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.
Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utteranything before God: for Godisin heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.
For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool’s voiceis knownby multitude of words.
When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; forhe hathno pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.
Betteris itthat thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.
Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that itwasan error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?
For in the multitude of dreams and many wordsthere arealsodiversvanities: but fear thou God.
If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: forhe that ishigher than the highest regardeth; andthere behigher than they.
Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the kinghimselfis served by the field.
He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: thisisalso vanity.
When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what goodis thereto the owners thereof, saving the beholdingof themwith their eyes?
The sleep of a labouring manissweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.
There is a sore evilwhichI have seen under the sun,namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.
But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, andthere isnothing in his hand.
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.
And this alsoisa sore evil,thatin all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?
All his days also he eateth in darkness, andhe hathmuch sorrow and wrath with his sickness.
Beholdthatwhich I have seen:it isgood and comelyfor oneto 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 itishis portion.
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; thisisthe gift of God.
For he shall not much remember the days of his life; because God answerethhimin the joy of his heart.