Ecclesiastes 5:9

Moreover the profit of the earth is for all The verse is difficult and has been very variously interpreted. The most satisfactory renderings follow: But the profit of a land every way is a king for the field under tillage, or, as some take the words, a king devoted to the field. In either case the main sense is the same. The writer contrasts the misery of the Oriental government of his time with the condition of Judah under the model kings who gave themselves chiefly to the development of the resources of the country by agriculture, such e.g.as Uzziah who "loved husbandry" (2 Chronicles 26:10). This gives, it is obvious, a much better sense than the rendering that "the king is served by the field" or "is subject to the field," i.e.dependent on it. Assuming the Alexandrian origin of the book, we may perhaps see in the maxim a gentle hint to the Ptolemy of the time being to improve his agricultural administration and to foster the growing export-trade in corn.