Ecclesiastes 5
1 Keep your foot when you go 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.
Keep thy feet when thou goest unto a house of God, and draw near to hear rather than to give of fools the sacrifice, for they do not know they do evil.
2 Be not rash with your mouth, and let not your heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and you upon earth: therefore let your words be few.
Cause not thy mouth to hasten, and let not thy heart hasten to bring out a word before God, for God is in the heavens, and thou on the earth, therefore let thy words be few.
3 For a dream comes through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words.
For the dream hath come by abundance of business, and the voice of a fool by abundance of words.
4 When you vow a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he has no pleasure in fools: pay that which you have vowed.
When thou vowest a vow to God, delay not to complete it, for there is no pleasure in fools; that which thou vowest — complete.
5 Better is it that you should not vow, than that you should vow and not pay.
Better that thou do not vow, than that thou dost vow and dost not complete.
6 Suffer not your mouth to cause your flesh to sin; neither say you before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at your voice, and destroy the work of your hands?
Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin, nor say before the messenger, that 'it [is] an error,' why is God wroth because of thy voice, and hath destroyed the work of thy hands?
7 For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear you God.
For, in the abundance of dreams both vanities and words abound; but fear thou God.
8 If you see 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 regards; and there be higher than they.
If oppression of the poor, and violent taking away of judgment and righteousness thou seest in a province, do not marvel at the matter, for a higher than the high is observing, and high ones [are] over them.
9 Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served by the field.
And the abundance of a land is for all. A king for a field is served.
10 He that loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loves abundance with increase: this is also vanity.
Whoso is loving silver is not satisfied [with] silver, nor he who is in love with stores [with] increase. Even this [is] 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?
In the multiplying of good have its consumers been multiplied, and what benefit [is] to its possessor except the sight of his 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.
Sweet [is] the sleep of the labourer whether he eat little or much; and the sufficiency of the wealthy is not suffering 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.
There is a painful evil I have seen under the sun: wealth kept for its possessor, for his evil.
14 But those riches perish by evil travail: and he bring forths a son, and there is nothing in his hand.
And that wealth hath been lost in an evil business, and he hath begotten a son and there is nothing in his hand!
15 As he came out 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.
As he came out from the belly of his mother, naked he turneth back to go as he came, and he taketh not away anything of his labour, that doth go 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 has he that has laboured for the wind?
And this also [is] a painful evil, just as he came, so he goeth, and what advantage [is] to him who laboureth for wind?
17 All his days also he eats in darkness, and he has much sorrow and wrath with his sickness.
Also all his days in darkness he consumeth, and sadness, and wrath, and sickness abound.
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 takes under the sun all the days of his life, which God gives him: for it is his portion.
Lo, that which I have seen: [It is] good, because beautiful, to eat, and to drink, and to see good in all one's labour that he laboureth at under the sun, the number of the days of his life that God hath given to him, for it [is] his portion.
19 Every man also to whom God has given riches and wealth, and has given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God.
Every man also to whom God hath given wealth and riches, and hath given him power to eat of it, and to accept his portion, and to rejoice in his labour, this is a gift of God.
20 For he shall not much remember the days of his life; because God answers him in the joy of his heart.
For he doth not much remember the days of his life, for God is answering through the joy of his heart.
