Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Ecclesiastes 5:13 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 13. 13There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse announces the severe evil of riches kept to their owner's hurt.
Read It With
- Ecclesiastes 5:13-17
Read Ecclesiastes 5:13 with 5:13-17. This verse announces the severe evil of riches kept to their owner's hurt. The full unit establishes this movement: Wealth can be kept to an owner's harm, vanish through a bad venture, leave an heir empty, and accompany no one through death, while the life spent guarding it becomes darkness and grief.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The case intensifies dissatisfaction into loss and mortality, preparing enjoyment as a present capacity rather than possession itself. Within that movement, this verse announces the severe evil of riches kept to their owner's hurt.
Follow the Context
- Hoarded riches harm their owner.
- A bad venture destroys the wealth and leaves a child nothing.
- The owner departs naked as at birth.
- No labor can be carried away in the hand.
- Wind-labor, darkness, sorrow, sickness, and anger describe the wasted life.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt”
In plain language: Guarded wealth that injures the person it is meant to secure.
announces the severe evil of riches kept to their owner's hurt. Accumulation can become actively harmful rather than merely insufficient.
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 verse does not condemn prudent emergency reserves or provision for dependents.
It does not justify seizing property without law and justice.
What Remains True
Accumulation can become actively harmful rather than merely insufficient.
How It Can Shape Life
- Review whether stored resources increase danger, anxiety, exploitation, or isolation.
Teach It Back
Explain Ecclesiastes 5:13's precise role in Ecclesiastes 5:13-17. 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 5:13-17 — Hoarded Wealth, Sudden Loss, and Naked DeathSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
The nature of the owner's harm is developed through loss and grief but not limited to one mechanism.
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 5:13-17, 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, 5:13-17
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. 1204, translation and notes on 5:13-17
Open source ↗