Ecclesiastes 2:25

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible

For who could eat and who could enjoy, so well as I?

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
because who can eat and who can enjoy life apart from him?

Hebrew Names Version
For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I?

King James Version
For who can eat, or who else can hasten hereunto, more than I?

English Standard Version
for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?

New American Standard Bible
For who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him?

New Century Version
because no one can eat or enjoy life without him.

Amplified Bible
For who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him?

World English Bible
For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I?

Geneva Bible (1587)
For who could eate, and who could haste to outward things more then I?

Legacy Standard Bible
For who can eat and who can have enjoyment outside of Him?

Berean Standard Bible
For apart from Him, who can eat and who can find enjoyment?

Contemporary English Version
and no one enjoys eating and living more than I do.

Complete Jewish Bible
For who will eat and who will enjoy except me?

Darby Translation
For who can eat, or who be eager, more than I?

George Lamsa Translation
For who can eat or who can drink except he?

Good News Translation
How else could you have anything to eat or enjoy yourself at all?

Lexham English Bible
For who can eat and drink, and who can enjoy life apart from him?

Literal Translation
For who can eat, or who can enjoy, apart from me?

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For who maye eate, drynke, or brynge eny thige to passe without him? And why?

American Standard Version
For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I?

Bible in Basic English
Who may take food or have pleasure without him?

JPS Old Testament (1917)
For who will eat, or who will enjoy, if not I?

King James Version (1611)
For who can eate? or who else can hasten hereunto more then I?

Bishop's Bible (1568)
For who wyll eate or go more lustyly to his worke then I?

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
For who shall eat, or who shall drink, without him?

English Revised Version
For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I?

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Who schal deuoure so, and schal flowe in delicis, as Y dide?

Update Bible Version
For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I?

Webster's Bible Translation
For who can eat, or who else can hasten [to it] more than I?

New English Translation
For no one can eat and drink or experience joy apart from him.

New King James Version
For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I? [fn]

New Living Translation
For who can eat or enjoy anything apart from him?

New Life Bible
For who can eat and who can find joy without Him?

New Revised Standard
for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?

Douay-Rheims Bible
Who shall so feast and abound with delights as I?

Revised Standard Version
for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?

Young's Literal Translation
For who eateth and who hasteth out more than I?

New American Standard Bible (1995)
For who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him?

Contextual Overview

¹⁷ Therefore I hated life, for, a vexation unto me, was the work which was done under the sun, - for, all, was vanity, and a feeding on wind. ¹⁸ Therefore hated, I, all my toil, wherein I was toiling, under the sun, - in that I should leave it for the man who should come after me; ¹⁹ and who could know whether a, wise man, he would be or a foolish, and yet he would lord it over all my toil, wherein I had toiled and wherein I had acted wisely, under the sun, - even this, was vanity. ²⁰ Then resolved I, to give my heart over to despair, - concerning all the toil, wherein I had toiled, under the sun. ²¹ For here is a man, whose toil hath been with wisdom and with knowledge and with skill, - yet, to a man who hath not toiled therein, shall he leave it as his portion, even this, was vanity and a great vexation. ²² For what hath the man for all his toil, and for the striving of his heart, - wherein, he himself, toiled under the sun? ²³ For, all his days, are pains, and, vexatious, is his employment, even in the night, his heart lieth not down, - even this, was, vanity. ²⁴ There was nothing more blessed for Man than that he should eat and drink, and see his desireth for blessedness in his toil, - even this, saw, I myself, that, from the hand of God, it was. ²⁵ For who could eat and who could enjoy, so well as I? ²⁶ For, to a man who is good before him, hath he given wisdom and knowledge and gladness, - whereas, to the sinner, he hath given employment, to gather and heap up, to give to one who is good before God, even this, was vanity, and a feeding on wind.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

who can: Ecclesiastes 2:1-12, 1 Kings 4:21-24

Reciprocal: Genesis 48:15 - fed me Ecclesiastes 2:12 - I turned 1 Corinthians 7:31 - use

Cross-References

Genesis 2:10
Now, a river, was coming forth out of Eden, to water the garden, - and, from thence, it parted, and became four heads,

Genesis 2:11
The name of the one, is Pishon, - the same, is that which surroundeth all the land of Havilah, where is gold;

Genesis 3:7
Then were opened the eyes of them both, and they knew that, naked, they were, - so they tacked together fig-leaves, and made for themselves girdles,

Exodus 32:25
And Moses saw the people, that unbridled, they were, - for Aaron had given them the rein, for a whispering, among their enemies.

Psalms 25:3
Yea let, none who wait for thee, be put to shame, Let them be put to shame who act covertly without cause!

Psalms 31:17
O Yahweh! let me not be ashamed, For I have called upon thee, Let the lawless ha ashamed, go down in silence to hades!

Isaiah 44:9
The fashioners of an image - all of them, are emptiness, And, the things they delight in, cannot profit, - And, their, witnesses, they, neither see nor know, That they may be ashamed.

