B3 K1 1,2. Works.
L1 3. Reason.
K2 4-6. Vows.
L2 7. Reason.
K3 8-. Perverting of judgment.
L3 -8. Reason.
K4 9-12. Riches.
Ecclesiastes 5)
1 Keep your foot when you go to the house of the true God, and be more ready to obey, than to give the sacrifice of fools (= fat, inert): for they consider not that they do evil.
2 Be not rash with your mouth, and let not your heart be hasty to utter any word before God: for God is in heaven, and you upon earth (same idea as "under the sun"): therefore let your words be few.
3 For a dream comes through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words.
4 When you make a solemn vow to God, defer not to pay it; for He has no pleasure (see "purpose" in 3:1) in fools: pay that which you have vowed.
5 Better is it that you should not vow, than that you should vow and not pay.
6 Suffer not your mouth to cause your flesh to sin (by vows made concerning the flesh, such as eating and drinking, marrying,&c.); neither say you before the messenger, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at your voice (put for words uttered by it), and confiscate the work of your hands?
7 For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also great vanities (i.e. the many dreams and many words, also [there is] great vanity: referring to v.3): but revere you God.
8 If you see the oppression of the needy (in want), and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: (Heb. purpose or desire, put for the effect of it.)
for the high One above the high one regards, even the Most High is over them.
9 Moreover the profit of the earth [it] consists in the whole (i.e. not confined to one day): the king himself is served by the field.
10 And who is [ever] content with abundance without increase (capital without interest): this is also vanity.
11 When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what advantage is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with his eyes?
12 The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep soundly.
C3 M g1 5:13. Self. Labor for.
h1 5:14,15. Profitless.
g 5:16. Self. Labor for.
h2 5:17. Profitless.
N 5:18-20. Long life.
M g3 6:1,2-. Self. Riches for.
h3 6:-2. Profitless.
g4 6:3-. Self. Children.
h4 6:-3. Profitless.
N 6:4-9. Long life.
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 fatigue from toil: and he begets a son, and there is nothing in his hand.
15 According as (cp. Job 1:21. Ps. 49:17. 1 Tim. 6:7) he came forth of his mother's womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labor, 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 advantage has he that has toiled for the wind?
17 All his days also he eats in darkness, and he has much sorrow and wrath with his sickness.
18 Behold that which I have seen: it is good and well for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor that he takes under the sun all the days of his life, which God gives him: for it is his portion.
19 Every man also to whom God has given riches and wealth, and has given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labor; this is a gift of God.
20 For he shall not much remember the days of his life; because God causes [things] to respond to him in the joy of his heart.