Ecclesiastes 5

Watch your step when you go to the house of God. Come near to listen, rather than to offer the sacrifice that fools offer, since they do not even know they are doing wrong.

1Keep 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.

Note"The house of God" is the temple in Jerusalem, where worshipers brought animals and grain to be offered on the altar. "Watch your step" translates a Hebrew phrase literally about guarding your foot: it means going there carefully and knowing what you are doing, not walking cautiously.

2Do not be quick to speak, and do not let your heart rush to say anything in front of God. God is in heaven and you are on earth. So keep your words few.

2Be 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.

3A dream comes when a person has too much on his mind, and a fool shows himself by talking too much.

3For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool’s voice is known by multitude of words.

4When you make a promise to God, do not put off keeping it, because he takes no pleasure in fools. Do what you promised.

4When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.

NoteA vow was a formal, binding promise made to God, usually to hand over an offering, money, or property to the temple if some request was granted. Israel's law treated an unpaid vow as a debt owed to God and required prompt payment (Deuteronomy 23:21-23), which is why delay is the issue here rather than the promise itself.

5It is better not to make a promise at all than to make one and not keep it.

5Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.

6Do not let your mouth lead you into sin, and do not tell the messenger that your promise was a mistake. Why make God angry at what you said, so that he ruins the work you have done?

6Suffer 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?

NoteThe King James "angel" translates a Hebrew word that simply means "messenger," and readers have understood it two ways: the temple official who came to collect what was promised, or a heavenly messenger keeping account. The rendering keeps the word neutral. Calling the vow "an error" means claiming it was made by mistake, a way of getting out of paying.

7For where there are many dreams and many words, there are also many empty things. So respect God and stand in awe of him.

7For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou God.

Note"Empty things" translates the Hebrew word hebel, which literally means a breath or a puff of vapor. It runs through the whole book, and it carries the sense of something insubstantial and fleeting that slips away when you try to hold it, rather than something worthless.

8If you see poor people being crushed, and justice and fairness violently twisted in a province, do not be shocked by it. One official is watched by another above him, and there are still higher ones over them.

8If 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.

NoteA province was an administrative district of a large empire, run by a stack of appointed officials. The point of the closing lines is disputed: the layers of watchers above may be read as bureaucrats each covering for the one below (so nothing gets fixed), or as a higher authority that finally sees everything. The Hebrew allows both, and the rendering leaves it open.

9Besides, everyone lives off what the land produces. Even the king depends on the fields.

9Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served by the field.

NoteThis is one of the most obscure sentences in the book, and translators disagree sharply. The Hebrew can mean that everyone benefits from the land's produce, that the king profits from cultivated fields, or even that the king is himself dependent on and served by the land.

10The person who loves silver never has enough silver, and the person who loves plenty never has enough income. This too is empty.

10He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.

NoteSilver was money. Coins were not yet minted in this period, so payments were made in weighed amounts of silver, and "silver" is simply the ordinary word for wealth in hand.

11When goods increase, so do the people who eat them. What does the owner get out of it, except to look at his goods with his own eyes?

11When 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?

12A working man sleeps well, whether he eats little or much. But a rich man's plenty will not let him sleep.

12The 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.

13Here is a painful evil I have seen under the sun: riches kept back by their owner, and it does him harm.

13There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.

Note"Under the sun" is the book's recurring phrase for life in this world, in the ordinary course of human existence, the vantage point the writer keeps insisting he is speaking from.

14Then those riches are lost in some bad venture, and when he has a son, there is nothing left in his hand to give him.

14But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand.

15He came out of his mother's womb with nothing, and he will go back the same way, naked as he came. He can carry nothing from his work away in his hand.

15As 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.

NoteInheritance passed to sons, and a man's standing depended on what he could leave them. Losing the estate before a son could inherit it meant the whole life's work ended with him.

16This too is a painful evil: exactly as a man comes, so he goes. What does he gain from working for the wind?

16And 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?

17All his days he eats in the dark, with a great deal of grief, sickness, and anger.

17All his days also he eateth in darkness, and he hath much sorrow and wrath with his sickness.

Note"He eats in the dark" is an idiom for a life lived in gloom, meals taken joylessly and alone, rather than the shared, well-lit eating that stands for a good life in the next verse.

18Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all the work a person does under the sun during the days of life that God gives him. That is his share.

18Behold 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.

19And when God gives a person riches and property, and lets him enjoy them, take his share, and be glad in his work, that is a gift from God.

19Every 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.

20Such a person will not brood much over the days of his life, because God keeps him busy with gladness in his heart.

20For he shall not much remember the days of his life; because God answereth him in the joy of his heart.