EcclesiastesChapter 5

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¹Watch your steps when you go to the house of God. Come near to listen. That is better than offering the sacrifice of fools. They don't know that they are doing wrong. ²Do not be quick to speak. Do not be in a hurry in your heart to say something before God. For God is in heaven, and you are on earth. So let your words be few. ³A dream comes when there are many worries. In the same way, a fool's talk comes with many words. ⁴When you make a vow to God, do not wait to keep it, because he takes no pleasure in fools. Keep your vow. ⁵It is better not to make a vow than to make one and not keep it. ⁶Do not let your mouth make your body sin. Do not tell the messenger that your vow was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your words? Why should he destroy the work of your hands? ⁷Many dreams lead to nothing, and so do many words. So fear God. ⁸If you see the poor treated cruelly in a province, do not be surprised. If you see justice and what is right denied there, do not be surprised. For one official is watched by a higher one. And there are others still higher over them. ⁹Everyone takes a share of what the land produces. Even the king gains from the fields. ¹⁰Whoever loves money never has enough money. Whoever loves riches is never happy with what he earns. This too is pointless. ¹¹When good things grow, so do the people who use them up. So what does the owner gain? He only gets to look at them with his eyes. ¹²The worker's sleep is sweet, whether he eats a little or a lot. But the rich man has so much that he cannot sleep. ¹³I have seen a painful evil under the sun. A man stores up riches, and it brings harm to him. ¹⁴Or he loses his riches in a business that fails. Then when he has a son, he has nothing to leave him. ¹⁵A man comes from his mother's womb. In the same way, he will leave again, naked as he came. He cannot carry anything in his hands from all his work. ¹⁶This too is a painful evil. Just as a man is born, so he will leave. What does he gain, since he works hard for the wind? ¹⁷Also, all his days he eats in darkness. He has much sorrow, sickness, and anger. ¹⁸Here is what I have seen to be good and right. A person should eat and drink. He should find joy in all the work he does under the sun. He should do this during the few days of life God has given him. For this is his lot. ¹⁹God gives some people riches and wealth. He also lets them enjoy these things. He lets them accept their lot and be glad in their work. This is a gift from God. ²⁰A man like that rarely thinks about the days of his life, because God keeps him busy with the joy in his heart.