1 Keep thy foot when thou go to the house of God, for to draw near to hear is better than to give the sacrifice of fools. For they know not that they do evil.
2 Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thy heart be hasty to utter anything before God. For God is in heaven, and thou upon earth. Therefore let thy words be few.
3 For a dream comes with a multitude of business, and a fool's voice with a multitude of words.
4 When thou vow a vow to God, defer not to pay it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay that which thou vow.
5 Better is it that thou should not vow, than that thou should vow and not pay.
6 Do not allow thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin, nor say thou before the [heavenly] agent, that is was an error. Why should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thy hands?
7 For in the multitude of dreams there are vanities, and in many words. But fear thou God.
8 If thou see the oppression of a poor man, and the violent wresting of justice and righteousness in a province, marvel not at the matter. For [a man] higher than the high is observing, and there are higher [men] than they.
9 Moreover the abundance of the land is for all. The king [himself] is served by the field.
10 He who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This also is vanity.
11 When goods increase, they are increased who eat them. And what advantage is there to the owner of it, except the beholding [of them] with his eyes?
12 The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the fullness of the rich will not allow him to sleep.
13 There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: Riches [were] kept by the owner of it to his hurt.
14 And those riches perish in a bad venture. And if he has begotten a son, there is nothing in his hand.
15 As he came forth from his mother's womb, naked shall he go again as he came, and shall take nothing for his labor, which he may carry away in his hand.
16 And this also is a grievous evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go. And what profit has he that he labored for the wind?
17 All his days also he eats in gloom, and he is greatly troubled, and has depression and anger.
18 Behold, that which I have seen to be good and to be fitting is [for a man] to eat and to drink, and to enjoy good in all his labor in which he labors under the sun all the days of his life which God has given him, for this is his p
19 Every man also to whom God has given riches and wealth, and has given him power to eat of it, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labor--this is the gift of God.
20 For he shall not much remember the days of his life, because God answers [him] in the joy of his heart.