|
Chapter 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. |
| 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 | For a dream cometh through the
multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words. |
| 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 | Better is
it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. |
| 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 | For in the
multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear
thou God. |
| 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 | Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king
himself is served by the field. |
|
10 | He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he
that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity. |
| 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 | 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 | There is a sore evil
which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to
their hurt. |
| 14 | But those
riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in
his hand. |
| 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 | 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 |
All his days also he eateth in darkness, and he hath much sorrow and wrath
with his sickness. |
| 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 | 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 | For he shall not much remember
the days of his life; because God answereth him in the joy of his heart. |
