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Your Attitude Toward God
Guard your steps as you go to the house of God and draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools; for they do not know they are doing evil.
Guard your steps as you go to the house of God and draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools; for they do not know they are doing evil.
Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God. For God is in heaven and you are on the earth; therefore let your words be few.
Too much activity gives you restless dreams; too many words make you a fool.
For the dream comes through much effort and the voice of a fool through many words.
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.
When you make a vow to God, do not be late in paying it; for He takes no delight in fools. Pay what you vow!
It is better to say nothing than to make a promise and not keep it.
It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay.
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.
Do not let your speech cause you to sin and do not say in the presence of the messenger of God that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry on account of your voice and destroy the work of your hands?
Talk is cheap, like daydreams and other useless activities. Fear God instead.
For in many dreams and in many words there is emptiness. Rather, fear God.
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.
If you see oppression of the poor and denial of justice and righteousness in the province, do not be shocked at the sight; for one official watches over another official, and there are higher officials over them.
After all, a king who cultivates the field is an advantage to the land.
Those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness!
The Folly of Riches
He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income. This too is vanity.
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!
When good things increase, those who consume them increase. So what is the advantage to their owners except to look on?
People who work hard sleep well, whether they eat little or much. But the rich seldom get a good night’s sleep.
The sleep of the working man is pleasant, whether he eats little or much; but the full stomach of the rich man does not allow him to sleep.
There is another serious problem I have seen under the sun. Hoarding riches harms the saver.
There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches being hoarded by their owner to his hurt.
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.
When those riches were lost through a bad investment and he had fathered a son, then there was nothing to support him.
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.
As he had come naked from his mother’s womb, so will he return as he came. He will take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand.
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.
This also is a grievous evil — exactly as a man is born, thus will he die. So what is the advantage to him who toils for the wind?
Throughout their lives, they live under a cloud — frustrated, discouraged, and angry.
Throughout his life he also eats in darkness with great vexation, sickness and anger.
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.
Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat, to drink and enjoy oneself in all one’s labor in which he toils under the sun during the few years of his life which God has given him; for this is his reward.
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.
Furthermore, as for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them and to receive his reward and rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God.