1Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil.
2Do not be hasty with your mouth, and let your heart not hurry to bring out a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on the earth; therefore let your words be few.
3For a dream comes with much occupation, and the voice of a fool with a multitude of words.
4When you vow a vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it, for there is no delight in fools; what you vow, fulfill.
5It is better that you not vow than that you vow and not fulfill.
6Do not let your mouth bring your flesh into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands?
7For in a multitude of dreams and vanities there are also many words; but fear God.
8If you see oppression of the poor and the violent perversion of justice and righteousness in the province, do not be astonished at the matter; for one high official watches over another high one, and higher ones are over them.
9But the profit of a land in every way is this: a king committed to the cultivated field.
10One who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver, and whoever loves abundance will not be satisfied with income. This too is vanity.
11When goods increase, those who consume them increase; and what advantage is there to their owner except the sight of them with his eyes?
12Sweet is the sleep of the laborer, whether he eats little or much; but the surfeit of the rich will not let him sleep.
13There is a sickening evil I have seen under the sun: riches kept by their owner to his own harm.
14And that wealth perishes in a bad venture, and he fathers a son, but there is nothing in his hand.
15As he came out of his mother’s womb, naked he will return to go as he came, and he will carry away nothing from his toil that he may take in his hand.
16And this too is a sickening evil: exactly as he came, so he will go; and what advantage is there to him who toils for the wind?
17Moreover, all his days he eats in darkness, with much vexation, and his sickness and wrath.
18Behold, what I myself have seen to be good, that it is fitting: to eat and to drink and to see good in all one’s toil that he toils under the sun the number of the days of his life that God has given him, for this is his portion.
19Also, every person to whom God has given riches and possessions, and empowered him to eat from them and to take up his portion and to rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God.
20For he will not much remember the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with the joy of his heart.
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