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17 Also, he eats in darkness all his days; he is frustrated in much sickness and resentment.

If You Have Wealth, Enjoy It as God Enables

18 Look! I have discovered what is good and fitting: to eat and to drink and to enjoy[a] all the fruit of the toil with which one toils under the sun during the number of the days of his life that God gives to him—for this is his lot.[b] 19 This indeed is a gift of God: everyone to whom God gives wealth and possessions, he also empowers him to enjoy them,[c] to accept his lot, and to rejoice in the fruit of his toil.

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Footnotes

  1. Ecclesiastes 5:18 Literally “to see goodness”
  2. Ecclesiastes 5:18 Or “fate”
  3. Ecclesiastes 5:19 Literally “to eat from it”

17 All their days they eat in darkness,
    with great frustration, affliction and anger.

18 This is what I have observed to be good: that it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink(A) and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor(B) under the sun during the few days of life God has given them—for this is their lot. 19 Moreover, when God gives someone wealth and possessions,(C) and the ability to enjoy them,(D) to accept their lot(E) and be happy in their toil—this is a gift of God.(F)

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