Ecclesiastes 5

1 When you enter God’s temple, you should be sure to listen carefully. Doing that is better than offering sacrifices to God [and then not obeying him], which is foolish.

Keep your feet when you go to 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 Think carefully before you speak [MTY] or before you promise God that you will do something [IDM]. [Do not forget that] God is in heaven [and he is all-powerful] and you are here on the earth, so think carefully before you [make any promises to God].

Do not cause your mouth to hurry, and do not let your heart hurry to bring out a word before God, for God is in the heavens, and you on the earth, therefore let your words be few.

3 If you are continually thinking [and worrying] about things, you will have bad dreams about them and not rest [well]. And the more you talk, the more likely it will be that you will say things that are foolish.

For the dream has come by abundance of business, and the voice of a fool by abundance of words.

4 When you solemnly promise God that you will do something, do not be foolish by delaying in doing it, because God is not pleased with foolish people. Do [all] the things that you promise God that you will do.

When you vow a vow to God, do not delay to complete it, for there is no pleasure in fools; that which you vow—complete.

5 It is better to not promise [anything] than to promise to do something, and [then] not doing it.

Better that you do not vow, than that you vow and do not complete.

6 Do not sin by promising to do something and then not doing it. And [when you promise God to do something and do not do it], do not say to God’s priest that it was a mistake for you to promise to do that. If you do that, God will certainly [RHQ] become very angry with you, and he will take from you everything that you [SYN] have worked to acquire.

Do not permit your mouth to cause your flesh to sin, nor say before the messenger that it [is] ignorance. Why is God angry because of your voice and has destroyed the work of your hands?

7 Promising to do something and not doing it is like [SIM] a dream that has no value; instead, revere God [by doing what you promised him that you would do].

For in the abundance of dreams both vanities and words abound; but fear God.

8 Do not be surprised if you see poor [people] being (oppressed/treated cruelly) [by powerful/influential people], or if you see judges making unjust decisions throughout the land. [That happens] because the people who do that are supervised [and cheated by] more important officials [DOU],

If oppression of the poor, and violent taking away of judgment and righteousness you see in a province, do not marvel at the matter, for a higher than the high is observing, and high ones [are] over them.

9 and even the king forces the people to give him some of the crops that they harvest.

And the abundance of a land is for all. A king for a field is served.

10 Everyone who tries to [get as much] money as they can will never think that they have enough. They will never be satisfied with the money that they have. That also is senseless.

Whoever is loving silver is not satisfied [with] silver, nor he who is in love with stores [with] increase. Even this [is] vanity.

11 The more money that we have, the more people want us to spend our money to buy things for them. So people who have a lot of money do not [RHQ] benefit from it; they see [MTY] it when they get it, but it soon (disappears/is completely spent).

In the multiplying of good have its consumers been multiplied, and what benefit [is] to its possessor except the sight of his eyes?

12 Those who work hard sleep peacefully [at night], even if they do not have much food to eat. But rich [people] do not sleep well, because [they worry] about their money.

Sweet [is] the sleep of the laborer whether he eat little or much; and the sufficiency of the wealthy is not permitting him to sleep.

13 I have seen [another] terrible thing that happens here on the earth [MTY]: People save [up all] their money and become rich, [but] they are not helped by saving a lot of money,

There is a painful evil I have seen under the sun: wealth kept for its possessor, for his evil.

14 [because] something happens that causes their money to be gone, and when they die, there is no money for their children to get/inherit.

And that wealth has been lost in an evil business, and he has begotten a son and there is nothing in his hand!

15 When we are born, we do not bring anything with us, and when we die, we take nothing with us from all that we have earned by our working hard.

As he came out from the belly of his mother, naked he turns back to go as he came, and he does not take away anything of his labor, that goes in his hand.

16 That also seems senseless. People bring nothing [into the world when they are born], and they leave [this world] taking nothing with them. They have worked hard, but they receive no lasting benefit [MET].

And this also [is] a painful evil, just as he came, so he goes, and what advantage [is] to him who labors for wind?

17 [Furthermore, rich people] are always miserable [MET] and sad, and depressed/discouraged and often sick and (resentful/thinking that what has happened to them is unfair).

He also consumes all his days in darkness, and sadness, and wrath, and sickness abound.

18 So, the best thing for people to do here on the earth during the few years that God allows them to be alive is to eat and drink and to enjoy their work, because those are the things that God has given to them.

Behold, that which I have seen: [It is] good, because beautiful, to eat, and to drink, and to see good in all one’s labor that he labors at under the sun, the number of the days of his life that God has given to him, for it [is] his portion.

19 If people are rich and have a lot of possessions, and are able to (enjoy/be happy with) the things that they have and to enjoy their work, those things are [also] gifts from God.

Every man also to whom God has given wealth and riches, and has given him power to eat of it, and to accept his portion, and to rejoice in his labor, this is a gift of God.

20 Those people do not worry much about [everything that has happened] during the time that they have been alive, because God enables them to be happy doing everything that they do.

For he does not much remember the days of his life, for God is answering through the joy of his heart.