What Does Ecclesiastes 5:18 Mean?
Look. What I have seen is good and fair to eat and to drink, and to see the good in all his toil under the sun, the number of the days of his life which God gives him, for it is his portion.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his portion.THE KEY
The Hebrew says “see good” where the KJV says “enjoy”: the portion God gives includes the good perceived within ordinary life.
THE MEANING
Your food and the good found in your labor belong to the life God gives you now. The verse locates your portion in the good you perceive and receive within your days.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the value of your days lies only in what you produce, while eating, drinking, and enjoyment are trivial extras.
THE ROOT
לִרְאוֹת
lir'ot from ra'ah
GROWS FROM
ראה
to see, perceive, regard
“What I have seen” in this verse is lir'ot from ra'ah. The Hebrew phrase is literally “to see good,” so enjoyment is described as a way of perceiving. Good is recognized within eating, drinking, and labor, not only in some distant reward.
ALSO GROWS
ro'eh: seer; one who sees
רֹאֶה
Enjoyment belongs to the same verbal family as seeing: the good is encountered, not only possessed.
mar'eh: appearance, sight, vision
מַרְאֶה
This branch carries seeing into what is perceived, echoing the verse’s language of seeing good within one’s days and labor.
חֶלְקוֹ
chelqo from cheleq
GROWS FROM
חלק
to divide, share, apportion
“his portion” in this verse is chelqo from cheleq. The word for “portion” carries the sense of an allotted share. The verse presents the good of daily life as a real share given to a person, rather than something that must be limitless to count as good.
ALSO GROWS
chalaq: to divide, share, apportion
חָלַק
The verb names the act behind a portion: a share is set apart for someone.
chelqah: a plot of land, an allotted field
חֶלְקָה
A portion can be a tangible parcel, giving the verse’s share a concrete sense of what falls to a person.
נָתַן
natan
GROWS FROM
נתן
to give, set, place
The verse names God as the one who gives this life and its portion. The root’s sense of setting or placing deepens the image: daily good is placed into a person’s days as a gift.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: gift
מַתָּנָה
This noun names what is given, echoing the verse’s description of life’s good as God’s gift.
natun: given, set, appointed
נָתוּן
This form shows the receiving side of the root: what is given is set into someone’s share.
THE PATTERN
Daily enjoyment of the good within labor is portrayed as part of God’s gift.
And also, every human eats and drinks, and sees good in all his toil. This is the giving of God.For you eat the weariness of your palms; flourishing is yours, and goodness is yours.Charge those who are rich in this age, that they not be lifted high in mind, nor set their hope on uncertain riches, but upon the living God, who holds out to us richly all things to feast on.THE THREAD
The LORD is the portion of my share and of my cup; you hold fast my lot.The same Hebrew word rendered “portion” here names what the psalmist says the LORD is. That makes the meal and the good of labor more than a wage: they are a received share within a life the LORD maintains.
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