Ecclesiastes 2:25
New International Version
for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?

New Living Translation
For who can eat or enjoy anything apart from him?

English Standard Version
for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?

Berean Standard Bible
For apart from Him, who can eat and who can find enjoyment?

King James Bible
For who can eat, or who else can hasten hereunto, more than I?

New King James Version
For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I?

New American Standard Bible
For who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him?

NASB 1995
For who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him?

NASB 1977
For who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him?

Legacy Standard Bible
For who can eat and who can have enjoyment outside of Him?

Amplified Bible
For who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him?

Christian Standard Bible
because who can eat and who can enjoy life apart from him?

Holman Christian Standard Bible
because who can eat and who can enjoy life apart from Him?

American Standard Version
For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I?

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
For who is going to eat and who will drink apart from him?

Brenton Septuagint Translation
For who shall eat, or who shall drink, without him?

Contemporary English Version
and no one enjoys eating and living more than I do.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Who shall so feast and abound with delights as I?

English Revised Version
For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I?

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Who can eat or enjoy themselves without God?

Good News Translation
How else could you have anything to eat or enjoy yourself at all?

International Standard Version
for who can eat or enjoy life apart from him?

JPS Tanakh 1917
For who will eat, or who will enjoy, if not I?

Literal Standard Version
For who eats and who hurries out more than I?

Majority Standard Bible
For apart from Him, who can eat and who can find enjoyment?

New American Bible
For who can eat or drink apart from God?

NET Bible
For no one can eat and drink or experience joy apart from him.

New Revised Standard Version
for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?

New Heart English Bible
For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, apart from him?

Webster's Bible Translation
For who can eat, or who else can hasten to it more than I?

World English Bible
For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I?

Young's Literal Translation
For who eateth and who hasteth out more than I?

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Futility of Work
24Nothing is better for a man than to eat and drink and enjoy his work. I have also seen that this is from the hand of God. 25For apart from Him, who can eat and who can find enjoyment? 26To the man who is pleasing in His sight, He gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner He assigns the task of gathering and accumulating that which he will hand over to one who pleases God. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.…

Cross References
Ecclesiastes 2:24
Nothing is better for a man than to eat and drink and enjoy his work. I have also seen that this is from the hand of God.

Ecclesiastes 2:26
To the man who is pleasing in His sight, He gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner He assigns the task of gathering and accumulating that which he will hand over to one who pleases God. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.


Treasury of Scripture

For who can eat, or who else can hasten hereunto, more than I?

who can

Ecclesiastes 1:12
I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem.

1 Kings 4:21-24
And Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the river unto the land of the Philistines, and unto the border of Egypt: they brought presents, and served Solomon all the days of his life…

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Apart Eager Eat Eateth Enjoy Enjoyment Find Food Hasten Hasteth Hereunto Pleasure
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Apart Eager Eat Eateth Enjoy Enjoyment Find Food Hasten Hasteth Hereunto Pleasure
Ecclesiastes 2
1. the vanity of human courses is the work of pleasure
12. Though the wise be better than the fool, yet both have one event
18. The vanity of human labor, in leaving it they know not to whom
24. Nothing better than joy in our labor but that is God's gift














(25) Hasten.--Habakkuk 1:8.

More than I.--There is a various rendering, which has the authority of the LXX., and which has every appearance of being right: "without Him."

Verse 25. - For who can eat, or who else can hasten hereunto, more than I? This is the translation of the received text. "Eat" means enjoy one's self, as in the preceding verse; "hasten hereunto" implies eager pursuit of pleasure; and Koheleth asks - Who had better opportunity than he for verifying the principle that all depends upon the gift of God? Vulgate, Quis ita devorabit, et deliciis affluet ut ego? The Septuagint had a different reading, which obtains also in the Syriac and Arabic versions, and has been adopted by many modern critics. Instead of מִמֶּנִּי, they read מִמֶּנְּוּ, "without him," i.e. except from God. "For who shall eat or who shall drink without him (πάρεξ αὐτοῦ)?" This merely repeats the thought of the last verse, in agreement with the saying of St. James (James 1:17), "Every good gift and every perfect boon is from above, coming down from the Father' of lights." But the received reading, if it admits the rendering of the Authorized Version (which is somewhat doubtful), stands in close connection with the personal remark just preceding, "This also I saw," etc., and is a more sensible confirmation thereof than a tautological observation can be. The next verse carries on the thought that substantial enjoyment is entirely the gift of God, and granted by him as the moral Governor of the world.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
For
כִּ֣י (kî)
Conjunction
Strong's 3588: A relative conjunction

apart from
ח֥וּץ (ḥūṣ)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 2351: Separate by a, wall, outside, outdoors

Him,
מִמֶּֽנִּי׃ (mim·men·nî)
Preposition | first person common singular
Strong's 4480: A part of, from, out of

who
מִ֥י (mî)
Interrogative
Strong's 4310: Who?, whoever, in oblique construction with prefix, suffix

can eat
יֹאכַ֛ל (yō·ḵal)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 398: To eat

and who
וּמִ֥י (ū·mî)
Conjunctive waw | Interrogative
Strong's 4310: Who?, whoever, in oblique construction with prefix, suffix

can find enjoyment?
יָח֖וּשׁ (yā·ḥūš)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 2363: To hurry, to be eager with excitement, enjoyment


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OT Poetry: Ecclesiastes 2:25 For who can eat or who can (Ecclesiast. Ec Ecc Eccles.)
Ecclesiastes 2:24
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