Ecclesiastes, 5

1. Be in no hurry to speak; do not hastily declare yourself before God; for God is in heaven, you on earth. Be sparing, then, of speech:

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. From too much worrying comes illusion, from too much talking, the accents of folly.

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. If you make a vow to God, discharge it without delay, for God has no love for fools. Discharge your vow.

3. For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice [is known] by multitude of words.

4. Better a vow unmade than made and not discharged.

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. Do not allow your mouth to make a sinner of you, and do not say to the messenger that it was a mistake. Why give God occasion to be angry with you and ruin all the work that you have done?

5. Better [is it] that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.

6. From too many illusions come futility and too much talk. Therefore, fear God.

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. If in a province you see the poor oppressed, fair judgement and justice violated, do not be surprised, for over every official there watches a higher official, and over these, higher officials still.

7. For in the multitude of dreams and many words [there are] also [divers] vanities: but fear thou God.

8. But what the land yields is for the benefit of all, a king is served by the fields.

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. No one who loves money ever has enough, no one who loves luxury has any income; this, too, is futile.

9. Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king [himself] is served by the field.

10. Where goods abound, parasites abound: where is the owner's profit, apart from feasting his eyes?

10. He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this [is] also vanity.

11. The labourer's sleep is sweet, whether he has eaten little or much, but the surfeit of the rich will not let him sleep at all.

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. Something grossly unjust I observe under the sun: riches stored and turning to loss for their owner.

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. An unlucky venture, and those riches are lost; a son is born to him, and he has nothing to leave him.

13. There is a sore evil [which] I have seen under the sun, [namely], riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.

14. Naked from his mother's womb he came; as naked as he came will he depart; not one of his achievements can he take with him.

14. But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and [there is] nothing in his hand.

15. And something else grossly unjust: that as he came, so must he go; what profit can he show after toiling to earn the wind,

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. as he spends the rest of his days in darkness, mourning, many sorrows, sickness and exasperation.

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. So my conclusion is this: true happiness lies in eating and drinking and enjoying whatever has been achieved under the sun, throughout the life given by God: for this is the lot of humanity.

17. All his days also he eateth in darkness, and [he hath] much sorrow and wrath with his sickness.

18. And whenever God gives someone riches and property, with the ability to enjoy them and to find contentment in work, this is a gift from God.

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. For such a person will hardly notice the passing of time, so long as God keeps his heart occupied with joy.

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.

20. For he shall not much remember the days of his life; because God answereth [him] in the joy of his heart.