What Does Ecclesiastes 10:19 Mean in the King James?
A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry: but money answereth all things.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse’s sweeping claim about money is spoken through kesef, the same Hebrew root that forms a verb for longing, joining material answer and human desire in one sound.
THE MEANING
Your life holds shared pleasure and material power together: food makes room for laughter, wine gladdens life, and money answers practical demands. Each has a real place in the verse’s account of living.
THE ROOT
כֶּסֶף
kesef
GROWS FROM
כ־ס־ף
Silver or money; the same consonants also form a Hebrew verb meaning to long for or yearn.
The same consonants appear in נִכְסְפָה, “she yearned”; English keeps money and longing apart, while Hebrew lets their sound-shape meet. So the line’s claim about what money can answer sits beside the desire gathered around it.
ALSO GROWS
kesef: Silver; money.
כֶּסֶף
This is the word translated “money” in the verse, carrying the concrete image of silver.
nikhsefah: She longed for; she yearned.
נִכְסְפָה
This longing verb shares the consonantal root כספ, letting the verse’s word for money echo a word for desire.
יַעֲנֶה
yaʿaneh
GROWS FROM
ע־נ־ה
To answer or respond.
“answereth” in this verse is yaʿaneh. Money is cast as the reply that comes back to every demand. The verb gives the line a broad, practical force: material resources answer what life asks.
ALSO GROWS
ʿanah: To answer; to respond.
עָנָה
This is the verb root behind “answereth,” with the sense of replying to what is raised.
maʿaneh: An answer; a response.
מַעֲנֶה
This noun from the same root makes visible the reply contained in the verse’s verb.
THE PATTERN
Money has real power over practical needs, while Scripture keeps joy and life visible beyond what wealth can secure.
For wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence: but the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have it.And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;THE THREAD
He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.The word for “silver” there is again kesef, the same word translated “money” here. Ecclesiastes 10:19 names what money can answer; 5:10 shows that longing for silver remains unsatisfied.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us