Verse 21

For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge, and skill; however, he must hand over the fruit of his labor as an inheritance to someone else who did not work for it. This also is futile, and an awful injustice!

Referenced Verses

  • Eccl 2:17-18 : 17 So I loathed life because what happens on earth seems awful to me; for all the benefits of wisdom are futile– like chasing the wind. 18 Futility of Being a Workaholic So I loathed all the fruit of my effort, for which I worked so hard on earth, because I must leave it behind in the hands of my successor.
  • Eccl 9:18 : 18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner can destroy much that is good.
  • Jer 22:15 : 15 Does it make you any more of a king that you outstrip everyone else in building with cedar? Just think about your father. He was content that he had food and drink. He did what was just and right. So things went well with him.
  • Jer 22:17 : 17 But you are always thinking and looking for ways to increase your wealth by dishonest means. Your eyes and your heart are set on killing some innocent person and committing fraud and oppression.
  • 2 Chr 31:20-21 : 20 This is what Hezekiah did throughout Judah. He did what the LORD his God considered good and right and faithful. 21 He wholeheartedly and successfully reinstituted service in God’s temple and obedience to the law, in order to follow his God.
  • 2 Chr 33:2-9 : 2 He did evil in the sight of the LORD and committed the same horrible sins practiced by the nations whom the LORD drove out ahead of the Israelites. 3 He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he set up altars for the Baals and made Asherah poles. He bowed down to all the stars in the sky and worshiped them. 4 He built altars in the LORD’s temple, about which the LORD had said,“Jerusalem will be my permanent home.” 5 In the two courtyards of the LORD’s temple he built altars for all the stars in the sky. 6 He passed his sons through the fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom and practiced divination, omen reading, and sorcery. He set up a ritual pit to conjure up underworld spirits and appointed magicians to supervise it. He did a great amount of evil in the sight of the LORD and angered him. 7 He put an idolatrous image he had made in God’s temple, about which God had said to David and to his son Solomon,“This temple in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will be my permanent home. 8 I will not make Israel again leave the land I gave to their ancestors, provided that they carefully obey all I commanded them, the whole law, the rules and regulations given through Moses.” 9 But Manasseh misled the people of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem so that they sinned more than the nations whom the LORD had destroyed ahead of the Israelites.
  • 2 Chr 34:2 : 2 He did what the LORD approved and followed in his ancestor David’s footsteps; he did not deviate to the right or the left.
  • 2 Chr 35:18 : 18 A Passover like this had not been observed in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. None of the kings of Israel had observed a Passover like the one celebrated by Josiah, the priests, the Levites, all the people of Judah and Israel who were there, and the residents of Jerusalem.
  • 2 Chr 36:5-9 : 5 Jehoiakim’s Reign Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. He did evil in the sight of the LORD his God. 6 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked him, bound him with bronze chains, and carried him away to Babylon. 7 Nebuchadnezzar took some of the items in the LORD’s temple to Babylon and put them in his palace there. 8 The rest of the events of Jehoiakim’s reign, including the horrible sins he committed and his shortcomings, are recorded in the Scroll of the Kings of Israel and Judah. His son Jehoiachin replaced him as king. 9 Jehoiachin’s Reign Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem. He did evil in the sight of the LORD. 10 At the beginning of the year King Nebuchadnezzar ordered him to be brought to Babylon, along with the valuable items in the LORD’s temple. In his place he made his relative Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem.