Ecclesiastes 5
5
Listen and speak carefully
1Watch#5.1 4:17 in Heb your steps when you go to God’s house. It’s more acceptable to listen than to offer the fools’ sacrifice—they have no idea that they’re acting wrongly. 2Don’t#5.2 5:1 in Heb be quick with your mouth or say anything hastily before God, because God is in heaven, but you are on earth. Therefore, let your words be few.
3Remember:
Dreams come with many cares,
and the voice of fools with many words.
4When you make a promise to God, fulfill it without delay because God has no pleasure in fools. Fulfill what you promise. 5Better not to make a promise than to make a promise without fulfilling it. 6Don’t let your mouth make a sinner of you, and don’t say to the messenger: “It was a mistake!” Otherwise, God may become angry at such talk and destroy what you have accomplished.
7Remember:
When dreams multiply,
so do pointless thoughts and excessive speech.
Therefore, fear God.
Hoarding wealth
8If you witness the poor being oppressed or the violation of what is just and right in some territory, don’t be surprised because a high official watches over another, and yet others stand over them. 9But the land’s yield should be for everyone if the field is cultivated.#5.9 Correction; Heb uncertain; or The land's advantage in everything is this: a king for a plowed field. 10The money lover isn’t satisfied with money; neither is the lover of wealth satisfied with income. This too is pointless. 11When good things flow, so do those who consume them. But what do owners benefit from such goods, except to feast their eyes on them? 12Sweet is the worker’s sleep, whether there’s a lot or little to eat; but the excess of the wealthy won’t let them sleep.
13I have seen a sickening tragedy under the sun: people hoard their wealth to their own detriment. 14Then that wealth is lost in a bad business venture so that when they have children, they are left with nothing. 15Just as they came from their mother’s womb naked, naked they’ll return, ending up just like they started. All their hard work produces nothing—nothing they can take with them. 16This too is a sickening tragedy: they must pass on just as they arrived. What then do they gain from working so hard for wind? 17What’s more, they constantly eat in darkness, with much aggravation, grief, and anger.
18This is the one good thing I’ve seen: it’s appropriate for people to eat, drink, and find enjoyment in all their hard work under the sun during the brief lifetime that God gives them because that’s their lot in life. 19Also, whenever God gives people wealth and riches and enables them to enjoy it, to accept their place in the world#5.19 Or portion in life, as in 5:18 and to find pleasure in their hard work—all this is God’s gift. 20Indeed, people shouldn’t brood too much over the days of their lives because God gives an answer in their hearts’ joy.
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2011 Common English Bible. All rights reserved.
Ecclesiastes 5
5
Don't Make Rash Promises
1Be careful about going to the Temple. It is better to go there to learn than to offer sacrifices as foolish people do, people who don't know right from wrong. 2Think before you speak, and don't make any rash promises to God. He is in heaven and you are on earth, so don't say any more than you have to. 3The more you worry, the more likely you are to have bad dreams, and the more you talk, the more likely you are to say something foolish. 4#Ps 66.13–14So when you make a promise to God, keep it as quickly as possible. He has no use for a fool. Do what you promise to do. 5Better not to promise at all than to make a promise and not keep it. 6Don't let your own words lead you into sin, so that you have to tell God's priest that you didn't mean it. Why make God angry with you? Why let him destroy what you have worked for? 7No matter how much you dream, how much useless work you do, or how much you talk, you must still stand in awe of God.
Life is Useless
8Don't be surprised when you see that the government oppresses the poor and denies them justice and their rights. Every official is protected by the one over him, and both are protected by still higher officials.
9Even a king depends on the harvest.#5.9 Verse 9 in Hebrew is unclear.
10If you love money, you will never be satisfied; if you long to be rich, you will never get all you want. It is useless. 11The richer you are, the more mouths you must feed. All you gain is the knowledge that you are rich. 12Workers may or may not have enough to eat, but at least they can get a good night's sleep. The rich, however, have so much that they stay awake worrying.
13Here is a terrible thing that I have seen in this world: people save up their money for a time when they may need it,#5.13 for… it; or to their own hurt. 14and then lose it all in some unlucky deal and end up with nothing left to pass on to their children. 15#Job 1.21; Ps 49.17; 1 Tim 6.7We leave this world just as we entered it — with nothing. In spite of all our work there is nothing we can take with us. 16It isn't right! We go just as we came. We labour, trying to catch the wind, and what do we get? 17We have to live our lives in darkness and grief,#5.17 Some ancient translations in darkness and grief; Hebrew eating in darkness. worried, angry, and sick.
18This is what I have found out: the best thing anyone can do is to eat and drink and enjoy what he has worked for during the short life that God has given him; this is man's fate. 19If God gives a man wealth and property and lets him enjoy them, he should be grateful and enjoy what he has worked for. It is a gift from God. 20Since God has allowed him to be happy, he will not worry too much about how short life is.
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Good News Bible with Deuterocanonicals/Apocrypha. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.