Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God;{HR}For to draw nigh to hear is better than to give the sacrifice of fools:{HR}For they know not that they do evil.
Be not rash with thy mouth,{HR}And let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God;{HR}For God is in heaven, and thou upon the earth:{HR}Therefore let thy words be few.
For a dream cometh with a multitude of business:{HR}And a fool’s voice with a multitude of words.
When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it;{HR}For he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou vowest.
Better is it that thou shouldest not vow,{HR}Than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.
Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin;{HR}Neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error:{HR}Wherefore should God be angry at thy voice,{HR}And destroy the work of thy hands?
For in the multitude of dreams and many words{HR}[Are] also vanities: but fear thou God.
If thou seest the oppression of the poor,{HR}And the violent taking away of judgment{HR}And justice in a province,{HR}Marvel not at the matter:{HR}For one higher than the high regardeth;{HR}And there are higher than they.
Moreover the profit of the earth is every way:{HR}The king is served by the field.
He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver;{HR}Nor he that loveth abundance with increase:{HR}This also is vanity.
When goods increase, they are increased that eat them:{HR}And what advantage is there to the owner thereof,{HR}Save the beholding of them with his eyes?
The sleep of a labouring man is sweet,{HR}Whether he eat little or much:{HR}But the fullness of the rich{HR}Will not suffer him to sleep.
There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun,{HR}Riches kept by the owner thereof to his hurt;
And those riches perish by evil adventure;{HR}And if he hath begotten a son,{HR}There is nothing in his hand.
As he came forth of his mother’s womb,{HR}Naked shall he go again as he came,{HR}And shall take nothing of his labour,{HR}Which he may carry away in his hand.
And this also is a grievous evil,{HR}That in all points as he came, so shall he go:{HR}And what profit hath he that laboureth for the wind?
All his days also he eateth in darkness,{HR}And he is sore vexed and hath sickness and irritation.
Behold, that which I have seen to be good{HR}And to be comely is for one to eat and to drink,{HR}And to enjoy good in all his labour,{HR}Wherein he laboureth under the sun,{HR}All the days of his life which God hath given him:{HR}For this is his portion.
Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth,{HR}And hath given him power to eat thereof,{HR}And to take his portion,{HR}And to rejoice in his labour;{HR}This is the gift of God.
For he shall not much remember the days of his life;{HR}Because God answereth him with the joy of his heart.