1. Keep thy foot when thou
goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the
sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.
2. Be not rash with thy
mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God:
for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be
few.
3. For a dream cometh
through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known by
multitude of words.
4. When thou vowest a vow
unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay
that which thou hast vowed.
5. Better is it that thou
shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.
6. Suffer not thy mouth to
cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was
an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the
work of thine hands?
7. For in the multitude of
dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou
God.
8. If thou seest the
oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice
in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than
the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they.
9. Moreover the profit of
the earth is for all: the king himself is served by the field.
10. He that loveth silver
shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with
increase: this is also vanity.
11. When goods increase,
they are increased that eat them: and what good is there to the owners
thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?
12. The sleep of a
labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the
abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.
13. There is a sore evil
which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners
thereof to their hurt.
14. But those riches perish
by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his
hand.
15. As he came forth of his
mother's womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take
nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand.
16. And this also is a sore
evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit
hath he that hath laboured for the wind?
17. All his days also he
eateth in darkness, and he hath much sorrow and wrath with his
sickness.
18. Behold that which I
have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to
enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the
days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his portion.
19. Every man also to whom
God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat
thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour; this
is the gift of God.
20. For he shall not much
remember the days of his life; because God answereth him in the joy of
his heart.
Sept. 20
Daily reading schedule.. go to chapter
6
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