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King James Version
Stand in Awe of God
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 any thing before God: for God 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 is known by multitude of words.
4 When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for
he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast
vowed.
5 Better 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 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 there are
also divers vanities: but fear thou God.
Riches Are Meaningless
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 he that is higher than the highest
regardeth; and there be higher than they.
9 Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king
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 is also
vanity.
11 When goods increase, they are increased that eat them:
and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the
beholding of them with their eyes?
12 The sleep of a labouring man 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 which I have seen under the sun,
namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.
14 But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth
a son, and 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 is a sore evil, 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 he hath much
sorrow and wrath with his sickness.
18 Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely 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 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 is the gift of
God.
20 For he shall not much remember the days of his life;
because God answereth him in the joy of his heart.1
References and notes
1. King James Authorized Version
2.
John Gill's Exposition of the Bible - http://eword.gospelcom.net/comments/ecclesiastes/gill/ecclesiastes5.htm
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