Ecclesiastes 10:19
New International Version
A feast is made for laughter, wine makes life merry, and money is the answer for everything.

New Living Translation
A party gives laughter, wine gives happiness, and money gives everything!

English Standard Version
Bread is made for laughter, and wine gladdens life, and money answers everything.

Berean Standard Bible
A feast is prepared for laughter, and wine makes life merry, but money is the answer for everything.

King James Bible
A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry: but money answereth all things.

New King James Version
A feast is made for laughter, And wine makes merry; But money answers everything.

New American Standard Bible
People prepare a meal for enjoyment, wine makes life joyful, and money is the answer to everything.

NASB 1995
Men prepare a meal for enjoyment, and wine makes life merry, and money is the answer to everything.

NASB 1977
Men prepare a meal for enjoyment, and wine makes life merry, and money is the answer to everything.

Legacy Standard Bible
Men prepare bread for laughter, and wine makes life glad, and money is the answer to everything.

Amplified Bible
The officials make a feast for enjoyment [instead of repairing what is broken], and serve wine to make life merry, and money is the answer to everything.

Christian Standard Bible
A feast is prepared for laughter, and wine makes life happy, and money is the answer for everything.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
A feast is prepared for laughter, and wine makes life happy, and money is the answer for everything.

American Standard Version
A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh glad the life; and money answereth all things.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
For joy, bread and wine are made, and oil that gladdens life; and money humbles and seduces them in all things

Brenton Septuagint Translation
Men prepare bread for laughter, and wine and oil that the living should rejoice: but to money all things will humbly yield obedience.

Contemporary English Version
Eating and drinking make you feel happy, and money can buy everything you need.

Douay-Rheims Bible
For laughter they make bread, and wine that the living may feast: and all things obey money.

English Revised Version
A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh glad the life: and money answereth all things.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
A meal is made for laughter, and wine makes life pleasant, but money is the answer for everything.

Good News Translation
Feasting makes you happy and wine cheers you up, but you can't have either without money.

International Standard Version
Festivals are for laughter, wine makes life pleasant, and money speaks to everything.

JPS Tanakh 1917
A feast is made for laughter, And wine maketh glad the life; And money answereth all things.

Literal Standard Version
For mirth they are making a feast, | And wine makes life joyful, | And the silver answers with all.

Majority Standard Bible
A feast is prepared for laughter, and wine makes life merry, but money is the answer for everything.

New American Bible
A feast is made for merriment and wine gives joy to the living, but money answers for everything.

NET Bible
Feasts are made for laughter, and wine makes life merry, but money is the answer for everything.

New Revised Standard Version
Feasts are made for laughter; wine gladdens life, and money meets every need.

New Heart English Bible
A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes the life glad; and money is the answer for all things.

Webster's Bible Translation
A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry: but money answereth all things.

World English Bible
A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes the life glad; and money is the answer for all things.

Young's Literal Translation
For mirth they are making a feast, And wine maketh life joyful, And the silver answereth with all.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Wisdom and Folly
18Through laziness the roof caves in, and in the hands of the idle, the house leaks. 19A feast is prepared for laughter, and wine makes life merry, but money is the answer for everything. 20Do not curse the king even in your thoughts, or curse the rich even in your bedroom, for a bird of the air may carry your words, and a winged creature may report your speech.…

Cross References
Judges 9:13
But the grapevine replied, 'Should I stop giving my wine that cheers both God and man, to hold sway over the trees?'

Psalm 104:15
wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil that makes his face to shine, and bread that sustains his heart.

Ecclesiastes 2:3
I sought to cheer my body with wine and to embrace folly--my mind still guiding me with wisdom--until I could see what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives.

Ecclesiastes 7:12
For wisdom, like money, is a shelter, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of its owner.


Treasury of Scripture

A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes merry: but money answers all things.

feast

Ecclesiastes 2:1,2
I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity…

Ecclesiastes 7:2-6
It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart…

Genesis 43:34
And he took and sent messes unto them from before him: but Benjamin's mess was five times so much as any of theirs. And they drank, and were merry with him.

and wine

Ecclesiastes 9:7
Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.

Psalm 104:15
And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart.

Isaiah 24:11
There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.

Ecclesiastes 7:11,12
Wisdom is good with an inheritance: and by it there is profit to them that see the sun…

1 Chronicles 21:24
And king David said to Ornan, Nay; but I will verily buy it for the full price: for I will not take that which is thine for the LORD, nor offer burnt offerings without cost.

1 Chronicles 29:2
Now I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God the gold for things to be made of gold, and the silver for things of silver, and the brass for things of brass, the iron for things of iron, and wood for things of wood; onyx stones, and stones to be set, glistering stones, and of divers colours, and all manner of precious stones, and marble stones in abundance.

