Ecclesiastes 10 · a question people ask

"money is the answer for all things" (10:19). Is the Preacher saying money solves everything?

In the text

It is one of the Preacher's sayings, and it stands among sayings about a land's king and princes. Just before it come princes who "eat in the morning" (10:16), princes who "eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness" (10:17), and a house that leaks "through idleness of the hands" (10:18). Then: "A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes the life glad; and money is the answer for all things" (10:19). Right after it: "don’t curse the rich in your bedroom" (10:20). Answer is a form of anah, the verb of answering (tap answer); Brown-Driver-Briggs gives among its senses "respond to an occasion, speak in view of circumstances", and gives this verse's line as "money meets all demands". The verse doesn't say whether the Preacher commends what he says here or only reports it, and these notes don't say either. Money is kesef, the word the WEB gives as silver in "He who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver" (5:10) and as money in "money is a defense" (7:12). These notes apply the saying to no one's money.

The verses

“Woe to you, land, when your king is a child, and your princes eat in the morning! Happy are you, land, when your king is the son of nobles, and your princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness! By slothfulness the roof sinks in; and through idleness of the hands the house leaks. A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes the life glad; and money is the answer for all things. Don’t curse the king, no, not in your thoughts; and don’t curse the rich in your bedroom, for a bird of the sky may carry your voice, and that which has wings may tell the matter.”
Ecclesiastes 10:16-20 · World English Bible
“He who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This also is vanity.”
Ecclesiastes 5:10 · World English Bible
“For wisdom is a defense, even as money is a defense; but the excellency of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.”
Ecclesiastes 7:12 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Ecclesiastes 10

Ecclesiastes 10: A little folly

In 10:10 the WEB's skill is chokhmah, wisdom, and behind brings success is yitron, the gain the book asked about in 1:3. The chapter's "who can tell him?" (10:14) and its bird that "may tell the matter" (10:20) share one Hebrew verb, and its Woe (10:16) is a word the Hebrew Bible has only twice.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions