Month: July 2025

The 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. Ecclesiastes 5:12 (KJV)

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The phrase ‘labouring man’ translates to, ‘tiller of the ground;’ i.e., a worker or slave. (Seow, 205) Qoheleth seems to make a distinction between the rich man who hoards, and the worker who is occupied with his ‘lot’ of work alone. The latter here seems to exemplify the faithful who rests solely on the providence of God; somebody who is not labouring to hoard wealth or acquire some sense of profit or safety under the sun. Seow writes, “in fact, the problem is precisely that the rich toil to acquire more and more, and they do not know when to stop. The issue, rather, is whether one has the accumulation and protection of wealth about which to worry. The worker does not have to worry about all the ‘increase’ as the rich do.” (206)

References:

Seow, C.L. (1997). Ecclesiastes, Yale University Press   

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? Ecclesiastes 5:11 (KJV)

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The only ‘return’ or profit that the labour under the sun guarantees is a multiplication of more labour and vanity. Provan writes, “His ‘benefits’ from the whole business are only to ‘feast his eyes on them’ before they disappear into other people’s pockets and mouths.” (145) The rationale is that, as Bartholomew points out, “The point is that the thing pursued, namely wealth, takes on a life of its own and starts to control the person pursuing it. All the owner can do is stand and watch as the problems gather momentum.” (187)

References:

Bartholomew, C. (2009). Ecclesiastes, Baker Academic
Provan, I. (2001). Ecclesiastes/Song of Songs: The New Application Commentary, Zondervan

He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity. Ecclesiastes 5:10 (KJV)

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Qoheleth seems to suggest that monetary wealth is not the answer to the oppression and injustice people suffer under the sun. In the previous verse, he suggests that powerful people with wealth, power, and authority should not be awed; they are equally vain. Here, he seems to follow that perhaps idealising wealth, and its pursuit will not solve one’s problems. The reason he gives is that the pursuit of wealth only gives the satisfaction of the pursuit itself; it never ends. Henry makes two distinctions, (1) natural desires, i.e., the ones that is required to survive, and (2) corrupt desires, i.e., the ones that is grown out of lust. He writes, “natural desires are at rest when that which is desired is obtained, but corrupt desires are insatiable. Nature is content with little, grace with less, but lust with nothing.” The assertion here it seems is to state that perhaps all our desires are based on our spiritual nature; either bodily or not. All our desires are ultimately God-centered: the desires of the heart cannot be filled by satiating the desires of the belly.

References:

Henry, M. (1706). Commentary on the Whole Bible, Complete, Eccl. 5:9-17