Ecclesiastes 5:13,14 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

There is a sore evil, &c. “There is another thing, which is very calamitous, and may rather be called a grievous plague than a mere affliction; that these very treasures, which men have heaped up with a great deal of care, from thence expecting their felicity, prove, in the issue, their utter undoing;” being incentives to pride, luxury, and other hurtful lusts, which waste their bodies, shorten their lives, and destroy their souls; and being also great temptations to tyrants or thieves to take away their lives, in order to possess their property. Nay, it often happens, that “some of these miserable men are murdered by their servants, and even by their own children, with a view to become masters of their riches; which riches bring them also at last to the same or like destruction.” Bishop Patrick. But Or for, or moreover, as the Hebrew particle may be rendered; those riches perish If they be kept, it is to the owner's hurt, and if not, they are lost to his grief; by evil travail By some wicked practices, either his own, or of other men. And he begetteth a son, and there is nothing, &c. Either, 1st, In the father's power to leave to his son, for whose sake he engaged in, and went through, all those hard labours; which is a great aggravation of his grief and misery. Or, 2d, In the son's possession after the father's death.