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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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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:

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

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.

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?

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.

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

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

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.

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?

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

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.

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.

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