Ecclesiastes - Chapter 5 | King James Version (KJV)

  • 1. Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.
  • 2. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter {cf15I any} thing before God: for God {cf15I is} in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.
  • 3. For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice {cf15I is known} by multitude of words.
  • 4. When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for {cf15I he hath} no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.
  • 5. Better {cf15I is it} that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.
  • 6. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it {cf15I was} an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?
  • 7. For in the multitude of dreams and many words {cf15I there are} also {cf15I divers} vanities: but fear thou God.
  • 8. If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for {cf15I he that is} higher than the highest regardeth; and {cf15I there be} higher than they.
  • 9. Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king {cf15I himself} is served by the field.
  • 10. He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this {cf15I is} also vanity.
  • 11. When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good {cf15I is there} to the owners thereof, saving the beholding {cf15I of them} with their eyes?
  • 12. The sleep of a labouring man {cf15I is} sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.
  • 13. There is a sore evil {cf15I which} I have seen under the sun, {cf15I namely}, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.
  • 14. But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and {cf15I there is} nothing in his hand.
  • 15. As he came forth of his mother's womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand.
  • 16. And this also {cf15I is} a sore evil, {cf15I that} in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?
  • 17. All his days also he eateth in darkness, and {cf15I he hath} much sorrow and wrath with his sickness.
  • 18. Behold {cf15I that} which I have seen: {cf15I it is} good and comely {cf15I for one} to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it {cf15I is} his portion.
  • 19. Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour; this {cf15I is} the gift of God.
  • 20. For he shall not much remember the days of his life; because God answereth {cf15I him} in the joy of his heart.
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