Bible Strands
Ecclesiastes 2:7
I acquired menservants and maidservants, and servants were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me,
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The speaker delivers a retrospective inventory of his reign’s domestic and agricultural expansions. He addresses the reader while cataloging his acquisitions in Jerusalem.
The words — קָנִיתִי (ka.Ni.ti) translates literally to “I acquired,” marking the speaker’s active procurement of human property. מִקְנֶה (mik.Neh) denotes “livestock,” specifically the herds and flocks that exceeded Jerusalem’s previous records.
The thread — The concept of household-born servants appears in Genesis 14:14, where Abram mobilizes trained men born in his household, and Genesis 15:3, where a household servant is considered a potential heir. Abram’s accumulation of livestock, silver, and gold is documented in Genesis 13:2.
Why it lands — The text demands a straightforward assessment of how wealth and status are measured against historical precedent. It requires the reader to evaluate whether accumulated resources yield lasting value or merely temporal advantage.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me:
Cross-references
- Genesis 13:2 And Abram had become extremely wealthy in livestock and silver and gold.
- Genesis 14:14 And when Abram heard that his relative had been captured, he mobilized the 318 trained men born in his household, and they set out in pursuit as far as Dan.
- Genesis 15:3 Abram continued, “Behold, You have given me no offspring, so a servant in my household will be my heir.”
- Genesis 17:12 Generation after generation, every male must be circumcised when he is eight days old, including those born in your household and those purchased from a foreigner—even those who are not your offspring.
- 1 Kings 4:23 ten fat oxen, twenty range oxen, and a hundred sheep, as well as deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened poultry.
- 1 Kings 9:20 As for all the people who remained of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites (the people who were not Israelites)—
- 2 Kings 3:4 Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheep breeder, and he would render to the king of Israel a hundred thousand lambs and the wool of a hundred thousand rams.
- 1 Chronicles 27:29 Shitrai the Sharonite was in charge of the herds grazing in Sharon. Shaphat son of Adlai was in charge of the herds in the valleys.
- 2 Chronicles 26:10 Since he had much livestock in the foothills and in the plain, he built towers in the desert and dug many cisterns. And since he was a lover of the soil, he had farmers and vinedressers in the hill country and in the fertile fields.
- 2 Chronicles 32:27 Hezekiah had very great riches and honor, and he made treasuries for his silver, gold, precious stones, spices, shields, and all kinds of valuable articles.