Eclesiastes 5

¹ Keep thyThat is, with what affection you come to hear the word of God.foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice ofMeaning, of the wicked, who think to please God with common uses, and have neither faith nor repentance.fools: for they consider not that they do evil.

² Be notEither in vowing or in praying, meaning, that we should use all reverence toward God.rash with thy mouth, and let not thy heart be hasty to utter [any] thing before God: for God [is] in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words beHe hears you not for the sake of your many words or often repetitions, but considers your faith and servant's mind.few.

³ {cf2 (5:2)} For as a dreame commeth by the multitude of businesse: so the voyce of a foole is in the multitude of wordes.

⁴ When thou vowest a vow to God, defer not to pay it; for [he hath] no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hastHe speaks of vows which are approved by God's word and serve to his glory.vowed.

⁵ {cf2 (5:4)} It is better that thou shouldest not vowe, then that thou shouldest vow and not pay it.

⁶ Allow not thy mouth to cause thyDo not cause yourself to sin by vowing rashly as they do who make a vow to live unmarried and such like.flesh to sin; neither say thou before theThat is, before God's messenger when he will examine your doing, as though your ignorance should be a just excuse.angel, that it [was] an error: why should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thy hands?

⁷ {cf2 (5:6)} For in the multitude of dreames, and vanities are also many wordes: but feare thou God.

⁸ If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, wonder not at the matter: for [he that is]Meaning, that God will address these things, and therefore we must depend on him.higher than the highest regardeth; and [there are] higher than they.

⁹ Moreover theThe earth is to be preferred above all things which belong to this life.profit of the earth is for all: the kingKings and princes cannot maintain their estate without tillage, which commends the excellency of tillage.[himself] is served by the field.

¹⁰ {cf2 (5:9)} He that loueth siluer, shall not be satisfied with siluer, and he that loueth riches, shalbe without the fruite thereof: this also is vanitie.

¹¹ {cf2 (5:10)} When goods increase, they are increased that eate them: and what good commeth to the owners thereof, but the beholding thereof with their eyes?

¹² The sleep of a labouring man [is] sweet, whether he eateth little or much: but theThat is, his great abundance of riches, or the surfeiting, which comes by his great feeding.abundance of the rich will not allow him to sleep.

¹³ There is a grievous evil [which] I have seen under the sun, [namely], richesWhen covetous men heap up riches, which turn to their destruction.kept for the owners of them to their hurt.

¹⁴ But those riches perish by evil labour: and he begetteth a son, and [there is] nothing in hisHe does not enjoy his father's riches.hand.

¹⁵ {cf2 (5:14)} As hee came foorth of his mothers belly, he shall returne naked to goe as he came, and shal beare away nothing of his labour, which hee hath caused to passe by his hand.

¹⁶ And this also [is] a grievous evil, [that] in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath laboured for theMeaning, in vain and without profit.wind?

¹⁷ All his days also he eateth inIn affliction and grief of mind.darkness, and [he hath] much sorrow and wrath with his sickness.

¹⁸ Behold [that] which I have seen: [it is] good and proper [for one] to{{See Ecc_3:22}}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 {cf2 (5:18)} Also to euery man to whom God hath giuen riches and treasures, and giueth him power to eate thereof, and to take his part, and to enioy his labour: this is the gift of God.

²⁰ For he shall not much remember the days of hisHe will take no great thought for the pains that he has endured in times past.life; because God answereth [him] in the joy of his heart.