Ecclesiastes 5:14

Hebrew Bible

12 The sleep of the laborer is pleasant—whether he eats little or much—but the wealth of the rich will not allow him to sleep. 13 Here is a misfortune on earth that I have seen: Wealth hoarded by its owner to his own misery. 14 Then that wealth was lost through bad luck; although he fathered a son, he has nothing left to give him. 15 Just as he came forth from his mother’s womb, naked will he return as he came, and he will take nothing in his hand that he may carry away from his toil. 16 This is another misfortune: Just as he came, so will he go. What did he gain from toiling for the wind?

1 Timothy 6:7

New Testament

5 and constant bickering by people corrupted in their minds and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a way of making a profit. 6 Now godliness combined with contentment brings great profit. 7 For we have brought nothing into this world and so we cannot take a single thing out either. 8 But if we have food and shelter, we will be satisfied with that. 9 Those who long to be rich, however, stumble into temptation and a trap and many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

 Notes and References

"... On the relation of [1 Timothy 6:7] to what has gone before, compare the first similitude in the Shepherd of Hermas, which is full of ideas taken from popular philosophy ... The thought expressed in this verse occurs only late in Greek literature, though perhaps as traditional material. But it is also found in Jewish literature, and in Hellenistic Jewish writings. Naturally there are also parallels outside the circle of Jewish and Greco-Roman literature ..."

Dibelius, Martin, and Hans Conzelmann The Pastoral Epistles (pp. 84-85) Fortress Press, 1972

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