¹Mind your feet when you go into the house of God, and be near so as to hear, rather than to let fools give a sacrifice, for they do not know anything other than doing wrong.

²Do not be rash with your mouth,

And do not let your heart be hasty in uttering a word in God's presence,

For God is in heaven,

But you are on the earth,

So let your words be few.

³For a dream comes with much to occupy one,

But the voice of the fool

Comes with many words.

⁴When you make a vow to God,

Do not be late in fulfilling it,

For there is no pleasure in fools.

What you have vowed, fulfil!

⁵It is better for you not to make a vow

Than to vow but not fulfil.

⁶Do not let your mouth cause you to commit carnal sin, and do not say in the presence of an angel that it was a sin through ignorance. Why should God become angry at your utterance and destroy the work of your hands? ⁷For in many dreams there are many vain things, as in many words. But fear God. ⁸If you see oppression of the impoverished, and wresting of justice and righteousness in a state, do not be surprised at the matter, for there is high rank watching over high rank, and higher ranks above them. ⁹And the benefit of the earth is for all. The king is served by the field.

¹⁰He who loves money

Will never be satisfied with money,

Nor will he who loves wealth be satisfied with profit.

This too is vanity.

¹¹With an increase in good things

Comes an increase in those that eat them,

So what is the advantage to their owner

Except a sight for his eyes?

¹²The workman's sleep is sweet

Whether he eats little or much,

But the abundance of the rich man

Does not permit him to sleep.

¹³There is a grievous injustice

That I have seen under the sun:

Riches kept by their owner

To his detriment.

¹⁴Then those riches are lost

In a calamitous affair,

And he begets a son

But has nothing in his hand.

¹⁵As when he came out of his mother's womb

– Naked – so he will return,

Going as he came,

And he will not take any of his toil with him

Which he might take in his hand.

¹⁶And this too is a grievous injustice:

In exactly the same way that he comes, so he goes.

So what benefit does he have

By toiling for the wind?

¹⁷Moreover all his days he eats in darkness

And is much grieved

And is sick and angry.

¹⁸Behold what I have seen. It is right that it is pleasant to eat and drink and to see goodness in all one's toil which one toils at under the sun for the number of days of one's life which God gives him, for that is his apportionment. ¹⁹Also as regards every man to whom God has given riches and property and has allowed him to eat from them, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his toil – this is a gift of God. ²⁰For one will not remember the days of his life much, for it is God who causes a response in the joy of his heart.