Parallel Bible results for "ecclesiastes 5"

Ecclesiastes 5

New Living Translation NLT

1 As you enter the house of God, keep your ears open and your mouth shut. It is evil to make mindless offerings to God.

2 Don’t make rash promises, and don’t be hasty in bringing matters before God. After all, God is in heaven, and you are here on earth. So let your words be few.

3 Too much activity gives you restless dreams; too many words make you a fool.

4 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.

5 It is better to say nothing than to make a promise and not keep it.

6 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.

7 Talk is cheap, like daydreams and other useless activities. Fear God instead.

8 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.

9 Even the king milks the land for his own profit!

10 Those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness!

11 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!

12 People who work hard sleep well, whether they eat little or much. But the rich seldom get a good night’s sleep.

13 There is another serious problem I have seen under the sun. Hoarding riches harms the saver.

14 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.

15 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.

16 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.

17 Throughout their lives, they live under a cloud—frustrated, discouraged, and angry.

18 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.

19 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.

20 God keeps such people so busy enjoying life that they take no time to brood over the past.

Hebrew Names Version HNV

1 Guard your steps when you go to God's house; for to draw near to listen is better than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they don't know that they do evil.

2 Don't be rash with your mouth, and don't let your heart be hasty to utter anything before God; for God is in heaven, and you on eretz. Therefore let your words be few.

3 For as a dream comes with a multitude of cares, so a fool's speech with a multitude of words.

4 When you vow a vow to God, don't defer to pay it; for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay that which you vow.

5 It is better that you should not vow, than that you should vow and not pay.

6 Don't allow your mouth to lead you into sin. Don't protest before the messenger that this was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice, and destroy the work of your hands?

7 For in the multitude of dreams there are vanities, as well as in many words: but you must fear God.

8 If you see the oppression of the poor, and the violent taking away of justice and righteousness in a district, don't marvel at the matter: for one official is eyed by a higher one; and there are officials over them.

9 Moreover the profit of the eretz is for all. The king profits from the field.

10 He who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he who loves abundance, with increase: this also is vanity.

11 When goods increase, those who eat them are increased; and what advantage is there to its owner, except to feast on them with his eyes?

12 The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much; but the abundance of the rich will not allow him to sleep.

13 There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: wealth kept by its owner to his harm.

14 Those riches perish by misfortune, and if he has fathered a son, there is nothing in his hand.

15 As he came forth from his mother's womb, naked shall he go again as he came, and shall take nothing for his labor, which he may carry away in his hand.

16 This also is a grievous evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go. And what profit does he have who labors for the wind?

17 All his days he also eats in darkness, he is frustrated, and has sickness and wrath.

18 Behold, that which I have seen to be good and proper is for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy good in all his labor, in which he labors under the sun, all the days of his life which God has given him; for this is his portion.

19 Every man also to whom God has given riches and wealth, and has given him power to eat of it, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labor -- this is the gift of God.

20 For he shall not often reflect on the days of his life; because God occupies him with the joy of his heart.