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.
Ecclesiastes 5
5
Fear God, Keep Your Vows
1Walk #Ex. 3:5; Is. 1:12prudently when you go to the house of God; and draw near to hear rather #(1 Sam. 15:22); Ps. 50:8; Prov. 15:8; 21:27; (Hos. 6:6)than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they do evil.
2Do not be #Prov. 20:25rash with your mouth,
And let not your heart utter anything hastily before God.
For God is in heaven, and you on earth;
Therefore let your words #Prov. 10:19; Matt. 6:7be few.
3For a dream comes through much activity,
And #Prov. 10:19a fool’s voice is known by his many words.
4#Num. 30:2; Deut. 23:21–23; Ps. 50:14; 76:11When you make a vow to God, do not delay to #Ps. 66:13, 14pay it;
For He has no pleasure in fools.
Pay what you have vowed—
5#Prov. 20:25; Acts 5:4Better not to vow than to vow and not pay.
6Do not let your #Prov. 6:2mouth cause your flesh to sin, #1 Cor. 11:10nor say before the messenger of God that it was an error. Why should God be angry at your excuse and destroy the work of your hands? 7For in the multitude of dreams and many words there is also vanity. But #(Eccl. 12:13)fear God.
The Vanity of Gain and Honor
8If you #Eccl. 3:16see the oppression of the poor, and the violent perversion of justice and righteousness in a province, do not marvel at the matter; for #(Ps. 12:5; 58:11; 82:1)high official watches over high official, and higher officials are over them.
9Moreover the profit of the land is for all; even the king is served from the field.
10He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver;
Nor he who loves abundance, with increase.
This also is vanity.
11When goods increase,
They increase who eat them;
So what profit have the owners
Except to see them with their eyes?
12The sleep of a laboring man is sweet,
Whether he eats little or much;
But the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep.
13#Eccl. 6:1, 2There is a severe evil which I have seen under the sun:
Riches kept for their owner to his hurt.
14But those riches perish through misfortune;
When he begets a son, there is nothing in his hand.
15#Job 1:21; Ps. 49:17; 1 Tim. 6:7As he came from his mother’s womb, naked shall he return,
To go as he came;
And he shall take nothing from his labor
Which he may carry away in his hand.
16And this also is a severe evil—
Just exactly as he came, so shall he go.
And #Eccl. 1:3what profit has he #Prov. 11:29who has labored for the wind?
17All his days #Ps. 127:2he also eats in darkness,
And he has much sorrow and sickness and anger.
18Here is what I have seen: #Eccl. 2:24; 3:12, 13; (1 Tim. 6:17)It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life which God gives him; #Eccl. 2:10; 3:22for it is his heritage. 19As for #(Eccl. 6:2)every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor—this is the #Eccl. 2:24; 3:13gift of God. 20For he will not dwell unduly on the days of his life, because God keeps him busy with the joy of his heart.
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.