KJ3 Literal Translation
Ecclesiastes 5
Vanities in divine service, in murmuring against oppression, and in riches. Joy in riches is the gift of Jehovah.
1Guard your feet when you go to the house of God, and draw near to hear, more than to give a sacrifice, as do the fools. For they do not know that they are doing an evil thing.
2Do not be hurried with your mouth, and do not let your heart hurry to bring forth a word before God. For God is in Heaven, and you are on earth; on account of this, let your words be few.
3For the dream comes through the greatness of the task; and the voice of the fool is known by the greatness of his words.
4When you vow a vow to God, do not wait to fulfill it. For He has no pleasure in fools. Fulfill that which you have vowed.
5It is better that you should not vow, than that you should vow and not fulfill it.
6Do not allow your mouth to cause your flesh to sin; do not say before the angel that it was an error. Why should God be angry over your voice, and destroy the work of your hands?
7For in the multitude of dreams, both words and vanities abound; but fear God.
8If you see the oppression of the poor, or the removing of justice and righteousness in the province, do not be amazed at the purpose. For a high one over a high one is watching; and high ones are over them.
9And the advantage of a land, it is among all; even a king has a field being tilled.
10He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver; and he who loves abundance does not gain. This is also vanity.
11When the good thing increases, those who devour it increase; then what profit is it to its possessor, except to see it with his eyes?
12The sleep of the laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much. But the sated lust of the rich will not allow him to sleep.
13There is an evil thing which I have seen under the sun, which makes one to be sick: riches being kept for its owner to his evil;
14but those riches perish by an evil task; and he fathers a son, and not anything is in his hand.
15As he came forth from his mother's womb naked, he shall return to go as he came. And from his toil he may not carry anything that may go in his hand.
16And this also is an evil thing which makes one to be sick, that in all, as he came, so shall he go. And what profit is to him who has labored for the wind?
17Also all his days he eats in darkness, and with much grief, and with his sickness and wrath.
18Behold that which I have seen: It is good, it is beautiful, to eat and to drink and to see good in all his labor that the laborer does under the sun, the number of the days of his life which God gives to him, for it is his portion.
19Also every man to whom God has given riches and treasures, and gives him power to eat of it, and to take his share, and to rejoice in being a laborer; it is the gift of God.
20For he shall not much remember the days of his life, because God answers him in the joy of his heart.
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