Ecclesiastes 2:24
Good News Translation
The best thing we can do is eat and drink and enjoy what we have earned. And yet, I realized that even this comes from God.

New Revised Standard Version
There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink, and find enjoyment in their toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God;

Contemporary English Version
The best thing we can do is to enjoy eating, drinking, and working. I believe these are God's gifts to us,

New American Bible
There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink and provide themselves with good things from their toil. Even this, I saw, is from the hand of God.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Is it not better to eat and drink, and to shew his soul good things of his labours? and this is from the hand of God.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Is it not better to eat and drink, and to shew his soul good things of his labours? and this is from the hand of God.

nothing

Ecclesiastes 3:12,13,22 And I have known that there was no better thing than to rejoice, and to do well in this life. . . .

Ecclesiastes 5:18 This therefore hath seemed good to me, that a man should eat and drink, and enjoy the fruit of his labour, wherewith he hath laboured under the sun, all the days of his life, which God hath given him: and this is his portion.

Ecclesiastes 8:15 Therefore I commended mirth, because there was no good for a man under the sun, but to eat, and drink, and be merry, and that he should take nothing else with him of his labour in the days of his life, which God hath given him under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 9:7-9 Go then, and eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with gladness: because thy works please God. . . .

Ecclesiastes 11:9,10 Rejoice therefore, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart be in that which is good in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thy eyes: and know that for all these God will bring thee into judgment. . . .

Deuteronomy 12:12,18 There shall you feast before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite that dwelleth in your cities. For he hath no other part and possession among you. . . .

Nehemiah 8:10 And he said to them: Go, eat fat meats, and drink sweet wine, and send portions to them that have not prepared for themselves: because it is the holy day of the Lord, and be not sad: for the joy of the Lord is our strength.

Acts 14:17 Nevertheless he left not himself without testimony, doing good from heaven, giving rains and fruitful Seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.

1 Timothy 6:17 Charge the rich of this world not to be highminded nor to trust in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God (who giveth us abundantly all things to enjoy)

make his soul enjoy good

Ecclesiastes 3:13 For every man that eateth and drinketh, and seeth good of his labour, this is the gift of God.

Ecclesiastes 5:19 And every man to whom God hath given riches, and substance, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to enjoy his portion, and to rejoice of his labour: this is the gift of God.

Ecclesiastes 6:2 A man to whom God hath given riches, and substance, and honour, and his soul wanteth nothing of all that he desireth: yet God doth not give him power to eat thereof, but a stranger shall eat it up. This is vanity and a great misery.

Malachi 2:2 If you will not hear, and if you will not lay it to heart, to give glory to my name, saith the Lord of hosts: I will send poverty upon you, and will curse your blessings, yea I will curse them, because you have not laid it to heart.

Luke 12:19,20 And I will say to my soul: Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thy rest: eat, drink, make good cheer. . . .

Context
The Futility of Work
23All his days are full of sorrows and miseries, even in the night he doth not rest in mind: and is not this vanity? 24Is it not better to eat and drink, and to shew his soul good things of his labours? and this is from the hand of God.25Who shall so feast and abound with delights as I?…
Cross References
Luke 12:19
And I will say to my soul: Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thy rest: eat, drink, make good cheer.

1 Corinthians 15:32
If (according to man) I fought with beasts at Ephesus, what doth it profit me, if the dead rise not again? Let us eat and drink, for to morrow we shall die.

1 Timothy 6:17
Charge the rich of this world not to be highminded nor to trust in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God (who giveth us abundantly all things to enjoy)

Ecclesiastes 2:3
I thought in my heart, to withdraw my flesh from wine, that I might turn my mind to wisdom, and might avoid folly, till I might see what was profitable for the children of men: and what they ought to do under the sun, all the days of their life.

Ecclesiastes 2:25
Who shall so feast and abound with delights as I?

Ecclesiastes 3:12
And I have known that there was no better thing than to rejoice, and to do well in this life.

Ecclesiastes 3:13
For every man that eateth and drinketh, and seeth good of his labour, this is the gift of God.

Ecclesiastes 3:22
And I have found that nothing is better than for a man to rejoice in his work, and that this is his portion. For who shall bring him to know the things that shall be after him?

Ecclesiastes 5:18
This therefore hath seemed good to me, that a man should eat and drink, and enjoy the fruit of his labour, wherewith he hath laboured under the sun, all the days of his life, which God hath given him: and this is his portion.

Ecclesiastes 6:12
What needeth a man to seek things that are above him, whereas he knoweth not what is profitable for him in his life, in all the days of his pilgrimage, and the time that passeth like a shadow? Or who can tell him what shall be after him under the sun?

Ecclesiastes 8:15
Therefore I commended mirth, because there was no good for a man under the sun, but to eat, and drink, and be merry, and that he should take nothing else with him of his labour in the days of his life, which God hath given him under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 9:7
Go then, and eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with gladness: because thy works please God.

Isaiah 56:12
Come, let us take wine, and be filled with drunkenness: and it shall be as to day, so also to morrow, and much more.

Ecclesiastes 2:23
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