Ecclesiastes/Qohelet 5

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	DOUAI-RHEIMS
1 Be not hasty in your utterance and let not your heart be quick to make a promise in God's presence. God is in heaven and you are on earth; therefore let your words be few.	1 Speak not any thing rashly, and let not thy heart be hasty to utter a word before God. For God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.
2 For nightmares come with many cares, and a fool's utterance with many words.	2 Dreams follow many cares: and in many words shall be found folly.
3 When you make a vow to God, delay not its fulfillment. For God has no pleasure in fools; fulfill what you have vowed.	3 If thou hast vowed any thing to God, defer not to pay it: for an unfaithful and foolish promise displeaseth him: but whatsoever thou hast vowed, pay it.
4 You had better not make a vow than make it and not fulfill it.	4 And it is much better not to vow, than after a vow not to perform the things promised.
5 Let not your utterances make you guilty, and say not before his representative, "It was a mistake," lest God be angered by such words and destroy the works of your hands.	5 Give not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin: and say not before the angel: There is no providence: lest God be angry at thy words, and destroy all the works of thy hands.
6 Rather, fear God!	6 Where there are many dreams, there are many vanities, and words without number: but do thou fear God.
7 If you see oppression of the poor, and violation of rights and justice in the realm, do not be shocked by the fact, for the high official has another higher than he watching him and above these are others higher still--.	7 If thou shalt see the oppressions of the poor, and violent judgments, and justice perverted in the province, wonder not at this matter: for he that is high hath another higher, and there are others still higher than these:
8 Yet an advantage for a country in every respect is a king for the arable land.	8 Moreover there is the king that reigneth over all the land subject to him.
9 The covetous man is never satisfied with money, and the lover of wealth reaps no fruit from it; so this too is vanity.	9 A covetous man shall not be satisfied with money: and he that loveth riches shall reap no fruit from them: so this also is vanity.
10 Where there are great riches, there are also many to devour them. Of what use are they to the owner except to feast his eyes upon?	10 Where there are great riches, there are also many to eat them. And what doth it profit the owner, but that he seeth the riches with his eyes?
11 Sleep is sweet to the laboring man, whether he eats little or much, but the rich man's abundance allows him no sleep.	11 Sleep is sweet to a labouring man, whether he eat lttle or much: but the fulness of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.
12 This is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches kept by their owner to his hurt.	12 There is also another grievous evil, which I have seen under the sun: riches kept to the hurt of the owner.
13 Should the riches be lost through some misfortune, he may have a son when he is without means.	13 For they are lost with very great affliction: he hath begotten a son, who shall be in extremity of want.
14 As he came forth from his mother's womb, so again shall he depart, naked as he came, having nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand.	14 As he came forth naked from his mother's womb, so shall he return, and shall take nothing away with him of his labour.
15 This too is a grievous evil, that he goes just as he came. What then does it profit him to toil for wind?	15 A most deplorable evil: as he came, so shall he return. What then doth it profit him that he hath laboured for the wind?
16 All the days of his life are passed in gloom and sorrow, under great vexation, sickness and wrath.	16 All the days of his life he eateth in darkness, and in many cares, and in misery, and sorrow.
17 Here is what I recognize as good: it is well for a man to eat and drink and enjoy all the fruits of his labor under the sun during the limited days of the life which God gives him; for this is his lot.	17 This therefore hath seemed good to me, that a man should eat and drink, and enjoy the fruit of his labour, wherewith he hath laboured under the sun, all the days of his life, which God hath given him: and this is his portion.
18 Any man to whom God gives riches and property, and grants power to partake of them, so that he receives his lot and finds joy in the fruits of his toil, has a gift from God.	18 And every man to whom God hath given riches, and substance, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to enjoy his portion, and to rejoice of his labour: this is the gift of God.
19 For he will hardly dwell on the shortness of his life, because God lets him busy himself with the joy of his heart.	19 For he shall not much remember the days of his life, because God entertaineth his heart with delight,