Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ecclesiastes 5:11

When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good [is there] to the owners thereof, saving the beholding [of them] with their eyes?

11. When goods increase, they are increased that eat them ] The fact is one which has met the gaze of the moralists of all countries. A large household, numerous retainers, these are but so many elements of trouble. In the dialogue of Crsus and Solon (Herod. i. 32), yet more closely in that of Pheraulas and Sacian (quoted by Ginsburg) in Xenophon ( Cyrop. viii. 3, pp. 35 44), we have distinct parallels. The latter presents so striking a resemblance as to be worth quoting, “Do you think, Sacian, that I live with the more pleasure the more I possess. By having this abundance, I gain merely this, that I have to guard more, to distribute more to others, and to have the trouble of taking care of more; for a great many domestics now demand of me their food, their drink, and their clothes Whosoever, therefore, is greatly pleased with the possession of riches will, be assured, feel much annoyed at the expenditure of them.”

saving the beholding of them with their eyes ] So Horace paints the miser:

“Congestis undique saccis

Indormis inhians, et tanquam parcere sacris

Cogeris, aut pictis tanquam gaudere tabellis.”

“Sleepless thou gazest on thy heaped-up bags,

And yet art forced to hold thy hand from them,

As though they were too sacred to be touched,

Or were but painted pictures for thine eyes.”

Sat. i. 1. 66.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

They … that eat them – i. e., The laborers employed, and the household servants.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 11. When goods increase] An increase of property always brings an increase of expense, by a multitude of servants; and the owner really possesses no more, and probably enjoys much less, than he did, when every day provided its own bread, and could lay up no store for the next. But if he have more enjoyment, his cares are multiplied; and he has no kind of profit. “This also is vanity.”

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

They are increased that eat them; they require and are more commonly attended with a numerous company of servants, and friends, and retinues to consume them; which is a great torment to a covetous man, of whom he here speaks.

What good is there to the owners thereof? what benefit hath he above others, who feed upon his provisions, and enjoy the same comforts which he doth, without his fears, and cares, and troubles about them?

The beholding of them with their eyes; either,

1. With a reflection upon his propriety.in them. Or,

2. With unlimited freedom. He can go and look upon his bags or chests of silver as long and as oft as he pleaseth, whereas other men are seldom admitted to that prospect, and see only some few of the fruits or purchases of it.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

11. they . . . that eat themtherich man’s dependents (Ps 23:5).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

When goods increase, they are increased that eat them,…. When a man’s substance increases by trade, or otherwise, very often so it is that his family increases, and he has more mouths to feed, and backs to clothe; or his estate growing larger, if he lives suitably to it, he must keep more servants; and these, as they have but little work to do, are described by their eating, rather than by their working; and besides, such a growing man in the world has more friends and visitors that come about him, and eat with him, as well as the poor, which wait upon him to receive his alms: and if his farms, and his fields, and his flocks, are enlarged, he must have more husbandmen, and labourers, and shepherds to look after them, who all must be maintained. So Pheraulas in Xenophon h observes,

“that now he was possessed of much, that he neither ate, nor drank, nor slept the sweeter for it; what he got by his plenty was, that he had more committed to his keeping, and more to distribute to others; he had more care and more business, with trouble; for now, says he, many servants require food of me, many drink, many clothing, some need physicians, c. it must needs be, adds he, that they that possess much must spend much on the gods, on friends, and on guests”

and what good [is there] to the owners thereof, saving the beholding [of them] with their eyes? he can go into his grounds, his fields, and his meadows to behold his flocks and his herds, and can say, all these are mine; he can go into his chambers and open his treasures, and feed his eyes with looking upon his bags of gold and silver, his jewels, and other riches; he can behold a multitude of people at his table, eating at his expense, and more maintained at his cost: and, if a liberal man, it may be a pleasure to him; if otherwise, it will give him pain: and, excepting these, he enjoys no more than food and raiment; and often so it is, that even his very servants have in some things the advantage of him, as follows. The Targum is,

“what profit is there to the owner thereof who gathers it, unless he does good with it, that he may see the gift of the reward with his eyes in the world to come?”

Jarchi interprets it after this manner,

“when men bring many freewill offerings, the priests are increased that eat them; and what good is to the owner of them, the Lord, but the sight of his eyes, who says, and his will is done?”

h Cyropaedia, l. 8. c. 26.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

“When property and goods increase, they become many who consume them; and what advantage hath the owner thereof but the sight of them with his eyes?” The verb signifies to increase, the , to be many; but also (which Bttch. denies) inchoatively: to become many, Gen 6:1; rightly, the lxx, . The author has not a miser in view, who shuts up his money in chests, and only feeds himself in looking at it with closed doors; but a covetous man, of the sort spoken of in Psa 49:12; Isa 5:8. If the hattovah , the possession of such an one, increases, in like manner the number of people whom he must maintain increases also, and thus the number of those who eat of it along with him, and at the same time also his disquiet and care, increase; and what advantage, what useful result ( vid., regarding Kishron , above, p. 638, and under Ecc 2:21) has the owner of these good things from them but the beholding of them ( reith ; Ker , reuth ; cf. the reverse case, Psa 126:4)? – the possession does not in itself bring happiness, for it is never great enough to satisfy him, but is yet great enough to fill him with great care as to whether he may be able to support the demands of so great a household: the fortune which it brings to him consists finally only in this, that he can look on all he has accumulated with proud self-complacency.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

Ecc 5:11 When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good [is there] to the owners thereof, saving the beholding [of them] with their eyes?

Ver. 11. When goods increase, they are increased that eat them. ] Servants, friends, flatterers, trencher men, pensioners, and other hangerons that will flock to a rich man, as crows do to a dead carcase, not to defend, but to devour it. Caesar perished in the midst of his friends, whose boundless hopes and expectations he was not able to satisfy. The King of Spain, were it not for the West India fleet, were never able to subsist, though he be by far the greatest prince in Christendom, gives for his motto, Totus non sufficit orbis, and hath his empire so far extended that he may truly say, Sol mihi semper lucet, The sun ever shines upon my dominions. a The Duke of Bavaria’s house is so pestered with friars and Jesuits that, notwithstanding the greatness of his revenue, he is very poor, as spending all his estate on those Popish flesh flies, those inutiles et ribaldi (Lyra’s words upon this text), useless, needless, ribaldry fellows. b

Saving the beholding of them with his eyes. ] To such a large retinue, such a numerous family; as Job, who had a very great household, Job 1:3 and Abraham, who had a trained hand in his family, but especially as Solomon, who had thousands of servants and work folk. Whereunto I may add Cardinal Wolsey’s pompous family, consisting of one earl, nine barons, knights and esquires very many, chaplains and other servants, besides retainers, at bed and board, no fewer than four hundred. Or, to see so much wealth, and to tumble in it; as Caligula the emperor was wont to do, contrectandae pecuniae cupidine incensus, loving to handle his money, to walk upon it with his bare feet, and to roll among it with his whole body, as Suetonins relateth. c The like is reported of Heliogabalus, who also, besides what he did eat, is said to have provided himself, in case he should be in danger to be surprised by his enemies, silken halters to hang himself with, ponds of sweet water to drown himself, gilded poisons to poison himself with, &c.

a Camden.

b Heylin.

c Toto corpore aliquandiu volutatus. – Sueton.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)