Ecclesiastes 3:13 Cross References

Ecclesiastes 3:13

13: And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.

So I decided there is nothing better than to enjoy food and drink and to find satisfaction in work. Then I realized that this pleasure is from the hand of God.

So go ahead. Eat your food and drink your wine with a happy heart, for God approves of this!

You will enjoy the fruit of your labor. How happy you will be! How rich your life!

In those days, people will live in the houses they build and eat the fruit of their own vineyards.
It will not be like the past, when invaders took the houses and confiscated the vineyards. For my people will live as long as trees and will have time to enjoy their hard-won gains.
They will not work in vain, and their children will not be doomed to misfortune. For they are people blessed by the LORD, and their children, too, will be blessed.

Even so, I have noticed one thing, at least, that is good. It is good for people to eat well, drink a good glass of wine, and enjoy their work--whatever they do under the sun--for however long God lets them live.
And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life--that is indeed a gift from God.
People who do this rarely look with sorrow on the past, for God has given them reasons for joy.

"You will be engaged to a woman, but another man will ravish her. You will build a house, but someone else will live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will never enjoy its fruit.
Your ox will be butchered before your eyes, but you won't get a single bite of the meat. Your donkey will be driven away, never to be returned. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will be there to help you.

Because you have not served the LORD your God with joy and enthusiasm for the abundant benefits you have received,
you will serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you. You will be left hungry, thirsty, naked, and lacking in everything. They will oppress you harshly until you are destroyed.

Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, marauders from Midian, Amalek, and the people of the east would attack Israel,
camping in the land and destroying crops as far away as Gaza. They left the Israelites with nothing to eat, taking all the sheep, oxen, and donkeys.
These enemy hordes, coming with their cattle and tents as thick as locusts, arrived on droves of camels too numerous to count. And they stayed until the land was stripped bare.
So Israel was reduced to starvation by the Midianites. Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD for help.

God gives great wealth and honor to some people and gives them everything they could ever want, but then he doesn't give them the health to enjoy it. They die, and others get it all! This is meaningless--a sickening tragedy.

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