Ecclesiastes 5:1–6:12

Fear God, Keep Your Vows

5Walk ^aprudently when you go to the house of God; and draw near to hear rather ^bthan to give the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they do evil.

²Do not be ^crash with your mouth,

And let not your heart utter anything hastily before God.

For God is in heaven, and you on earth;

Therefore let your words ^dbe few.

³For a dream comes through much activity,

And ^ea fool’s voice is known by his many words.

^4fWhen you make a vow to God, do not delay to ^gpay it;

For He has no pleasure in fools.

Pay what you have vowed—

^5hBetter not to vow than to vow and not pay.

⁶Do not let your ⁱmouth cause your flesh to sin, ^jnor say before the messenger of God that it was an error. Why should God be angry at your ¹excuse and destroy the work of your hands? ⁷For in the multitude of dreams and many words there is also vanity. But ^kfear God.

The Vanity of Gain and Honor

⁸If you ^lsee the oppression of the poor, and the violent ²perversion of justice and righteousness in a province, do not marvel at the matter; for ^mhigh official watches over high official, and higher officials are over them.

⁹Moreover the profit of the land is for all; even the king is served from the field.

¹⁰He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver;

Nor he who loves abundance, with increase.

This also is vanity.

¹¹When goods increase,

They increase who eat them;

So what profit have the owners

Except to see them with their eyes?

¹²The sleep of a laboring man is sweet,

Whether he eats little or much;

But the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep.

¹³ⁿThere is a severe evil which I have seen under the sun:

Riches kept for their owner to his hurt.

¹⁴But those riches perish through ³misfortune;

When he begets a son, there is nothing in his hand.

^15oAs he came from his mother’s womb, naked shall he return,

To go as he came;

And he shall take nothing from his labor

Which he may carry away in his hand.

¹⁶And this also is a severe evil—

Just exactly as he came, so shall he go.

And ^pwhat profit has he ^qwho has labored for the wind?

¹⁷All his days ^rhe also eats in darkness,

And he has much sorrow and sickness and anger.

¹⁸Here is what I have seen: ^sIt is good and fitting for one to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life which God gives him; ^tfor it is his ⁴heritage. ¹⁹As for ^uevery man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and given him power to eat of it, to receive his ⁵heritage and rejoice in his labor—this is the ^vgift of God. ²⁰For he will not dwell unduly on the days of his life, because God keeps him busy with the joy of his heart.

6There ^ais an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men: ²A man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor, ^bso that he lacks nothing for himself of all he desires; ^cyet God does not give him power to eat of it, but a foreigner consumes it. This is vanity, and it is an evil ¹affliction.

³If a man begets a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with goodness, or ^dindeed he has no burial, I say that ^ea ²stillborn child is better than he—⁴for it comes in vanity and departs in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness. ⁵Though it has not seen the sun or known anything, this has more rest than that man, ⁶even if he lives a thousand years twice—but has not seen goodness. Do not all go to one ^fplace?

^7gAll the labor of man is for his mouth,

And yet the soul is not satisfied.

⁸For what more has the wise man than the fool?

What does the poor man have,

Who knows how to walk before the living?

⁹Better is ³the ^hsight of the eyes than the wandering of ⁴desire.

This also is vanity and grasping for the wind.

¹⁰Whatever one is, he has been named ⁱalready,

For it is known that he is man;

^jAnd he cannot contend with Him who is mightier than he.

¹¹Since there are many things that increase vanity,

How is man the better?

¹²For who knows what is good for man in life, ⁵all the days of his ⁶vain life which he passes like ^ka shadow? ^lWho can tell a man what will happen after him under the sun?