Read Amplified Bible, 2015 Ecclesiastes 5 Bible Online

Ecclesiastes 5 - Amplified Bible, 2015 bible

Ecclesiastes 5

¹Guard your steps and focus on what you are doing as you go to the house of God and draw near to listen rather than to offer the [careless or irreverent] sacrifice of fools; for they are too ignorant to know they are doing evil.

²Do not be hasty with your mouth [speaking careless words or vows] or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter before God. For God is in heaven and you are on earth; therefore let your words be few.

³For the dream comes through much effort, and the voice of the fool through many words.

⁴When you make a vow or a pledge to God, do not put off paying it; for God takes no pleasure in fools [who thoughtlessly mock Him]. Pay what you vow.

⁵It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay.

⁶Do not allow your speech to cause you to sin, and do not say before the messenger (priest) of God that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry because of your voice (words) and destroy the work of your hands?

⁷For in a multitude of dreams and in a flood of words there is worthlessness. Rather [reverently] fear God [and worship Him with awe-filled respect, knowing who He is].

⁸If you see the oppression of the poor and the denial of justice and righteousness in the province, do not be shocked at the sight [of corruption]; for a higher official watches over another official, and there are higher ones over them [looking out for one another].

⁹After all, a king who cultivates the field is an advantage to the land.

¹⁰He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its gain. This too is vanity (emptiness).

¹¹When good things increase, those who consume them increase. So what advantage is there to their owners except to see them with their eyes?

¹²The sleep of a working man is sweet, whether he eats little or much; but the full stomach (greed) of the rich [who hungers for even more] will not let him sleep.

¹³There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches being kept and hoarded by their owner to his own misery.

¹⁴For when those riches are lost in bad investments and he becomes the father of a son, then there is nothing in his hand [for the support of the child].

¹⁵As he came naked from his mother's womb, so he will return as he came; and he will take away nothing from all his labor that he can carry in his hand.

¹⁶This also is a grievous evil—exactly as he was born, so he shall die. So what advantage has he who labors for the wind?

¹⁷All of his life he also eats in darkness [cheerlessly, without sweetness and light], with great frustration, sickness, and anger.

¹⁸Behold, here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat and drink, and to find enjoyment in all the labor in which he labors under the sun during the few days of his life which God gives him—for this is his [allotted] reward.

¹⁹Also, every man to whom God has given riches and possessions, He has also given the power and ability to enjoy them and to receive [this as] his [allotted] portion and to rejoice in his labor—this is the gift of God [to him].

²⁰For he will not often consider the [troubled] days of his life, because God keeps him occupied and focused on the joy of his heart [and the tranquility of God indwells him].