look after them, who all must be maintained. So Pheraulas in Xenophon h observes,

"that now he was possessed of much, that he neither ate, nor drank, nor slept the sweeter for it; what he got by his plenty was, that he had more committed to his keeping, and more to distribute to others; he had more care and more business, with trouble; for now, says he, many servants require food of me, many drink, many clothing, some need physicians, c. it must needs be, adds he, that they that possess much must spend much on the gods, on friends, and on guests''

and what good [is there] to the owners thereof, saving the beholding [of them] with their eyes? he can go into his grounds, his fields, and his meadows to behold his flocks and his herds, and can say, all these are mine; he can go into his chambers and open his treasures, and feed his eyes with looking upon his bags of gold and silver, his jewels, and other riches; he can behold a multitude of people at his table, eating at his expense, and more maintained at his cost: and, if a liberal man, it may be a pleasure to him; if otherwise, it will give him pain: and, excepting these, he enjoys no more than food and raiment; and often so it is, that even his very servants have in some things the advantage of him, as follows. The Targum is,

"what profit is there to the owner thereof who gathers it, unless he does good with it, that he may see the gift of the reward with his eyes in the world to come?''

Jarchi interprets it after this manner,

"when men bring many freewill offerings, the priests are increased that eat them; and what good is to the owner of them, the Lord, but the sight of his eyes, who says, and his will is done?''

h Cyropaedia, l. 8. c. 26.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

They ... that eat them - i. e., The laborers employed, and the household servants.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Ecclesiastes 5:11. When goods increase — An increase of property always brings an increase of expense, by a multitude of servants; and the owner really possesses no more, and probably enjoys much less, than he did, when every day provided its own bread, and could lay up no store for the next. But if he have more enjoyment, his cares are multiplied; and he has no kind of profit. "This also is vanity."