Ecclesiastes Chapter Five, When Greed Runs Rampant

Ecclesiastes 5:11 When goods increase, they increase who eat them; so what profit have the owners except to see them with their eyes?

The NIV renders this verse, “As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owners except to feast their eyes on them?” The Tanakh reads, “As his substance increases, so do those who consume it; what, then, does the success of its owner amount to except feasting his eyes?”

The idea seems to be not actual food or crops, but just an increase in products in general. Commercialism seems to be implied here: or marketing commodities that have little to no genuine benefit to the buyer. Our society is inundated with flashy images of seemingly endless products and services peddled to our basest lusts, demanding that we need whatever item in question is being presented. This verse is a perfect successor to verse 10, since it embodies the ideology that ensnared the rich man that increases his substance. Perhaps this is the same rich man from Ecclesiastes 4:8 who labors day and night to obtain wealth. Why? To buy stuff. Perhaps necessities, yes. But that and more.

The “eating” being done is commercial consumption. Supply or output increases when demand swells. Then the preacher wonders to his readership how the buyer is benefited, since what they purchased is but a feast to the eyes? In other words, he circles back around and states that this is essentially money wasted from his perspective, buying things to look at, or perhaps buying things for others to look at and envy him for. When a man buys a Jaguar, which retails currently for $60-70,000, he is buying a status symbol. He’s driving his wealth around and advertising to others that he is opulent enough to afford such a vehicle.

The preacher provokes sober reflection on our buying habits. What is necessary, and what is extravagant? What is needed income, and what is greedy excess? When does someone toil to their own hurt, and when does “consuming” products become wasteful and perhaps even sinful? When someone watches a new program on TV or in theatres it is called consuming media. The viewer consumes it with their eyes, so to speak. I suppose the same may be said of the written word. We devour that which we find satisfying. And perhaps we glut ourselves with an excess of things or stuff that only please the eyes and serve utterly no practical purpose. This is the heart of the preacher’s question in the latter portion of the verse: you may now own whatever shiny thing caught your eye, but what does that benefit you? A simple definition of “benefit” would be a profit or advantage because of something. In light of this definition, commercial consumption seems to grossly outstrip necessity or profitability. If we are, as a culture, awash in some product (even alcohol, pornography, drugs, etc.) it is because we have asked for it. The law of supply and demand is more ancient than the preacher’s time. He is merely pointing it out as a daily vanity he has observed. And having seen it, he wonders why so many indulge it. Of course, not even the preacher was immune. His works, as he stated himself, were great, Ecclesiastes 2:4-9.

Jesus warned us, “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions,” Luke 12:15, NIV. Again, time after time, the preacher cautions, either subtly or much less so that if life has relevance or meaning, it is not found in material acquisition. Despite the fact that he boasted in material acquisition on a scale most can only dream of, he holds it in extremely low esteem. It feeds the eyes, which, as we have been informed, are never satisfied with what they see, Ecclesiastes 1:8. This implies that, rather than satisfying our material urges, gaining more and more incites and inflames it. Like fuel on a fire, it increases our desire to further acquire. We may again refer to the rich man working to earn for no beneficial reason, Ecclesiastes 4:8. Out of the very passage cited above Jesus expounds on the rich man who builds with the sole purpose of hoarding his wealth for the sake of keeping it in perpetuity, Luke 12:16-21. Both men succumbed to what the Apostle John called the “lust of the eyes,” 1 John 2:16. Eve likewise succumbed to said lust when she looked on the