Ecclesiastes/Qohelet 5

NEW JERUSALEM	NEW AMERICAN BIBLE
1 Be in no hurry to speak; do not hastily declare yourself before God; for God is in heaven, you on earth.Be sparing, then, of speech:	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.
2 From too much worrying comes illusion, from too much talking, the accents of fol y.	2 For nightmares come with many cares, and a fool's utterance with many words.
3 If you make a vow to God, discharge it without delay, for God has no love for fools. Discharge your vow.	3 When you make a vow to God, delay not its fulfillment. For God has no pleasure in fools; fulfill what you have vowed.
4 Better a vow unmade than made and not discharged.	4 You had better not make a vow than make it and not fulfill it.
5 Do not al ow your mouth to make a sinner of you, and do not say to the messenger that it was amistake. Why give God occasion to be angry with you and ruin al the work that you have done?	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.
6 From too many illusions come futility and too much talk. Therefore, fear God.	6 Rather, fear God!
7 If in a province you see the poor oppressed, fair judgement and justice violated, do not be surprised, forover every official there watches a higher official, and over these, higher officials stil .	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--.
8 But what the land yields is for the benefit of al , a king is served by the fields.	8 Yet an advantage for a country in every respect is a king for the arable land.
9 No one who loves money ever has enough, no one who loves luxury has any income; this, too, is futile.	9 The covetous man is never satisfied with money, and the lover of wealth reaps no fruit from it; so this too is vanity.
10 Where goods abound, parasites abound: where is the owner's profit, apart from feasting his eyes?	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?
11 The labourer's sleep is sweet, whether he has eaten little or much, but the surfeit of the rich wil not lethim sleep at al .	11 Sleep is sweet to the laboring man, whether he eats little or much, but the rich man's abundance allows him no sleep.
12 Something grossly unjust I observe under the sun: riches stored and turning to loss for their owner.	12 This is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches kept by their owner to his hurt.
13 An unlucky venture, and those riches are lost; a son is born to him, and he has nothing to leave him.	13 Should the riches be lost through some misfortune, he may have a son when he is without means.
14 Naked from his mother's womb he came; as naked as he came wil he depart; not one of hisachievements can he take with him.	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.
15 And something else grossly unjust: that as he came, so must he go; what profit can he show aftertoiling to earn the wind,	15 This too is a grievous evil, that he goes just as he came. What then does it profit him to toil for wind?
16 as he spends the rest of his days in darkness, mourning, many sorrows, sickness and exasperation.	16 All the days of his life are passed in gloom and sorrow, under great vexation, sickness and wrath.
17 So my conclusion is this: true happiness lies in eating and drinking and enjoying whatever has beenachieved under the sun, throughout the life given by God: for this is the lot of humanity.	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.
18 And whenever God gives someone riches and property, with the ability to enjoy them and to findcontentment in work, this is a gift from God.	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.
19 For such a person wil hardly notice the passing of time, so long as God keeps his heart occupied withjoy.	19 For he will hardly dwell on the shortness of his life, because God lets him busy himself with the joy of his heart.