Ecclesiastes Chapter 5

Caution in words. Vows are to be paid. Riches are often pernicious: the moderate use of them is the gift of God.

5:1. 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.

5:2. Dreams follow many cares: and in many words shall be found folly.

5:3. 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.

5:4. And it is much better not to vow, than after a vow not to perform the things promised.

5:5. 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.

5:6. Where there are many dreams, there are many vanities, and words without number: but do thou fear God.

5:7. 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:

5:8. Moreover there is the king that reigneth over all the land subject to him.

5:9. 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.

5:10. 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?

5:11. Sleep is sweet to a labouring man, whether he eat little or much: but the fulness of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.

5:12. There is also another grievous evil, which I have seen under the sun: riches kept to the hurt of the owner.

5:13. For they are lost with very great affliction: he hath begotten a son, who shall be in extremity of want.

5:14. As he came forth naked from his mother's womb, so shall he return, and shall take nothing away with him of his labour.

5:15. A most deplorable evil: as he came, so shall he return. What then doth it profit him that he hath laboured for the wind?

5:16. All the days of his life he eateth in darkness, and in many cares, and in misery, and sorrow.

5:17. 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.

5:18. 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.

5:19. For he shall not much remember the days of his life, because God entertaineth his heart with delight.