1 Guard your step when you go to the house of God. Draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. 2 Do not be rash with your mouth, and do not let your heart hurry to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. 3 For a dream comes with much occupation, and a fool’s voice with many words. 4 When you make a vow to God, do not delay in paying it, for he takes no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. 5 It is better not to vow than to vow and not pay. 6 Do not let your mouth cause you to sin, and do not say before the messenger, “It was a mistake.” Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? 7 For with many dreams and many words there is vanity. But fear God. 8 If you see oppression of the poor and the robbery of justice and righteousness in a province, do not be astonished at the matter, for one high official watches over another, and higher ones are over them. 9 The profit of the land is for all; even a king is served by the field. 10 Whoever loves money is not satisfied with money, nor whoever loves abundance with income. This too is vanity. 11 When goods increase, those who consume them increase. What advantage does their owner have, except to look at them with his eyes? 12 Sweet is the sleep of the laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of the rich does not let him sleep. 13 There is a grievous evil I have seen under the sun: riches kept by their owner to his own harm. 14 Those riches are lost through a bad venture, and he fathers a son but has nothing in his hand. 15 As he came from his mother’s womb, naked, so he will go again as he came. He will take nothing from his toil that he can carry in his hand. 16 This too is a grievous evil: Just as he came, so he will go. What does he gain from toiling for the wind? 17 All his days he eats in darkness, with much grief, sickness, and anger. 18 Look, this is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil at which one toils under the sun during the numbered days of life God has given him, for this is his portion. 19 Also, when God gives a man wealth and possessions and enables him to enjoy them, to take his portion and rejoice in his toil, this is the gift of God. 20 For he does not often remember the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with the joy of his heart.