Welcome to our website where we explore the Bible! Pleasure to meet you here!
May your journey into the world of the Holy Scriptures be engaging and inspiring!
You can change reading language: uk ru
Parallel
English Standard Version
New Living Translation
For a dream comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words.
Too much activity gives you restless dreams; too many words make you a fool.
When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow.
When you make a promise to God, don’t delay in following through, for God takes no pleasure in fools. Keep all the promises you make to him.
It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay.
It is better to say nothing than to make a promise and not keep it.
Don’t let your mouth make you sin. And don’t defend yourself by telling the Temple messenger that the promise you made was a mistake. That would make God angry, and he might wipe out everything you have achieved.
Talk is cheap, like daydreams and other useless activities. Fear God instead.
The Vanity of Wealth and Honor
If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and righteousness, do not be amazed at the matter, for the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them.
If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and righteousness, do not be amazed at the matter, for the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them.
The Futility of Wealth
Don’t be surprised if you see a poor person being oppressed by the powerful and if justice is being miscarried throughout the land. For every official is under orders from higher up, and matters of justice get lost in red tape and bureaucracy.
He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity.
Those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness!
When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes?
The more you have, the more people come to help you spend it. So what good is wealth — except perhaps to watch it slip through your fingers!
Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.
People who work hard sleep well, whether they eat little or much. But the rich seldom get a good night’s sleep.
There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owner to his hurt,
There is another serious problem I have seen under the sun. Hoarding riches harms the saver.
and those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he is father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand.
Money is put into risky investments that turn sour, and everything is lost. In the end, there is nothing left to pass on to one’s children.
As he came from his mother’s womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand.
We all come to the end of our lives as naked and empty-handed as on the day we were born. We can’t take our riches with us.
This also is a grievous evil: just as he came, so shall he go, and what gain is there to him who toils for the wind?
And this, too, is a very serious problem. People leave this world no better off than when they came. All their hard work is for nothing — like working for the wind.
Moreover, all his days he eats in darkness in much vexation and sickness and anger.
Throughout their lives, they live under a cloud — frustrated, discouraged, and angry.
Even so, I have noticed one thing, at least, that is good. It is good for people to eat, drink, and enjoy their work under the sun during the short life God has given them, and to accept their lot in life.
Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil — this is the gift of God.
And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life — this is indeed a gift from God.