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Bread Enjoyment Feast Glad Gladdens Heart Joyful Laughter Makes Maketh Making Meal Merry Mirth Money Prepare Silver Wasted Wine
Ecclesiastes 10
1. observations of wisdom and folly
7. death in life
9. and the day of judgment in the days of youth, are to be thought on














(19) I look on these verses as isolated proverbs, and believe that the obvious meaning suggested by the English of this verse is the right one. Those who strive to trace a continuity of thought take Ecclesiastes 10:18 as a figurative description of the ruin of an ill-governed land; Ecclesiastes 10:19 as describing the riot of those rulers who make feasts for merriment, and have money freely at their disposal; and (Ecclesiastes 10:20) as a warning to the subjects to beware how, notwithstanding all this mis-government, they venture to rebel.

Verse 19. - A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry. Here is a cause of the decay spoken of above. The rulers spend in revelry and debauchery the time and energy which they ought to give to affairs of state. More literally, for merriment they make bread, and wine [that] cheereth life; i.e. they use God's good gifts of bread and wine as means of intemperance and thoughtless pleasure. So a psalmist speaks of wine as making glad the heart of man (Psalm 104:15); and Ben-Sira says, "Wine is as good as life to a man, if it be drunk moderately: what life is there to a man that is without wine? for it was created to make men glad. Wine measurably drunk and in season bringeth gladness of the heart, and cheer fullness of the mind" (Ecclus. 31. [34.] 27, 28). But money answereth all things; i.e. grants all that such persons want. It requires money to provide rich food and costly wines; this they possess, and they are thus able to indulge their appetites to the utmost. It concerns them not how such resources are obtained - won by extortion from a starving people, exacted in exorbitant taxation, pillaged by unscrupulous instruments; they want gold to expend on their lusts, and they get it same-how, and with it all that in their view makes life worth living. Commentators alto Horace, ' Ep.,' 1:6.36, "Scilicet uxorem," etc.

"For why - a portioned wife, fair fame, and friends,
Beauty and birth on sovereign Wealth attends.
Blest is her votary throned his bags among?
Persuasion's self sits perched upon his tongue;
Love beams in every feature of his face,
And every gesture beams celestial grace."


(Howes.) Corn. a Lapide appositely quotes -

"...quidquid nummis praesentibus opta,
Et veniet; clausum possidet arca Jovem."

"If thou hast gold, then wish for anything,
And it will surely come; the money-box
Hath in it a most potent deity."
Pineda, followed by Metals, suggests that this verse may be taken in a good sense. He would make ver. 18 correspond to ver. 16, characterizing the government of debauchees, and ver. 19 correspond to ver. 17, representing the rule of temperate princes where all is peace and prosperity. But there is nothing grammatical to indicate this arrangement; and the explanation given above is doubtless correct. The Septuagint Version is not faithful in our present text, though it is followed virtually by the Syriac: Αἰς γέλωτα ποιοῦσιν ἄρτον καὶ οϊνον καὶ ἔλαιον τοῦ εὐφρανθῆναι ζῶντας καὶ τοῦ ἀργυρίου ταπεινώσει ἐπακούσεται τὰ πάντα "For gladness they make bread and wine and oil, that the living may rejoice, and to money all things will humble themselves, will obey" (doubly translating the word).

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
A feast
לֶ֔חֶם (le·ḥem)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 3899: Food, bread, grain

is prepared
עֹשִׂ֣ים (‘ō·śîm)
Verb - Qal - Participle - masculine plural
Strong's 6213: To do, make

for laughter,
לִשְׂחוֹק֙ (liś·ḥō·wq)
Preposition-l | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 7814: Laughter, derision, sport

and wine
וְיַ֖יִן (wə·ya·yin)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 3196: Wine, intoxication

makes life
חַיִּ֑ים (ḥay·yîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 2416: Alive, raw, fresh, strong, life

merry,
יְשַׂמַּ֣ח (yə·śam·maḥ)
Verb - Piel - Imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 8055: To brighten up, be, blithe, gleesome

but money
וְהַכֶּ֖סֶף (wə·hak·ke·sep̄)
Conjunctive waw, Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 3701: Silver, money

is the answer
יַעֲנֶ֥ה (ya·‘ă·neh)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 6030: To answer, respond

for everything.
הַכֹּֽל׃ (hak·kōl)
Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 3605: The whole, all, any, every


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OT Poetry: Ecclesiastes 10:19 A feast is made for laughter (Ecclesiast. Ec Ecc Eccles.)
Ecclesiastes 10:18
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