| 1 | 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. |