Bible Strands
Ecclesiastes 5:14
or wealth lost in a failed venture, so when that man has a son there is nothing to pass on.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The Teacher addresses readers examining life under the sun, continuing his assessment of human vulnerability immediately after describing hoarded wealth in Ecclesiastes 5:13.
The words — The phrase וְאָבַד הָעֹשֶׁר (ve-'avad ha-'osher) translates literally as "and the wealth was lost," while וְהוֹלִיד בֵּן (ve-holid ben) means "and he fathered a son."
The thread — The pattern of untransferable wealth appears in Ecclesiastes 2:26 regarding divine allocation, Job 5:5 where external forces consume a harvest, and Job 20:15 where wealth is violently expelled.
Why it lands — The text states that business failure can erase an intended inheritance, directly supporting the next verse's observation that humans depart life with nothing they brought or can carry forward.
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
But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand.
Cross-references
- 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.
- Job 5:5 The hungry consume his harvest, taking it even from the thorns, and the thirsty pant after his wealth.
- Job 20:15 He swallows wealth but vomits it out; God will force it from his stomach.
- Proverbs 23:5 When you glance at wealth, it disappears, for it makes wings for itself and flies like an eagle to the sky.
- Haggai 1:9 You expected much, but behold, it amounted to little. And what you brought home, I blew away. Why? declares the LORD of Hosts. Because My house still lies in ruins, while each of you is busy with his own house.
- Haggai 2:16 from that time, when one came expecting a heap of twenty ephahs of grain, there were but ten. When one came to the winepress to draw out fifty baths, there were but twenty.
- Matthew 6:19 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
- 1 Samuel 2:6 The LORD brings death and gives life; He brings down to Sheol and raises up.
- 1 Samuel 2:36 And everyone left in your house will come and bow down to him for a piece of silver or a morsel of bread, pleading, “Please appoint me to some priestly office so that I can eat a piece of bread.”’”
- 1 Kings 14:26 He seized the treasures of the house of the LORD and of the royal palace. He took everything, including all the gold shields that Solomon had made.