Isaiah 47:3
Bared shall be thy shame, Yea seen thy reproach, - An avenging, will I take, And will accept no son of earth.

Isaiah 54:4
Do not fear for thou shalt not turn pale, Neither feel disgraced for thou shalt not be put to the blush, - For, the shame of thy youth, shalt thou forget, And the reproach of thy widowhood, shalt thou remember no more;

Jeremiah 6:15
Were they led to turn pale because an abominable thing, they had done! Nay! they did not, at all turn pale, Nay! they did not so much as know how, to exhibit shame, Therefore, shall they fall among them who are falling, In the time when I punish them, shall they be overthrown, Saith Yahweh.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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 Ecclesiastes 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. Elias says c, there are some that so interpret it here, "who has [his] sense better than I?" a quicker sense, particularly of smelling and tasting what be eats, in which lies much of the pleasure of eating; and this is of God; which interpretation is not to be despised. Or, "who can prepare?" according to the Arabic sense of the word d; that is, a better table than I? No man had a greater affluence of good things than Solomon, or had a greater variety of eatables and drinkables; or had it in the power of his hands to live well, and cause his soul to enjoy good; or was more desirous to partake of pleasure, and hasten more to make the experiment of it in a proper manner; and yet he found, that a heart to do this was from the Lord; that this was a gift of his; and that though he abounded in the blessings of life, yet if God had not given him a heart to use them, he never should have really enjoyed them.

c In Tishbi, p. 109. d Vid. Rambachium in loc.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Solomon having found that wisdom and folly agree in being subject to vanity, now contrasts one with the other Ecclesiastes 2:13. Both are brought under vanity by events Ecclesiastes 2:14 which come on the wise man and the feel alike from without - death and oblivion Ecclesiastes 2:16, uncertainty Ecclesiastes 2:19, disappointment Ecclesiastes 2:21 - all happening by an external law beyond human control. Amidst this vanity, the good (see Ecclesiastes 2:10 note) that accrues to man, is the pleasure felt Ecclesiastes 2:24-26 in receiving God’s gifts, and in working with and for them.

Ecclesiastes 2:12

What can the man do ... - i. e., “What is any man - in this study of wisdom and folly - after one like me, who, from my position, have had such special advantages (see Ecclesiastes 1:16, and compare Ecclesiastes 2:25) for carrying it on? That which man did of old he can but do again: he is not likely to add to the result of my researches, nor even to equal them.” Some hold that the “man” is a reference to Solomon’s successor - not in his inquiries, but in his kingdom, i. e., Jeroboam.

Ecclesiastes 2:14

Event - Or, “hap” Ruth 2:3. The verb from which it is derived seems in this book to refer especially to death. The word does not mean chance (compare Ecclesiastes 9:1-2), independent of the ordering of Divine Providence: the Gentile notion of “mere chance,” or “blind fate,” is never once contemplated by the writer of this book, and it would be inconsistent with his tenets of the unlimited power and activity of God.

Ecclesiastes 2:16

Seeing that ... - Compare Ecclesiastes 1:11. Some render, “as in time past, so in days to come, all will be forgotten;” others, “because in the days to come all will have been long before forgotten.”

Ecclesiastes 2:17

I hated life - Compare this expression, extorted from Solomon by the perception of the vanity of his wisdom and greatness, with Romans 8:22-23. The words of Moses Numbers 11:15, and of Job Job 3:21; Job 6:9, are scarcely less forcible. With some people, this feeling is a powerful motive to conversion Luke 14:26.

Ecclesiastes 2:19

Labour - Compare Ecclesiastes 2:4-8.

Ecclesiastes 2:20

I went about - i. e., I turned from one course of action to another.

Ecclesiastes 2:23

Are sorrows ... grief - Rather, sorrows and grief are his toil. See Ecclesiastes 1:13.

Ecclesiastes 2:24

Nothing better for a man, than that ... - literally, no good in man that etc. The one joy of working or receiving, which, though it be transitory, a man recognizes as a real good, even that is not in the power of man to secure for himself: that good is the gift of God.

Ecclesiastes 2:26

The doctrine of retribution, or, the revealed fact that God is the moral Governor of the world, is here stated for the first time (compare Ecclesiastes 3:15, Ecclesiastes 3:17 ff) in this book.

This also is vanity - Not only the travail of the sinner. Even the best gifts of God, wisdom, knowledge, and joy, so far as they are given in this life, are not permanent, and are not always (see Ecclesiastes 9:11) efficacious for the purpose for which they appear to be given.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 25. For who can eat - more than I? — But instead of חוץ ממני chuts mimmenni, more than I; חוץ ממנו chuts mimmennu, without HIM, is the reading of eight of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., as also of the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic.

"For who maye eat, drynke, or bring enythinge to pass without him?" - COVERDALE.

I believe this to be the true reading. No one can have a true relish of the comforts of life without the Divine blessing. This reading connects all the sentences: "This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God;-for who can eat, and who can relish without HIM? For God giveth to man that is good." It is through his liberality that we have any thing to eat or drink; and it is only through his blessing that we can derive good from the use of what we possess.