"10 He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. 11 When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes? 12 Sweet is the sleep of a labourer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.
13 There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owner to his hurt, 14 and those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he is father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand. 15 As he came from his mother's womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand. 16 This also is a grievous evil: just as he came, so shall he go, and what gain is there to him who toils for the wind? 17 Moreover, all his days he eats in darkness in much vexation and sickness and anger.
18 Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. 19 Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God. 20 For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart."
Ecclesiastes 5:10-20
There is a certain whimsical humour in the contrast presented in these verses between the rich and the poor in 11 and 12. The possession of wealth, we are told, can often be a dubious blessing, for wealth brings all sorts of worries with it, and responsibilities too that may prove more than irksome. The business executive is open to far greater stress than the labouring man, and much more liable to stress illnesses. It is the labourer who sleeps the sleep of sweet content, little though he may have of this world's goods; it is the businessman who lies awake at night worrying himself to death about financial issues. Another of the dangers in amassing wealth is dealt with in 13ff, that of becoming a miser and here the whimsical note takes a sharper and more devastating edge as the falsity and the sad foolishness of hoarding wealth for its own sake is mercilessly exposed. The story is told about a simple man who went to a very rich miser and begged him to show him his hoards of gold. Rather unwillingly the miser displayed them and the simple man said, 'Thank you very much. Now I am as rich as you are'. The miser looked at him pityingly, saying, 'What makes you say that?', to which the simple man replied, 'Well, all you do is look at it, and now that I have looked at it too, I am as rich as you are'. He had a point, to be sure; for the miser had little joy of his riches if, as 17 seems to indicate, he economised even on the cost of providing light in his home. He was a sick man indeed!