Ecclesiastes 5:7-16

⁷If thou shalt see the oppressions of the poor, and violent judgments, and justice perverted in the province, wonder not at this matter: for he that is high hath another higher, and there are others still higher than these:

⁸Moreover there is the king that reigneth over all the land subject to him.

⁹A covetous man shall not be satisfied with money: and he that loveth riches shall reap no fruit from them: so this also is vanity.

¹⁰Where there are great riches, there are also many to eat them. And what doth it profit the owner, but that he seeth the riches with his eyes?

¹¹Sleep is sweet to a labouring man, whether he eat little or much: but the fulness of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.

¹²There is also another grievous evil, which I have seen under the sun: riches kept to the hurt of the owner.

¹³For they are lost with very great affliction: he hath begotten a son, who shall be in extremity of want.

¹⁴As he came forth naked from his mother’s womb, so shall he return, and shall take nothing away with him of his labour.

¹⁵A most deplorable evil: as he came, so shall he return. What then doth it profit him that he hath laboured for the wind?

¹⁶All the days of his life he eateth in darkness, and in many cares, and in misery, and sorrow.