Ecclesiastes/Qohelet 5

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	KING JAMES BIBLE
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 Keep 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.
2 For nightmares come with many cares, and a fool's utterance with many words.	2 Be 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.
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 For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words.
4 You had better not make a vow than make it and not fulfill it.	4 When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.
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 Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.
6 Rather, fear God!	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 thine hands?
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 For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou God.
8 Yet an advantage for a country in every respect is a king for the arable land.	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.
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 Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served by the field.
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 He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.
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 When 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?
12 This is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches kept by their owner to his hurt.	12 The 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.
13 Should the riches be lost through some misfortune, he may have a son when he is without means.	13 There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.
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 But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand.
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 As 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.
16 All the days of his life are passed in gloom and sorrow, under great vexation, sickness and wrath.	16 And 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?
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 All his days also he eateth in darkness, and he hath much sorrow and wrath with his sickness.
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 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.
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 Every 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.
	20 For he shall not much remember the days of his life; because God answereth him in the joy of his heart.