Ecclesiastes 5-6

Ecclesiastes 5

¹Keep 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.

²Be not rash with thy month, 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.

³For a dream cometh with a multitude of business; and a fool’s voice with a multitude of words.

⁴When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou vowest.

⁵Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.

⁶Suffer 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?

⁷For thus it cometh to pass through the multitude of dreams and vanities and many words: but fear thou God.

⁸If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and the violent taking away of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for one higher than the high regardeth; and there be higher than they.

⁹Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served by the field.

¹⁰He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this also is vanity.

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

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

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

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

¹⁵As he came forth of his mother’s womb, naked shall he go again as he came, and shall take nothing for his labour, which he may carry away in his hand.

¹⁶And this also is a grievous evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that he laboureth for the wind?

¹⁷All his days also he eateth in darkness, and he is sore vexed and hath sickness and wrath.

¹⁸Behold, that which I have seen to be good and to be comely is for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy good in all his labour, wherein he laboureth under the sun, all the days of his life which God hath given him: for this is his portion.

¹⁹Every 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.

²⁰For he shall not much remember the days of his life; because God answereth him in the joy of his heart.

Ecclesiastes 6

¹There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is heavy upon men:

²a man to whom God giveth riches, wealth, and honour, so that he lacketh nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it; this is vanity, and it is an evil disease.

³If a man beget an hundred children and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, but his soul be not filled with good, and moreover he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he:

⁴for it cometh in vanity, and departeth in darkness, and the name thereof is covered with darkness;

⁵moreover it hath not seen the sun nor known it; this hath rest rather than the other:

⁶yea, though he live a thousand years twice told, and yet enjoy no good: do not all go to one place?

⁷All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.

⁸For what advantage hath the wise more than the fool? or what hath the poor man, that knoweth to walk before the living?

⁹Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this also is vanity and a striving after wind.

¹⁰Whatsoever hath been, the name thereof was given long ago, and it is known that it is man: neither can he contend with him that is mightier than he.

¹¹Seeing there be many things that increase vanity, what is man the better?

¹²For who knoweth what is good for man in his life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?