Ecclesiastes 5:1-14 ▼

1 Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God; for to draw nigh to hear is better than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they know not that they do evil.

2 Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thy heart be hasty to utter anything before God; for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.

3 For a dream cometh with a multitude of business, and a fool's voice with a 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 vowest.

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 thy hands?

7 For in the multitude of dreams there are vanities, and in many words: but fear thou God.

8 If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and the violent taking away of justice and righteousness in a province, marvel not at the matter: for one higher than the high regardeth; and there are 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 also is vanity.

11 When goods increase, they are increased that eat them; and what advantage is there to the owner thereof, save the beholding of them with his eyes?

12 The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much; but the fulness of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.

13 There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept by the owner thereof to his hurt:

14 and those riches perish by evil adventure; and if he hath begotten a son, there is nothing in his hand.