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
1#Further counsels on prudence and circumspection in fulfilling one’s religious obligations. It is not the multitude of words but one’s sincerity that counts in the acknowledgment of God’s sovereignty (v. 1), especially through obedience (4:17) and reverence (v. 6). Be not hasty in your utterance and let not your heart be quick to utter a promise in God’s presence. God is in heaven and you are on earth; therefore let your words be few.#Ps 115:3, 16; Mt 6:7; Jas 1:19.
2As dreams come along with many cares,
so a fool’s voice along with a multitude of words.
3#Nm 30:3; Dt 23:22–24; Prv 20:25; Sir 18:22–23. When you make a vow to God, delay not its fulfillment. For God has no pleasure in fools; fulfill what you have vowed. 4It is better not to make a vow than make it and not fulfill it. 5Let not your utterances make you guilty, and say not before his representative, “It was a mistake.” Why should God be angered by your words and destroy the works of your hands? 6#Eccl 3:14. Despite many dreams, futilities, and a multitude of words, fear God!
Gain and Loss of Goods. 7#Eccl 3:16; 4:1. If you see oppression of the poor, and violation of rights and justice in the realm, do not be astonished by the fact, for the high official has another higher than he watching him and above these are others higher still—. 8But profitable for a land in such circumstances is a king concerned about cultivation.#A king concerned about cultivation: the Hebrew text is ambiguous and obscure. The author does not criticize the oppression he describes in v. 7. Now perhaps he expresses the hope that the king would use his power to upbuild agriculture in order to alleviate the hunger and suffering of the poor and oppressed.
9#Eccl 4:8; Prv 28:22. The covetous are never satisfied with money, nor lovers of wealth with their gain; so this too is vanity. 10Where there are great riches, there are also many to devour them. Of what use are they to the owner except as a feast for the eyes alone? 11Sleep is sweet to the laborer, whether there is little or much to eat; but the abundance of the rich allows them no sleep.
12This is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches hoarded by their owners to their own hurt. 13Should the riches be lost through some misfortune, they may have offspring when they have no means. 14#Jb 1:21; 1 Tm 6:7. As they came forth from their mother’s womb, so again shall they return, naked as they came, having nothing from their toil to bring with them. 15This too is a grievous evil, that they go just as they came. What then does it profit them to toil for the wind? 16All their days they eat in gloom with great vexation, sickness and resentment.
17#Eccl 2:24. Here is what I see as good: It is appropriate to eat and drink and prosper from all the toil one toils at under the sun during the limited days of life God gives us; for this is our lot. 18Those to whom God gives riches and property, and grants power to partake of them, so that they receive their lot and find joy in the fruits of their toil: This is a gift from God. 19For they will hardly dwell on the shortness of life, because God lets them busy themselves with the joy of their heart.#The joys of life, though temporary and never assured, keep one from dwelling on the ills which afflict humanity.
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