5
1 Guard
your steps when
you go to
God’s house; for
to draw near
to listen is
better than to
give the sacrifice
of fools, for
they don’t know that
they do evil.
2 Don’t be rash
with your mouth,
and don’t let your heart
be hasty to utter
anything before God; for God
is in heaven, and
you on earth.
Therefore let your
words be few.
3 For
as a dream comes
with a multitude
of cares, so a
fool’s speech with
a multitude of words.
4 When you
vow a vow
to God, don’t defer
to pay it;
for he has no
pleasure in fools.
Pay that which you
vow.
5 It
is better that
you should not
vow, than that
you should vow
and not pay.
6 Don’t allow
your mouth to lead
you into sin. Don’t protest before
the messenger that
this was a mistake.
Why should God
be angry at
your voice, and destroy
the work of
your hands?
7 For
in the multitude
of dreams there
are vanities, as well
as in many words;
but you must fear God.
8 If
you see the oppression
of the poor, and
the violent taking away
of justice and righteousness
in a district, don’t marvel
at the matter, for
one official is eyed
by a higher one,
and there
are officials over
them.
9 Moreover
the profit of
the earth is for
all. The king profits
from the field.
10 He
who loves silver shall
not be satisfied
with silver, nor
he who loves
abundance, with
increase. This
also is vanity.
11 When goods
increase, those who eat
them are increased;
and what advantage is there to
its owner, except to feast
on them with
his eyes?
12 The
sleep of a laboring
man is sweet,
whether he eats little
or much; but
the abundance of
the rich will
not allow him to
sleep.
13 There is
a grievous evil
which I have seen
under the sun:
wealth kept by its owner
to his harm.
14 Those riches
perish by misfortune, and if
he has fathered
a son, there is
nothing in his
hand.
15 As
he came out
of his mother’s womb, naked
shall he go
again as he
came, and shall
take nothing for
his labor, which
he may carry
away in his hand.
16 This
also is a
grievous evil, that
in all points as
he came, so shall
he go. And
what profit does
he have who labors
for the wind?
17 All
his days he
also eats in darkness,
he is frustrated,
and has sickness
and wrath.
18 Behold,
that which I
have seen to
be good and proper
is for one
to eat and
to drink, and
to enjoy good in
all his labor,
in which he labors
under the sun, all
the days of his
life which God
has given him;
for this is
his portion.
19 Every
man also to
whom God has given
riches and wealth,
and has given
him power to eat
of it, and
to take
his portion, and
to rejoice in
his labor—this is
the gift of God.
20 For he shall not often
reflect on the days of his life, because God occupies him with the joy
of his heart.