What Does Ecclesiastes 2:6 Mean in the King James?

I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees:

Ecclesiastes 2:6 · KJV

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 pools store what growth needs, but the forest remains a living thing that sprouts.

THE MEANING

You can make a place that holds what life needs, then direct it toward what you hope to see grow. But a reservoir is not a forest: growth remains a living unfolding, not a finished possession. The verse keeps both acts in view, your making and life’s sprouting.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It loosens the belief that building the means for growth gives you ownership of the growth itself.

THE ROOT

לְהַשְׁקוֹת

lehashqot

GROWS FROM

שקה

to give drink; to water

“to water” in this verse is lehashqot. The pools matter because they pass what they hold to living growth. This root also names the cupbearer, so nourishment is pictured as water delivered to a recipient, not simply possessed.

ALSO GROWS

hishqah: he gave drink; he watered

הִשְׁקָה

This form makes the root’s central movement clear: water reaches another living thing.

mashqeh: cupbearer; one who serves drink

מַשְׁקֶה

The cupbearer is named by the act of bringing drink, just as the pools serve by sending water toward what grows.

צֹמֵחַ

tsomeach

GROWS FROM

צמח

to sprout, grow, spring forth

The English phrase “bringeth forth trees” can make the wood sound like a finished source of timber; the Hebrew instead pictures a forest sprouting trees. Water meets an ongoing emergence: what grows is alive, not merely stored or possessed.

ALSO GROWS

tsemach: sprout, shoot, branch

צֶמַח

A shoot is growth in its first visible form, echoing the trees actively sprouting in the forest.

vayyatsmach: and he caused to grow

וַיַּצְמַח

The same root describes trees being caused to grow in Genesis 2:9, linking this watered forest to growth as a living process.

THE PATTERN

Life grows through provision that reaches it, while provision and growth remain distinct acts.

And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

Genesis 2:10 · KJVThe garden receives water through a river that flows out to reach it, the same act of watering named here.

And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

Psalm 1:3 · KJVThe tree bears fruit and keeps its leaf through life rooted beside water, showing growth as sustained over time.

I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.

1 Corinthians 3:6 · KJVPlanting and watering are real acts, yet increase remains distinct from the work that tends it.

THE THREAD

And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

Genesis 2:10 · KJV

Both verses use ⁨לְהַשְׁקוֹת⁩ (lehashqot, “to water, to give drink”), joining the garden’s river to the pools made here. One image is a flowing river and the other constructed pools, but both name water by what it does: it reaches what grows.

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