Ecclesiastes

5 Keep thy foot when thou goest unto the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than dullards to offer sacrifice,—for they make no acknowledgment of doing wrong.

2 Be not rash with thy mouth and with thy heart be not in haste to bring forth a word before God,—for God is in the heavens and thou upon the earth, for this cause let thy words be few.

3 For a dream cometh through the multitude of business,—and the voice of a dullard is with a multitude of words.

4 When thou vowest a vow unto God do not defer to pay it, for there is no pleasure in dullards,—what thou vowest pay!

5 Better that thou shouldest not vow,—than vow and not pay.

6 Do not let thy mouth cause thy flesh to sin,—neither say thou before the messenger, that it was a mistake,—wherefore should God be indignant at thy voice, and destroy the work of thy hands?

7 For [it was done] amidst a multitude of dreams and vanities, and many words,—but towards God be thou reverent.

8 If the oppression of the poor and the wresting of justice and righteousness thou see in the province do not be astonished over the matter,—for one high above the highest is watching, yea the Most High is over them.

9 And the profit of the earth is for all,—a king by the field is served.

10 He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver nor he that loveth abundance with revenue,—even this was vanity.

11 When blessings are increased increased are the eaters thereof,—what profit then to the owner of them saving the sight of his eyes?

12 Sweet the sleep of the labourer, whether little or much he eat,—but the surfeit of the rich man will not suffer him to sleep.

13 Here was an incurable evil, I had seen under the sun,—riches kept by the owner thereof to his hurt;

14 and those riches perish by being ill employed,—and though he begetteth a son, yet is there in his hand nothing at all.

15 As he came from his mother’s womb naked he again departeth as he came,—and nothing can he take of his toil, which he can carry in his hand.

16 Even this moreover is an incurable evil, altogether as he came so shall he depart,—what profit then shall he have who toileth for the wind?

17 Even all his days [are spent] in darkness and mourning,—and he is very morose and is sad and angry.

18 Lo! what I myself have seen—Better that it should be excellent to eat and to drink and to see blessedness in all one’s toil wherein one toileth under the sun for the number of the days of his life in that God hath given it him, for that is his portion:

19 yet as regardeth every man to whom God hath given wealth and goods and granted him power to eat thereof and to take his portion, and to find gladness in his toil this is the gift of God.

20 Though it be not much let him remember the days of his life,—for God beareth witness by the gladness of his heart.