Ecclesiastes 5:17 {16}
Good News Translation
We get to live our lives in darkness and grief, worried, angry, and sick.

New Revised Standard Version
Besides, all their days they eat in darkness, in much vexation and sickness and resentment.

Contemporary English Version
Besides all this, they are always gloomy at mealtime, and they are troubled, sick, and bitter.

New American Bible
All their days they eat in gloom with great vexation, sickness and resentment.

Douay-Rheims Bible
All the days of his life he eateth in darkness, and in many cares, and in misery, and sorrow.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

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

he eateth

Genesis 3:17 And to Adam he said: Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee, that thou shouldst not eat, cursed is the earth in thy work: with labour and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life.

1 Kings 17:12 And she answered: As the Lord thy God liveth, I have no bread, but only a handful of meal in a pot, and a little oil in a cruise: behold I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it, for me and my son, that we may eat it and die.

Job 21:25 But another dieth in bitterness of soul without any riches:

Psalm 78:33 And their days were consumed in vanity, and their years in haste.

Psalm 102:9 For I did eat ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping.

Psalm 127:2 It is vain for you to rise before light, rise ye after you have sitten, you that eat the bread of sorrow. When he shall give sleep to his beloved,

Ezekiel 4:16,17 And he said to me: Son of man: Behold, I will break in pieces the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care: and they shall drink water by measure, and in distress. . . .

much

2 Kings 1:2,6 And Ochozias fell through the lattices of his upper chamber, which he had in Samaria, and was sick: and he sent messengers, saying to them: Go, consult Beelzebub, the god of Accaron, whether I shall recover of this my illness. . . .

2 Kings 5:27 But the leprosy of Naaman, shall also stick to thee, and to thy seed for ever. And he went out from him a leper, as white as snow.

2 Chronicles 16:10-12 And Asa was angry with the seer, and commanded him to be put in prison: for he was greatly enraged because of this thing: and he put to death many of the people at that time. . . .

2 Chronicles 24:24,25 And whereas there came a very small number of the Syrians, the Lord delivered into their hands an infinite multitude, because they had forsaken the Lord the God of their fathers: and on Joas they executed shameful judgments. . . .

Psalm 90:7-11 For in thy wrath we have fainted away: and are troubled in thy indignation. . . .

Proverbs 1:27-29 Then shall they call upon me, and I will not hear: they shall rise in the morning, and shall not find me: . . .

Acts 12:23 And forthwith an angel of the Lord struck him, because he had not given the honour to God: and, being eaten up by worms, he gave up the ghost.

1 Corinthians 11:30-32 Therefore are there many infirm and weak among you: and many sleep. . . .

Context
The Futility of Wealth
16A most deplorable evil: as he came, so shall he return. What then doth it profit him that he hath laboured for the wind? 17All the days of his life he eateth in darkness, and in many cares, and in misery, and sorrow.18This 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.…
Cross References
Psalm 39:6
Surely man passeth as an image: yea, and he is disquieted in vain. He storeth up: and he knoweth not for whom he shall gather these things.

Psalm 127:2
It is vain for you to rise before light, rise ye after you have sitten, you that eat the bread of sorrow. When he shall give sleep to his beloved,

Ecclesiastes 2:23
All his days are full of sorrows and miseries, even in the night he doth not rest in mind: and is not this vanity?

Ecclesiastes 5:16
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