Keep Your Promise to God
1Be careful what you say when you go to God’s house. Go there to listen. Don’t be like foolish people when you offer your sacrifice. They do what is wrong and don’t even know it.
2Don’t be too quick to speak.
Don’t be in a hurry to say anything to God.
God is in heaven. You are on earth.
So use only a few words when you speak.
3Many worries result in dreams.
Many words result in foolish talk.
4When you make a promise to God, don’t wait too long to carry it out. He isn’t pleased with foolish people. So do what you have promised. 5It is not good to make a promise and not keep it. It is better to make no promise at all. 6Don’t let your mouth cause you to sin. Don’t say to the temple messenger, “My promise was a mistake.” Why should God be angry with what you say? Why should he destroy what you have done? 7Dreaming too much and talking too much are meaningless. So have respect for God.
Riches Are Meaningless
8Suppose you see poor people being mistreated somewhere. And what is being done to them isn’t right or fair. Don’t be surprised by that. One official is watched by a higher one. Officials who are even higher are watching both of them. 9All of them take what the land produces. And the king himself takes his share from the fields.
10Anyone who loves money never has enough.
Anyone who loves wealth is never satisfied with what they get.
That doesn’t have any meaning either.
11As more and more goods are made,
more and more people use them up.
So how can those goods benefit their owners?
All they can do is look at them with desire.
12The sleep of a worker is sweet.
It doesn’t matter whether they eat a little or a lot.
But the wealth of rich people
keeps them awake at night.
13I’ve seen something very evil on earth.
It’s when wealth is stored up
and then brings harm to its owners.
14It’s also when wealth is lost
because of an unwise business deal.
Then there won’t be anything left
for the owners’ children.
15Everyone is born naked.
They come into the world with nothing.
And they go out of it with nothing.
They don’t get anything from their work
that they can take with them.
16Here’s something else that is very evil.
Everyone is born, and everyone dies.
And what do they get for their work?
Nothing. It’s like working for the wind.
17All their lives they eat in darkness.
Their lives are full of trouble, suffering and anger.
18I have seen what is good. It is good for a person to eat and drink. It’s good for them to be satisfied with their hard work on this earth. That’s what they should do during the short life God has given them. That’s what God made them for. 19Sometimes God gives a person wealth and possessions. God makes it possible for that person to enjoy them. God helps them accept the life he has given them. God helps them to be happy in their work. All these things are gifts from God. 20A person like that doesn’t have to think about how their life is going. That’s because God fills their heart with joy.
1Keep 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. 2Be 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.5.2 thing: or, word 3For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool’s voice is known by 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 hast vowed. 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 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.5.8 at the…: Heb. at the will, or, purpose
9¶ Moreover 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 is also vanity. 11When 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? 12The 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. 13There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt. 14But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand. 15As 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. 16And 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? 17All 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.5.18 it is good…: Heb. there is a good which is comely, etc5.18 all the days: Heb. the number of the days 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.5.20 For…: or, Though he give not much, yet he remembereth, etc
