Ecclesiastes 5:13

Hoarding Wealth Can Backfire

¹² The sleep of the working man is pleasant, whether he eats little or much; but the full stomach of the rich man does not allow him to sleep. ¹³ There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches being hoarded by their owner to his hurt. ¹⁴ When those riches were lost through a bad investment and he had fathered a son, then there was nothing to support him.

In the World

On Earth

Under the Sun

Ecclesiastes 6:1-2

There is an evil which I have seen under the sun and it is prevalent among men—

Genesis 13:5-11

Now Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents.

Genesis 14:16

He brought back all the goods, and also brought back his relative Lot with his possessions, and also the women, and the people.

Genesis 19:14

Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, and said, “Up, get out of this place, for the Lord will destroy the city.” But he appeared to his sons-in-law to be jesting.

Genesis 19:26

But his wife, from behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

Genesis 19:31-38

Then the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of the earth.

Proverbs 1:11-13

If they say, “Come with us,
Let us lie in wait for blood,
Let us ambush the innocent without cause;

Proverbs 1:19

So are the ways of everyone who gains by violence;
It takes away the life of its possessors.

Proverbs 1:32

“For the waywardness of the naive will kill them,
And the complacency of fools will destroy them.

Proverbs 11:4

Riches do not profit in the day of wrath,
But righteousness delivers from death.

Proverbs 11:24-25

There is one who scatters, and yet increases all the more,
And there is one who withholds what is justly due, and yet it results only in want.

Ecclesiastes 4:8

There was a certain man without a dependent, having neither a son nor a brother, yet there was no end to all his labor. Indeed, his eyes were not satisfied with riches and he never asked, “And for whom am I laboring and depriving myself of pleasure?” This too is vanity and it is a grievous task.

Ecclesiastes 8:9

All this I have seen and applied my mind to every deed that has been done under the sun wherein a man has exercised authority over another man to his hurt.

Isaiah 32:6-8

For a fool speaks nonsense,
And his heart inclines toward wickedness:
To practice ungodliness and to speak error against the Lord,
To keep the hungry person unsatisfied
And to withhold drink from the thirsty.

Zephaniah 1:18

Neither their silver nor their gold
Will be able to deliver them
On the day of the Lord’s wrath;
And all the earth will be devoured
In the fire of His jealousy,
For He will make a complete end,
Indeed a terrifying one,
Of all the inhabitants of the earth.

Luke 12:16-21

And He told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man was very productive.

Luke 16:1-13

Now He was also saying to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and this manager was reported to him as squandering his possessions.

Luke 16:19

“Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day.

Luke 16:22-23

Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried.

Luke 18:22-23

When Jesus heard this, He said to him, “One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

Isaiah 2:20

In that day men will cast away to the moles and the bats
Their idols of silver and their idols of gold,
Which they made for themselves to worship,

Luke 19:8

Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.”

1 Timothy 6:9-10

But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.

James 2:5-7

Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?

James 5:1-4

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you.