Ecclesiastes 5
The Folly of Rash
Vows |
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.
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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.
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3 |
For a dream cometh through the
multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known by
multitude of words.
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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.
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5 |
Better is it that thou shouldest
not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.
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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?
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7 |
For in the multitude of dreams and many
words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou
God.
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The Vanity of
Life |
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.
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9 |
Moreover the profit of the earth is for
all: the king himself is served by the field.
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10 |
He that loveth silver shall not be
satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase:
this is also vanity.
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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?
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12 |
The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich
will not suffer him to sleep.
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13 |
There is a sore evil which I
have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners
thereof to their hurt.
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14 |
But those riches perish by evil travail:
and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his
hand.
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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 labor, which he may carry away in his hand.
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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 labored for the wind?
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17 |
All his days also he eateth in darkness,
and he hath much sorrow and wrath with his
sickness.
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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 labor that he taketh under the sun all
the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his
portion.
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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 labor; this is the
gift of God.
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20 |
For he shall not much remember the days
of his life; because God answereth him in the joy of his
heart.
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