Ecclesiastes5:9

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Translation

Moreover,

the profit of the land is for all,

even the king is served

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from the fields.

Paraphrase

Here is an example of this reality, the produce of the land is for everyone, and the arrogant government officials make sure that includes them by each taking their cut; this goes all the way to the top, for even I as king benefit from the fields.

Footnotes

1: “even the king is served”

This clause is difficult to translate because we cannot be sure what this participle is connected to. It can serve as an adjective to describe either the fields or the king, or in a verbal capacity where either the field or the king is the subject (the NET study Bible has a full explanation of the details). Context and intended meaning must govern its interpretation, and the English versions published to date are quite varied on the matter. Most of them try to place the king in a neutral or positive light since it is the king who was writing this. The problem is more cultural than anything. His example of the produce of the fields shows that it was widely accepted that the king and his officials would benefit from the harvests of the land; it was not good or bad, it just was. Obviously, this system could be manipulated and exploited, but the system in a conceptual sense was accepted as necessary.