Ecclesiastes 5
Expanded Bible
Be Careful About Making Promises
5 ·Be careful [Watch your step/L feet] when you go to worship at the ·Temple [L house of God]. It is better to listen than to offer ·foolish sacrifices [or the sacrifice of fools] without even knowing you are doing wrong.
2 ·Think before you speak [L Do not be quick with your mouth],
and ·be careful about what you say [L do not let your heart rush to utter a word] to God.
God is in heaven,
and you are on the earth,
so ·say only a few words to God [L let your words be few].
3 Dreams come from too much ·worrying [or work],
and too many words come from foolish people.
4 If you make a ·promise [vow] to God, don’t ·be slow to keep [delay to fulfill] it. ·God is not happy [L For there is no pleasure] with fools, so ·give God what you promised [L fulfill what you have vowed]. 5 It is better not to ·promise anything than to promise something and not do it [make a vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it; Deut. 23:21; Prov. 20:25; Matt. 23:16–22]. 6 Don’t let your ·words [L mouth] cause ·you [L your flesh] to sin, and don’t say to the ·priest at the Temple [L messenger], “·I didn’t mean what I promised [L It was a mistake].” ·If you do, God will [L Why should God…?] become angry with your words and will destroy ·everything you have worked for [L the work of your hands]. 7 Many useless [1:2] ·promises [or words] are like so many dreams; they mean nothing. You should ·respect [or be afraid of; 5:7; 7:18; 8:12, 13] God.
Officers Cheat Each Other
8 In some places you will see poor people ·mistreated [oppressed]. Don’t be surprised when they are ·not treated fairly [deprived/L robbed of justice] or ·given their rights [righteousness]. One ·officer [official; L higher-up] ·is cheated by [or watches out for] a higher ·officer [official] ·who in turn is cheated by even higher officers [L and there are officials/higher-ups over them]. 9 The ·wealth of the country [profit of the land] is ·divided up among them [L taken by] all. Even the king ·makes sure he gets his share of the profits [L benefits from the field].
Wealth Cannot Buy Happiness
10 Whoever loves money
will never have enough money;
Whoever loves ·wealth [riches]
will not be satisfied with ·it [gain].
This is also useless [1:2].
11 The more ·wealth [prosperity] people have,
the more friends they have to ·help spend [consume] it.
So what do people really ·gain [profit]?
They ·gain [profit] nothing except to ·look at their riches [admire it].
12 ·Those who work hard sleep in peace [L Sweet is the sleep of the laborer];
it is not important if they eat little or much.
But ·rich people worry about their wealth
and cannot [L the abundance of the wealthy does not let them] sleep.
13 ·I have seen real misery here [L There is a sickening evil I have seen] ·on earth [L under the sun; 1:3]:
·Money [Wealth] ·saved is a curse to [is hoarded to the harm of] its owners.
14 They lose ·it all [L that wealth] in a ·bad deal [evil/bad situation]
and have nothing to give to their children.
15 People come ·into this world [L from the womb of their mother] ·with nothing [naked],
and when they ·die [return] they leave with nothing.
In spite of all their hard ·work [toil],
they leave just as they came.
16 This, too, is ·real misery [a sickening evil]:
They leave just as they came.
So what do they ·gain [profit] from chasing the wind?
17 ·All they get are days full of sadness and sorrow [L They eat all their days in darkness],
and they end up sick, defeated, and ·angry [frustrated].
Enjoy Your Life’s Work
18 I have ·seen [observed] what is ·best [good] for people ·here on earth [L under the sun; 1:3]. ·They [L It is fitting/appropriate that they] should eat and drink and enjoy their ·work [toil], because ·the life God has given them on earth is short [L that is their reward during the few days God has given to this person under the sun; 1:3]. 19 God gives some people the ability to enjoy the wealth and ·property [possessions] he gives them, as well as the ability to accept their ·state in life [reward] and ·enjoy [take pleasure in] their work. 20 They do not ·worry about how short life is [L remember much about the days of their life], because God keeps them busy with ·what they love to do [L the pleasure of their heart; 2:24–26; 3:12–14, 22; 8:15; 9:7–10; C the little pleasures are distractions from the meaningless world].
Ecclesiastes 5
King James Version
5 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.
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.
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