Bible Strands
Ecclesiastes 5:17
Moreover, all his days he eats in darkness, with much sorrow, sickness, and anger.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The Teacher addresses readers who have just observed the futility of human toiling in verse 16. He describes the inevitable condition of those who pursue wealth without regard for God.
The words — The text highlights בַּחֹשֶׁךְ (baḥošek), literally in darkness, and כָּעַס (kāʿas), meaning he is vexed or angry. These terms frame the physical and emotional reality of the unguided life.
The thread — This pattern of futile labor appears in Psalms 127:2, where rising early and staying up late yields nothing but God-given sleep. The consequences of cursed toil echo Genesis 3:17, while the threat of starvation under 1 Kings 17:12 illustrates the material reality of life without divine provision.
Why it lands — The verse demands that readers stop mistaking relentless accumulation for security. It forces a direct comparison between the darkness of self-driven labor and the fitted satisfaction of verse 18.
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
All his days also he eateth in darkness, and he hath much sorrow and wrath with his sickness.
Cross-references
- Psalms 127:2 In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for bread to eat—for He gives sleep to His beloved.
- Genesis 3:17 And to Adam He said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
- 1 Kings 17:12 But she replied, “As surely as the LORD your God lives, I have no bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. Look, I am gathering a couple of sticks to take home and prepare a meal for myself and my son, so that we may eat it and die.”
- 2 Kings 1:2 Now Ahaziah had fallen through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria and injured himself. So he sent messengers and instructed them: “Go inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I will recover from this injury.”
- 2 Kings 1:6 They replied, “A man came up to meet us and said, ‘Go back to the king who sent you and tell him that this is what the LORD says: Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending these men to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you will not get up from the bed on which you are lying. You will surely die.’”
- 2 Kings 5:27 Therefore, the leprosy of Naaman will cling to you and your descendants forever!” And as Gehazi left his presence, he was leprous—as white as snow.
- 2 Chronicles 16:10 Asa was angry with the seer and became so enraged over this matter that he put the man in prison. And at the same time Asa oppressed some of the people.
- 2 Chronicles 24:24 Although the Aramean army had come with only a few men, the LORD delivered into their hand a very great army. Because Judah had forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers, judgment was executed on Joash.
- Job 21:25 Yet another man dies in the bitterness of his soul, having never tasted prosperity.
- Psalms 78:33 So He ended their days in futility, and their years in sudden terror.