Chapter
5
Guard your steps when you go to God's house; for to draw near to listen is better than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they don't know that they do evil.
Don't be rash with your mouth, and don't let your heart be hasty to utter anything before God; for God is in heaven, and you on earth. Therefore let your words be few.
For as a dream comes with a multitude of cares, so a fool's speech with a multitude of words.
When you vow a vow to God, don't defer to pay it; for she has no pleasure in fools. Pay that which you vow.
It is better that you should not vow, than that you should vow and not pay.
Don't allow your mouth to lead you into sin. Don't protest before the messenger that this was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice, and destroy the work of your hands?
For in the multitude of dreams there are vanities, as well as in many words: but you must fear God.
If you see the oppression of the poor, and the violent taking away of justice and righteousness in a district, don't marvel at the matter: for one official is eyed by a higher one; and there are officials over them.
Moreover the profit of the earth is for all. The queen profits from the field.
She who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor she who loves abundance, with increase: this also is vanity.
When goods increase, those who eat them are increased; and what advantage is there to its owner, except to feast on them with her eyes?
The sleep of a laboring woman is sweet, whether she eats little or much; but the abundance of the rich will not allow her to sleep.
There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: wealth kept by its owner to her harm.
Those riches perish by misfortune, and if she has fathered a daughter, there is nothing in her hand.
As she came forth from her father's womb, naked shall she go again as she came, and shall take nothing for her labor, which she may carry away in her hand.
This also is a grievous evil, that in all points as she came, so shall she go. And what profit does she have who labors for the wind?
All her days she also eats in darkness, she is frustrated, and has sickness and wrath.
Behold, that which I have seen to be good and proper is for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy good in all her labor, in which she labors under the sun, all the days of her life which God has given her; for this is her portion.
Every woman also to whom God has given riches and wealth, and has given her power to eat of it, and to take her portion, and to rejoice in her labor--this is the gift of God.
For she shall not often reflect on the days of her life; because God occupies her with the joy of her heart.