Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Ecclesiastes 3:13 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 13. 13And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Ordinary provision and the capacity to receive it are gifts, not proof of superior merit.
Read It With
- Ecclesiastes 3:9-15
Read Ecclesiastes 3:13 with 3:9-15. This verse identifies eating, drinking, and seeing good in labor as God's gift to every person. The full unit establishes this movement: Humans receive work and awareness of a larger whole yet cannot discover God's work from beginning to end; their bounded good is joy, doing good, eating, drinking, and receiving labor as gift before God's enduring action.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The reflection interprets the poem: God grants tasks and a sense of the whole while withholding comprehensive mastery, so reverence and received good replace total explanation. Within that movement, this verse identifies eating, drinking, and seeing good in labor as God's gift to every person.
Follow the Context
- The profit question is restated.
- Human occupation is observed as God-given.
- God makes things fitting in time and places olam in the human heart.
- Humans cannot find the whole divine work.
- Joy, doing good, food, drink, and labor are gifts.
- God's enduring work evokes fear while past and future remain beyond control.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“gift of God”
In plain language: Provision and capacity received rather than manufactured as lasting profit.
identifies eating, drinking, and seeing good in labor as God's gift to every person. Ordinary provision and the capacity to receive it are gifts, not proof of superior merit.
Why it matters: The wording carries interpretive or ethical risk requiring the complete unit and stated limits.
How certain? probableWhat This Verse Is Not Saying
The gift statement does not promise equal circumstances or blame hungry people for failing to receive.
It does not justify exploitative labor because workers are told to enjoy their portion.
What Remains True
Ordinary provision and the capacity to receive it are gifts, not proof of superior merit.
How It Can Shape Life
- Support fair access to food, rest, and meaningful work instead of spiritualizing their absence.
Teach It Back
Explain Ecclesiastes 3:13's precise role in Ecclesiastes 3:9-15. Include the complete movement, one material uncertainty, and one conclusion the verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Ecclesiastes 3:9-15 — God's Fitting Work and the Human LimitSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
The universal wording names the human good without claiming every person presently experiences it.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed Scripture wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Exact location: Ecclesiastes 3:9-15, repository-pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Ecclesiastes
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology used for lexical, grammatical, repeated-word, and translation questions.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Eccl.xml, 3:9-15
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Ecclesiastes with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-level textual, grammatical, lexical, literary, and translation alternatives.
Exact location: NET Bible Ecclesiastes PDF, printed pp. 1197-1198, translation and notes on 3:9-15
Open source ↗