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.

1. Don't be impulsive and hasty with words in the presence of God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. For that reason let your words be few.

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.

2. For dreams come from over-anxiety and foolish talk from too many words.

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

3. When you make a vow to God, waste no time in fulfilling it, for he takes no pleasure in fools. Do what you vowed.

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.

4. Better not to make a vow than to fail to fulfill it.

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

5. Don't let your speech cause you to sin, and then tell God's minister it was a mistake. Why anger God by what you say and destroy the work of your hands? From much dreaming and many words comes emptiness.

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?

6. So fear God.

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

7. If you see the poor oppressed, right and justice denied in the province, do not be surprised, for over a high-placed official a higher one watches, and over both of these a still higher one watches.

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.

8. The produce of the land benefits everyone and the king serves the land.

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

9. Whoever loves money will not be satisfied with money. Whoever loves wealth hasn't sufficient income. This is senseless.

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

10. When there is abundance of good things there is abundance of consumers. What profit is there for the owner except to look on?

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?

11. Sweet the sleep of the laborer, whether he eats little or much. But the rich man who has had his fill cannot sleep.

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.

12. There is a great evil that I found under the sun, the rich man who kept his wealth to his own harm.

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

13. A mistaken investment and these riches are lost; a son is born but there is nothing to leave him.

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

14. Naked he came from his mother's womb, he returns as he came - naked. Nothing of the fruit of his toil is he able to take with him.

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.

15. That, too, is a grievous evil: As he came, so he goes. So what did he gain from chasing the wind?

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?

16. Why did he eat in darkness all through his life, amidst great sorrow, suffering and vexation?

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

17. This is what I saw as most fitting for man: to eat, drink and be happy in all the work he does under the sun during the days God grants him; this is his reward.

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.

18. And when God gives a man riches and property with the possibility of enjoying them and being happy in his work, this is a gift from God.

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.

19. As long as God keeps him occupied in the gladness of his heart, he is not concerned about how long he will live.

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

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