傳道書 5
1 你往天主的殿裏去時，要小心邁步；你前去聽道，勝過愚人獻祭，因為他們只知作惡。
Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and draw near to hear, rather than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they know not that they do evil.
2 你不要在天主前冒然開口，你的心也不要急於發言應許，因為天主在天上，你在地下，為此你說話應當簡單。
Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thy heart be hasty to utter anything before God: for God is in the heavens, and thou upon earth; therefore let thy words be few.
3 因為夜夢由於事務繁雜，亂語出於多言。
For a dream cometh through the multitude of business, and a fool's voice through a multitude of words.
4 你一向天主許願，就不可拖延償還，因為他不喜歡人怠慢；你許了願，就應速還；
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 不許願好過許而不還。
Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.
6 不要放任你的口，使你陷於罪過，免得你在使者前說是「錯許了。」為何要天主因你這句話而發怒，破壞你手中的工作﹖
Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an inadvertence. Wherefore should God be wroth at thy voice, and destroy the work of thy hands?
7 多夢多虛幻，多言多糊塗；你要敬畏天主。
For in the multitude of dreams are vanities; so with many words: but fear God.
8 你若在某省看見欺壓窮人，違犯公道和正義的事，不必對此驚奇，因為高者之上還有更高者在上鑒察，而他們之上還有更高者。
If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter; for a higher than the high is watching, and there are higher than they.
9 國家全面的利益，在乎有一位關心農業的君王。
Moreover the earth is every way profitable: the king [himself] is dependent upon the field.
10 愛錢的，錢不能使他滿足；愛財的，進益不能使他滿足：這也是空虛。
He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with increase. This also is vanity.
11 錢財增多，消費的人也隨之增多；財主除飽享眼福外，能有什麼益處﹖
When goods increase, they are increased that eat them; and what profit is there to the owner thereof, except the beholding [of them] with his eyes?
12 工人不論吃多吃少，總睡得甘甜；飽食的富人，卻難於安眠。
The sleep of the labourer is sweet, whether he have eaten little or much; but the fulness of the rich doth not suffer him to sleep.
13 我看見在太陽下有一件慘痛的事：財主積蓄財富，反而害了自己。
There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt;
14 生意一次失敗，財產盡失：生了個兒子，手中一無所有。
or those riches perish by some evil circumstance, and if he have begotten a son, there is nothing in his hand.
15 他赤身出離母胎，也照樣赤身歸去；他勞力之所得，絲毫不能帶去。
As he came forth from his mother's womb, naked shall he go away again as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand.
16 這也是一件慘痛的事：他怎樣來，也怎樣去；他操勞追風，究有什麼益處；
And this also is a grievous evil, that in all points as he came so doth he go away, and what profit hath he, in having laboured for the wind?
17 況且他一生在黑暗中生活，遭受許多煩惱、疾病和悲憤的事。
All his days also he eateth in darkness, and hath much vexation, and sickness, and irritation.
18 我所認為幸福美滿的事，是人在天主所賞的少數歲月內，有吃有喝，且享受他在太陽下一切勞碌所得的福樂，這原是他應得的一分。
Behold what I have seen good and comely: [it is] to eat and to drink, and to enjoy good in all his labour wherewith [man] laboureth under the sun, all the days of his life which God hath given him: for that is his portion.
19 的確，天主賞賜人財產和富裕，叫他能享用；能取得應有的一分，能享受勞碌所得的快樂，實是天主的恩賜。
Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and power to eat thereof, and to take his portion and to rejoice in his labour: that is a gift of God.
20 那麼，人就不甚顧慮人生歲月的短促，因為天主以喜樂充滿了他的心。
For he will not much remember the days of his life, because God answereth [him] with the joy of his heart.
