Ecclesiastes 5:11

“When goods increase, they are increased that eat them, etc.] When a man’s substance increases by trade, or otherwise, very often so it is that his family increases, and he has more mouths to feed, and backs to clothe; or his estate growing larger, if he lives suitably to it, he must keep more servants; and these, as they have but little work to do, are described by their eating, rather than by their working; and besides, such a growing man in the world has more friends and visitors that come about him, and eat with him, as well as the poor, which wait upon him to receive his alms: and if his farms, and his fields, and his flocks, are enlarged, he must have more husbandmen, and labourers, and…”

“they . . . that eat them--the rich man's dependents (Psa 23:5).”

“They ... that eat them - i. e., The laborers employed, and the household servants. return to 'Top of Page'”

“they: Gen 12:16, Gen 13:2, Gen 13:5-7; Kg1 4:22, Kg1 4:23, Kg1 5:13-16; Neh 5:17, Neh 5:18; Psa 119:36, Psa 119:37 what: Ecc 6:9, Ecc 11:9; Jos 7:21-25; Pro 23:5; Jer 17:11; Hab 2:13; Jo1 2:16 Ecclesiastes 5:12”

“"When property and goods increase, they become many who consume them; and what advantage hath the owner thereof but the sight of them with his eyes?" The verb רבה signifies to increase, the רבב, to be many; but also (which Bttch. denies) inchoatively: to become many, Gen 6:1; rightly, the lxx, ἐπληθύνθησαν. The author has not a miser in view, who shuts up his money in chests, and only feeds himself in looking at it with closed doors; but a covetous man, of the sort spoken of in Psa 49:12; Isa 5:8. If the hattovah, the possession of such an one, increases, in like manner the number of people whom he must maintain increases also, and thus the number of those who eat of it along with him, and…”