Ecclesiastes Chapter 5 verse 11 Holy Bible
When goods increase, they are increased that eat them; and what advantage is there to the owner thereof, save the beholding `of them' with his eyes?
read chapter 5 in ASV
The sleep of a working man is sweet, if he has little food or much; but to him who is full, sleep will not come.
read chapter 5 in BBE
When goods increase, they are increased that eat them; and what profit is there to the owner thereof, except the beholding [of them] with his eyes?
read chapter 5 in DARBY
When 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?
read chapter 5 in KJV
read chapter 5 in WBT
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 chapter 5 in WEB
In the multiplying of good have its consumers been multiplied, and what benefit `is' to its possessor except the sight of his eyes?
read chapter 5 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 11. - Koheleth proceeds to notice some of the inconveniences which accompany wealth, which go far to prove that God is over all. When goods increase, they are increased that eat them. The more riches a man possesses, the greater are the claims upon him. He increases his household, retainers, and dependents, and is really none the better off for all his wealth. So Job in his prosperous days is said to have had "a very great household" (Job 1:3), and the servants and laborers employed by Solomon must have taxed to the utmost even his abnormal resources (1 Kings 5:13, etc.). Commentators from Piueda downwards have quoted the remarkable parallel in Xenoph., 'Cyropaed.,' 8:3, wherein the wealthy Persian Pheraulas, who had risen from poverty to high estate, disabuses a young Sacian friend of the idea that his riches made him happier or afforded supreme content. "Do you not know," said he," that I neither eat, nor drink, nor sleep with any more pleasure now than I did when I was poor? by having this abundance I gain merely this, that I have to guard more, to distribute more among others, and to have the trouble of taking care of more. For now numerous domestics demand of me food, drink, clothes; some want the doctor; one comes and brings me sheep that have been torn by wolves, or oxen killed by failing down a precipice, or tells of a murrain that has affected the cattle; so that I seem to myself to have more afflictions in my abundance than I had when I was poor,... It is obligatory on him who possesses much to expend much both on the gods and on friends and on strangers; and whosoever is greatly pleased with the possession of riches will, you may be assured, be greatly annoyed at the expenditure of them." What good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes? What it is that the owners behold is doubtful. Ginsburg considers that the increased number of devourers is meant; but surely this sight could hardly be called kishron, "success, profit." So it is better to take the sight to be the amassed wealth. The contemplation of this is the only enjoyment that the possessor realizes. So the Vulgate, Et quid prodest possessori, nisi quod cernit divitias oculis suis? Septuagint, Καὶ τί ἀνδρεία τῷ παρ αὐτῆς ὅτι ἀρχὴ τοῦ ὁρᾷν ὀφθαλμοῖς αὐτοῦ," And in what does the excellence of the owner consist? except the power of seeing it with his eyes." A Lapide quotes Horace's portrait of the miser ('Sat.,' 1:1.66, sqq.) "Populus me sibilat; ut mihi plaudoIpse domi, simul ac, nummos contemplor in area... ... congestis undique saccisIndormis inhians et tanquam parcere sacrisCogeris aut pictis tanquam gaudere tabellis." "He, when the people hissed, would turn about,And dryly thus accost the rabble-rout:Hiss on; heed you not, ye saucy wags,While self-applauses greet me o'er my bags." O'er countless heaps in nicest order stored,You pore agape, and gaze upon the hoard,As relics to be laid with reverence by,Or pictures only meant to please the eye."(Howes.)
