What Does Ecclesiastes 6:2 Mean in the King James?
A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it: this is vanity, and it is an evil disease.
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 separates abundance from mastery: having everything you desire does not mean you can partake of it.
THE MEANING
God gives a person riches, possessions, and honor, with none of the things their living self desires lacking, yet does not grant them mastery to eat any of it; a stranger consumes it. The verse calls this vanity and a grievous evil, holding the divide between possession and enjoyment in full view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that having everything you want guarantees you can enjoy it or keep it.
THE ROOT
יַשְׁלִיטֶנּוּ
yashlitenu
GROWS FROM
שלט
sh-l-t
Rule, hold sway, exercise mastery.
“power” in this verse is yashlitenu. The verb pictures being granted mastery over the goods, not simply having physical ability. The root names rule, so the verse exposes the gap between owning abundance and having authority to partake.
ALSO GROWS
shilton: Dominion, authority
שִׁלְטוֹן
This branch makes the sense of rule explicit: the missing gift is mastery over what the person possesses.
shalit: Ruler, one who holds authority
שַׁלִּיט
The verse’s verb belongs to the language of rule; the person has the goods but is not made their master.
לְנַפְשׁוֹ
lenafsho
GROWS FROM
נפש
n-p-sh
The living self or being; in use, a person and their appetite.
“soul” in this verse is lenafsho. Nefesh names the living self, with its appetite, rather than an abstract part detached from the person. Here that self lacks nothing it desires, yet still cannot partake of the goods, a desire fulfilled in possession but separated from enjoyment.
ALSO GROWS
nefesh ḥayyah: Living being, living soul
נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה
Genesis uses this phrase for a living creature; here nefesh likewise points to the whole living person whose desires are named.
nefesh re'evah: Hungry soul, hungry appetite
נֶפֶשׁ רְעֵבָה
This phrase in Psalm 107:9 shows nefesh in the language of appetite, illuminating the verse’s tension between desire and the inability to eat.
THE PATTERN
Possessions do not guarantee that their holder can partake of them or keep them from passing to another.
The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway:Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?THE THREAD
Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God.The Hebrew verb translated “power” in both verses comes from שלט (shalat), the root of rule and mastery. Ecclesiastes 5:19 calls the power to eat a gift of God, making its absence in 6:2 stark: riches and honor do not themselves grant mastery to partake.
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