@John-Mark-Steel said in Ecclesiastes 5:8-9:

The phrase “the king who cultivates the field is an advantage,” then, has a bit of sarcasm (or resignation), it seems.

That’s possible! “After all,” though, is a translation of the Hebrew ו (vav), which can mean many, many things, like “and,” “but,” and so on. Translations vary: the ESV has “but,” the CSB, NIV, and NET Bible have nothing.

The ESV translates the verse as a contrary point to verse 8: “But this is gain for a land in every way: a king committed to cultivated fields.”

The NET Bible makes the same point as the CSB and NIV, but in a more paraphrastic way: “The produce of the land is seized by all of them, even the king is served by the fields.” In this case, verse 9 is another example of injustice.