Ecclesiastes 5
1. Keep * thy foot when thou goest * to the house of God, and be more ready to hear * , than to give * the sacrifice of fools: for they consider * not that they do * evil.
2. Be not rash * with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty * to utter * any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth:therefore let thy words be few.
3. For a dream cometh * through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words.
4. When thou vowest * a vow unto God, defer * not to pay * it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay * that which thou hast vowed * .
5. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow * , than that thou shouldest vow * and not pay * .
6. Suffer * not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin * ; neither say * thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry * at thy voice, and destroy * the work of thine hands?
7. For in the multitude of dreams and many * words there are also divers vanities: but fear * thou God.
8. If thou seest * the oppression of the poor * , and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel * not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth * ; and there be higher than they.
9. Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served * by the field.
10. He that loveth * silver shall not be satisfied * with silver; nor he that loveth * abundance with increase: this is also vanity.
11. When goods increase * , they are increased * that eat * them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding * of them with their eyes?
12. The sleep of a labouring man * is sweet, whether he eat * little or much * : but the abundance of the rich will not suffer * him to sleep * .
13. There is a sore * evil which I have seen * under the sun, namely, riches kept * for the owners thereof to their hurt.
14. But those riches perish * by evil travail: and he begetteth * a son,and there is nothing in his hand.
15. As he came forth * of his mother's womb, naked shall he return * to go * as he came * , and shall take * nothing of his labour, which he may carry away * in his hand.
16. And this also is a sore * evil, that in all points as he came * , so shall he go * : and what profit hath he that hath laboured * for the wind?
17. All his days also he eateth * in darkness, and he hath much * sorrow * and wrath with his sickness.
18. Behold that which I have seen * : it is good and comely for one to eat * and to drink * , and to enjoy * the good of all his labour that he taketh * under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth * him: for it is his portion.
19. Every man also to whom God hath given * riches and wealth, and hath given him power * to eat * thereof, and to take * his portion, and to rejoice * in his labour; this is the gift of God.
20. For he shall not much * remember * the days of his life; because God answereth * him in the joy of his heart.
