What Does Ecclesiastes 5:9 Mean in the King James?
Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served by the field.
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 king is sustained by the same field whose yield reaches everyone: power does not free anyone from dependence on the earth.
THE MEANING
The earth’s yield belongs to all, and even a king depends on what the field provides. The highest rank still receives what the soil and the work around it make possible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that power makes a person self-sufficient dissolves here: even a king is served by the field.
THE ROOT
נֶעֱבָד
neʿevad
GROWS FROM
עבד
ʿ-b-d
to work, labor, or serve
The king is described as being served by the field. The same root connects service with labor, tying his sustenance to the work that makes the land yield.
ALSO GROWS
ʿeved: servant
עֶבֶד
The word for a servant shares the root behind the king being served, linking rank and service in the verse.
ʿavodah: work, labor, or service
עֲבֹדָה
This branch brings the labor behind the field’s provision into view: the king’s support comes through work and service.
יִתְרוֹן
yitron
GROWS FROM
יתר
y-t-r
to remain, be left over, or exceed
The word translated “profit” carries the sense of what remains or exceeds. That shade makes the earth’s gain sound like its surplus, available across the community, including to the king.
ALSO GROWS
yeter: remainder or surplus
יֶתֶר
This related form makes the sense of what is left over audible within “profit.”
yoter: more or greater
יוֹתֵר
This branch echoes the root’s sense of exceeding, illuminating the earth’s capacity to provide beyond bare need.
THE PATTERN
The earth’s yield sustains life across every rank, while no one stands outside dependence on what is given.
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth;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
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.“Dress” translates עבד (ʿavad), meaning to work or serve, the same root behind the king being served by the field. The field sustains the king, while human life meets the field through work and care; the shared root links both sides of that exchange.
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