This edition follows the Hebrew versification; the traditional number is given in brackets.
1[5:2]Do not be rash with your mouth, and do not let your heart hurry to bring out a word before God. For God is in heaven and you are on the earth; therefore let your words be few. 2[5:3]For a dream comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words. 3[5:4]When you vow a vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Fulfill what you vow. 4[5:5]Better not to vow than to vow and not fulfill. 5[5:6]Do not let your mouth bring guilt on your flesh, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and ruin the work of your hands? 6[5:7]For in many dreams there are breaths, and words in plenty. But fear God. 7[5:8]If you see the poor oppressed, and justice and righteousness robbed away in a province, do not be astonished at the matter; for one high official watches over another high one, and there are higher ones over them. 8[5:9]And the gain of a land is in everything — a king who is served by the field. 9[5:10]Whoever loves silver will not be satisfied with silver, nor whoever loves abundance with income. This too is a breath. 10[5:11]When goods increase, those who eat them increase; and what use are they to their owner, except the sight of his eyes? 11[5:12]Sweet is the sleep of the laborer, whether he eats little or much; but the rich man’s fullness will not let him sleep. 12[5:13]There is a sickening evil I have seen under the sun: riches hoarded by their owner to his own hurt, 13[5:14]and those riches lost in a bad venture; and he fathered a son, and there is nothing in his hand. 14[5:15]As he came out of his mother’s womb, naked he will go back as he came, and he will carry away nothing from his toil that he can take in his hand. 15[5:16]And this too is a sickening evil: exactly as he came, so he goes; and what gain has he, that he toils for the wind? 16[5:17]Also, all his days he eats in darkness, with much vexation, and sickness, and rage. 17[5:18]Look, what I have seen to be good, what is fitting: to eat and drink and see good in all one’s toil that he toils at under the sun for the number of the days of his life that God has given him — for that is his portion. 18[5:19]Also, every man to whom God has given riches and possessions, and whom he has empowered to eat from them and take up his portion and rejoice in his toil — this is God’s gift. 19[5:20]For he will not much remember the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with the joy of his heart.
