Bible Strands
Ecclesiastes 5:10
He who loves money is never satisfied by money, and he who loves wealth is never satisfied by income. This too is futile.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The anonymous author of Ecclesiastes addresses a general audience within a sequence (5:9–11) observing that wealth accumulates and is consumed by others, leaving the owner with only the sight of it.
The words — כֶּסֶף (ke.sef, "silver") appears twice, standing in for money as the standard medium of value; יִשְׂבַּע (yis.ba', "will be satisfied") borrows the language of being filled with food, implying that no quantity of silver can produce satiety in one who loves it.
The thread — 1 Timothy 6:10 names the love of money as the root of all kinds of evil; Matthew 6:24 and Luke 12:15 frame the same problem as a divided allegiance and a mistaken definition of life.
Why it lands — The verse does not condemn wealth itself but the orientation of "loving" it: it asks the reader to test whether their pursuit is driven by need or by a desire that, by its own structure, can never be met.
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
He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.
Cross-references
- 1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. By craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.
- Matthew 6:24 No one can serve two masters: Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
- Luke 12:15 And He said to them, “Watch out! Guard yourselves against every form of greed, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
- Matthew 6:19 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
- Ecclesiastes 4:8 There is a man all alone, without even a son or brother. And though there is no end to his labor, his eyes are still not content with his wealth: “For whom do I toil and bereave my soul of enjoyment?” This too is futile—a miserable task.
- Ecclesiastes 4:4 I saw that all labor and success spring from a man’s envy of his neighbor. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.
- Psalms 62:10 Place no trust in extortion or false hope in stolen goods. If your riches increase, do not set your heart upon them.
- Ecclesiastes 2:26 To the man who is pleasing in His sight, He gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner He assigns the task of gathering and accumulating that which he will hand over to one who pleases God. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.
- Psalms 52:7 “Look at the man who did not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his wealth and strengthened himself by destruction.”
- Habakkuk 2:5 and wealth indeed betrays him. He is an arrogant man never at rest. He enlarges his appetite like Sheol, and like Death, he is never satisfied. He gathers all the nations to himself and collects all the peoples as his own.