Ecclesiastes 5-8

Amplified Bible

Your Attitude Toward God

5 Guard 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.^{(A) 2} Do 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. ³ For the dream comes through much effort, and the voice of the fool through many words.

⁴ When 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.^{(B) 5} It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay.^{(C) 6} Do 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?^{(D) 7} For 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].

⁸ If 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]. ⁹ After all, a king who cultivates the field is an advantage to the land.

The Folly of Riches

¹⁰ He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its gain. This too is vanity (emptiness). ¹¹ When good things increase, those who consume them increase. So what advantage is there to their owners except to see them with their eyes? ¹² The 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.

¹³ There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches being kept and hoarded by their owner to his own misery. ¹⁴ For 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]. ¹⁵ As 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.^{(E) 16} This also is a grievous evil—exactly as he was born, so he shall die. So what advantage has he who labors for the wind?^{(F) 17} All of his life he also eats in darkness [cheerlessly, without sweetness and light], with great frustration, sickness, and anger.

¹⁸ Behold, 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.^{(G) 19} Also, 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]. ²⁰ For 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].

The Futility of Life

6 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it weighs heavily on men: ² a man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God has not given him the power or capacity to enjoy them [all those things which are gifts from God], but a stranger [in whom he has no interest succeeds him and] enjoys them. This is vanity and it is a [cause of] great distress.^{(H) 3} If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, however many they may be, but his soul is not satisfied with good things and he is not respected and is not given a proper burial [he is not laid to rest in the sepulcher of his fathers], then I say, “Better the miscarriage than he,^{(I) 4} for the miscarriage comes in futility (in vain) and passes into obscurity; and its name is covered in obscurity. ⁵ It has not seen the sun nor had any knowledge; yet it has more rest and is better off than he. ⁶ Even if the other man lives a thousand years twice over and yet has seen no good and experienced no enjoyment—do not both go to one place [the grave]?”

⁷ All the labor of man is for his mouth [for self-preservation and enjoyment], and yet the desire [of his soul] is not satisfied.^{(J) 8} For what advantage has the wise man over the fool [for being worldly-wise is not the secret to happiness]? What advantage has the poor man who has learned how to walk [publicly] among the living [with men’s eyes on him; for being poor is not the secret to happiness either]? ⁹ What the eyes see [enjoying what is available] is better than [craving] what the soul desires. This too is futility and chasing after the wind.

¹⁰ Whatever exists has already been named [long ago], and it is known what [a frail being] man is; for he cannot dispute with Him who is mightier than he. ¹¹ For there are many other words that increase futility. What then is the advantage for a man? ¹² For who [^[a]limited by human wisdom] knows what is good for man during his lifetime, during the few days of his futile life? He spends them like a shadow [staying busy, but achieving nothing of lasting value]. For who can tell a man what will happen after him [to his work, his treasure, his plans] under the sun [after his life is over]?

Wisdom and Folly Contrasted

¹⁵ I have seen everything during my [fleeting] days of futility; there is a righteous man who perishes in [spite of] his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who ^[b]lives a long life in [spite of] his wickedness. ¹⁶ Do not be excessively righteous [like those given to self-conceit], and do not be overly wise (pretentious)—why should you bring yourself to ruin? ¹⁷ Do not be excessively or willfully wicked and do not be a fool. Why should you die before your time? ¹⁸ It is good that you take hold of one thing (righteousness) and also not let go of the other (wisdom); for the one who fears and worships God [with awe-filled reverence] will come forth with both of them.

¹⁹ Wisdom strengthens the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city.^{(M) 20} Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who always does good and who never sins.^{(N) 21} Also, do not take seriously everything that is said, so that you will not hear your servant cursing you, ²² for you also know that you too have cursed others many times.

²³ I have tested all this with wisdom. I said, “I will be wise [independently of God],” but true wisdom was far from me. ²⁴ Whatever has been is far off, deeply remote and exceedingly mysterious. Who can discover it [for it is beyond the grasp of man]?^{(O) 25} I turned around and directed my heart to know, to investigate and to seek [skillful and godly] wisdom and the reason for things, and to know that wickedness is folly and that foolishness is madness [leading to stupidity and recklessness]. ²⁶ And I discovered that [of all irrational sins none has been so destructive in beguiling one away from God as immoral women for] more bitter than death is the woman whose heart is [composed of] snares and nets, and whose hands are chains. Whoever pleases God will escape from her, but the sinner will be taken captive by her [evil].

²⁷ “Behold, I have discovered this,” says the Preacher, “while adding one thing to another to find an explanation, ²⁸ which I am still seeking but have not found. I have found one ^[c]man among a thousand [who pleases God], but I have not found [such] a woman among all these [a thousand in my harem].^{(P) 29} Behold, I have found only this [as a reason]: God made man upright and uncorrupted, but they [both men and women] have sought out many devices [for evil].”

Obey Rulers

² I counsel you to keep the command of the king because of the oath before God [by which you swore loyalty to him].^{(Q) 3} Do not be in a hurry to get out of his presence. Do not join in a malevolent matter, for the king will do whatever he pleases.

⁹ All this I have seen while applying my mind to every deed that is done under the sun. There is a time in which one man has exercised power over others to their detriment.

¹⁰ So then, I have seen the wicked buried, those who used to go in and out of the holy place [but did not thereby escape their doom], and they are [praised in spite of their evil and] soon forgotten in the city where they did such things. This too is futility (vanity, emptiness). ¹¹ Because the sentence against an evil act is not executed quickly, the hearts of the sons of men are fully set to do evil. ¹² Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and his life [seemingly] is prolonged [in spite of his wickedness], still I know that it will be well with those who [reverently] fear God, who fear and worship Him openly [realizing His omnipresence and His power].^{(R) 13} But it will not be well for the evil man, nor will he lengthen his days like a shadow, because he does not fear God.^(S)

¹⁴ There is a meaningless and futile thing which is done on the earth: that is, there are righteous men whose gain is as though they were evil, and evil men whose gain is as though they were righteous. I say that this too is futility (meaningless, vain). ¹⁵ Then I commended pleasure and enjoyment, because a man [without God] has no better thing under the sun than to eat and to drink and to be merry, for this will stand by him in his toil through the days of his life which God has given him under the sun.

¹⁶ When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to see the activities [of mankind] that take place upon the earth—how some men seem to sleep neither day nor night— ¹⁷ and I saw all the work of God, I concluded that man cannot discover the work that is done under the sun. Even though man may labor in seeking, he will not discover; and [more than that], though a wise man thinks and claims he knows, he will not be able to find it out.^(T)