Ecclesiastes 2:25
in Ecclesiastes 2For apart from Him, who can eat and who can find enjoyment?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I?
KJV
For who can eat, or who else can hasten hereunto, more than I?
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This verse in Ecclesiastes 2
Commentary
11 notes on this verse"Is it not good for man that he eats and drinks and shows his soul satisfaction in his labour? And even that, I perceived, is from the hand of God. For who should eat and who should make haste except me? To the man who pleases Him He has given wisdom, knowledge and joy; but to the sinner He has given the urge to gather and amass - that he may hand it on to one who is pleasing to God. That, too, is vanity and a vexation of the spirit."
This site's exposition
Nothing is better for a man than to eat and drink
on Ecclesiastes 2:24-26
Nothing is better for a man than to eat and drink and enjoy his work, and it comes from the hand of God. Verse 26 gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to the man pleasing to God and gathering to the sinner, and calls even that futile.
This site's exposition
apart from Him
The Berean apart from Him follows a reading Clarke cites from Hebrew manuscripts, the Septuagint and the Syriac. The received text has a first person form, and Gill asks who can eat and enjoy the good of his labor unless God gives it. Coverdale follows the first reading.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
We exhort, therefore, the widows and orphans to partake of those things that are bestowed upon them with all fear and all pious reverence, and to return thanks to God who gives food to the needy, and to lift up their eyes to him. For, "Which of you shall eat, or who shall drink without him?
We exhort, therefore, the widows and orphans to partake of those things that are bestowed upon them with all fear and all pious reverence, and to return thanks to God who gives food to the needy, and to lift up their eyes to him. For, …
The Medieval Church1 voice
A commentator
BonaventureCommentary on Ecclesiastes, Chapter 2 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
And he proposes himself as an example of this to confirm it: "Who shall so devour," as regards concupiscence: "and abound in delights," as regards abundance: "as I?" As if to say: no one: 3 Kings 4: "Now the provision of Solomon for each day …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
For who can eat?.... Who should eat, but such a man that has laboured for it? or, who has a power to eat, that is, cheerfully, comfortably, and freely to enjoy the good things of life he is possessed of, unless it be given him of God? see Ecc 6:1; or who else can hasten hereunto more than I? the word "chush", in Rabbinical language, is used of the five senses, seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, and tasting: and R.
To those who are good in God's sight, who are of a good spirit, honest and sincere, pay a deference to their God and have a tender concern for all mankind, God will give wisdom and knowledge in this world, and joy with the righteous in the world to come; so the Chaldee.
3 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
What that good is which is here recommended to us; and which is the utmost pleasure and profit we can expect or extract from the business and profit of this world, and the furthest we can go to rescue it from its vanity and the vexation that is in it.
10 And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour. 11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — verbatim-scripture
And then they are truly pleasant to us when we take them from the hand of God as a Father, when we eye his wisdom giving us that which is fittest for us, and acquiesce in it, and taste his love and goodness, relish them, and are thankful for them. [2.] A heart to enjoy them is so; this is the gift of God's grace.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כִּ֣י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| מִ֥י | mi | who? | H4310 → | 423 times |
| יֹאכַ֛ל | yokhal | will he eat | H398 → | 810 times |
| וּמִ֥י | umi | and who? | H4310 → | 423 times |
| יָח֖וּשׁ | yachush | will he enjoy | H2363 → | |
| ח֥וּץ | chutz | outside | H2351 → | |
| מִמֶּֽנִּי׃ | mimeni | from me | H4480 → | 1188 times |
כִּ֣יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
מִ֥יwho?
miH4310 →423 times
יֹאכַ֛לwill he eat
yokhalH398 →810 times
וּמִ֥יand who?
umiH4310 →423 times
יָח֖וּשׁwill he enjoy
yachushH2363 →
ח֥וּץoutside
chutzH2351 →
מִמֶּֽנִּי׃from me
mimeniH4480 →1188 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
Where this verse is studied
About Ecclesiastes
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Apostolic Constitutions, CONSTITUTIONS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES; Bonaventure, Commentary on Ecclesiastes, Chapter 2; Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Ecclesiastes; Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes; Jerome, Commentary on Ecclesiastes; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Nilus of Sinai, CONSTITUTIONS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES 4:1.5.