Ecclesiastes 5:18 {17}
Good News Translation
Here is what I have found out: the best thing we can do is eat and drink and enjoy what we have worked for during the short life that God has given us; this is our fate.

New Revised Standard Version
This is what I have seen to be good: it is fitting to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of the life God gives us; for this is our lot.

Contemporary English Version
What is the best thing to do in the short life God has given us? I think we should enjoy eating, drinking, and working hard. This is what God intends for us to do.

New American Bible
Here is what I see as good: It is appropriate to eat and drink and prosper from all the toil one toils at under the sun during the limited days of life God gives us; for this is our lot.

Douay-Rheims Bible
This therefore hath seemed good to me, that a man should eat and drink, and enjoy the fruit of his labour, wherewith he hath laboured under the sun, all the days of his life, which God hath given him: and this is his portion.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

This therefore hath seemed good to me, that a man should eat and drink, and enjoy the fruit of his labour, wherewith he hath laboured under the sun, all the days of his life, which God hath given him: and this is his portion.

it is good and comely

Ecclesiastes 2:24 Is it not better to eat and drink, and to shew his soul good things of his labours? and this is from the hand of God.

Ecclesiastes 3:12,13,22 And I have known that there was no better thing than to rejoice, and to do well in this life. . . .

Ecclesiastes 8:15 Therefore I commended mirth, because there was no good for a man under the sun, but to eat, and drink, and be merry, and that he should take nothing else with him of his labour in the days of his life, which God hath given him under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 9:7 Go then, and eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with gladness: because thy works please God.

Ecclesiastes 11:9 Rejoice therefore, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart be in that which is good in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thy eyes: and know that for all these God will bring thee into judgment.

1 Timothy 6:17 Charge the rich of this world not to be highminded nor to trust in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God (who giveth us abundantly all things to enjoy)

the days

Ecclesiastes 2:10 And whatsoever my eyes desired, I refused them not: and I withheld not my heart from enjoying every pleasure, and delighting itself in the things which I had prepared: and esteemed this my portion, to make use of my own labour.

Ecclesiastes 3:22 And I have found that nothing is better than for a man to rejoice in his work, and that this is his portion. For who shall bring him to know the things that shall be after him?

Jeremiah 52:34 And for his diet a continual provision was allowed him by the king of Babylon, every day a portion, until the day of his death, all the days of his life.

Context
The Futility of Wealth
17All the days of his life he eateth in darkness, and in many cares, and in misery, and sorrow. 18This therefore hath seemed good to me, that a man should eat and drink, and enjoy the fruit of his labour, wherewith he hath laboured under the sun, all the days of his life, which God hath given him: and this is his portion.19And every man to whom God hath given riches, and substance, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to enjoy his portion, and to rejoice of his labour: this is the gift of God.…
Cross References
1 Corinthians 16:16
That you also be subject to such and to every one that worketh with us and laboureth.

Deuteronomy 12:7
And you shall eat there in the sight of the Lord your God: and you shall rejoice in all things, whereunto you shall put your hand, you and your houses wherein the Lord your God hath blessed you.

Deuteronomy 12:18
But thou shalt eat them before the Lord thy God in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, thou and thy son and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and maidservant, and the Levite that dwelleth in thy cities: and thou shalt rejoice and be refreshed before the Lord thy God in all things, whereunto thou shalt put thy hand.

Deuteronomy 26:11
And thou shalt feast in all the good things which the Lord thy God hath given thee, and thy house, thou and the Levite, and the stranger that is with thee.

Psalm 42:8
In the daytime the Lord hath commanded his mercy; and a canticle to him in the night. With me is prayer to the God of my life.

Ecclesiastes 2:3
I thought in my heart, to withdraw my flesh from wine, that I might turn my mind to wisdom, and might avoid folly, till I might see what was profitable for the children of men: and what they ought to do under the sun, all the days of their life.

Ecclesiastes 2:10
And whatsoever my eyes desired, I refused them not: and I withheld not my heart from enjoying every pleasure, and delighting itself in the things which I had prepared: and esteemed this my portion, to make use of my own labour.

Ecclesiastes 2:24
Is it not better to eat and drink, and to shew his soul good things of his labours? and this is from the hand of God.

Ecclesiastes 8:15
Therefore I commended mirth, because there was no good for a man under the sun, but to eat, and drink, and be merry, and that he should take nothing else with him of his labour in the days of his life, which God hath given him under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 5:17
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