Ecclesiastes 5

1Guard 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.Cross-references: Gen 4:3 · Gen 28:16 · Ex 3:5 · Lev 10:3 · Josh 5:15 · 1Sam 13:12 · +18 more

2Don’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 earth. Therefore let your words be few.Cross-references: Gen 18:27 · Gen 18:30 · Gen 18:32 · Gen 28:20 · Gen 28:22 · Num 30:2 · +12 more

3For as a dream comes with a multitude of cares, so a fool’s speech with a multitude of words.Cross-references: Job 11:2 · Prov 10:19 · Prov 15:2 · Eccl 10:12

4When you vow a vow to God, don’t defer to pay it; for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay that which you vow.Cross-references: Gen 28:20 · Gen 35:1 · Gen 35:3 · Num 30:2 · Deut 23:21 · Ps 50:14 · +11 more

5It is better that you should not vow, than that you should vow and not pay.Cross-references: Deut 23:22 · Prov 20:25 · Acts 5:4

6Don’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?Cross-references: Gen 48:16 · Lev 5:4 · Lev 27:9 · Num 15:25 · Eccl 5:1 · Hos 12:4 · +12 more

7For in the multitude of dreams there are vanities, as well as in many words; but you must fear God.Cross-references: Prov 23:17 · Eccl 3:14 · Eccl 5:3 · Eccl 7:18 · Eccl 8:12 · Eccl 12:13 · +2 more

8If 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.Cross-references: 1Ki 21:19 · 1Chr 21:15 · Job 20:19 · Job 27:8 · Ps 10:17 · Ps 12:5 · +46 more

9Moreover the profit of the earth is for all. The king profits from the field.Cross-references: Gen 1:29 · Gen 3:17 · 1Sam 8:12 · 1Ki 4:7 · 1Chr 27:26 · Ps 104:14 · +5 more

10He who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This also is vanity.Cross-references: Ps 52:1 · Ps 52:7 · Ps 62:10 · Prov 30:15 · Eccl 1:17 · Eccl 2:11 · +12 more

11When goods increase, those who eat them are increased; and what advantage is there to its owner, except to feast on them with his eyes?Cross-references: Gen 12:16 · Gen 13:2 · Gen 13:5 · Josh 7:21 · 1Ki 4:22 · 1Ki 5:13 · +8 more

12The 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.Cross-references: Ps 4:8 · Ps 127:2 · Prov 3:24 · Jer 31:26

13There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: wealth kept by its owner to his harm.Cross-references: Gen 13:5 · Gen 14:16 · Gen 19:14 · Gen 19:26 · Gen 19:31 · Prov 1:11 · +19 more

14Those riches perish by misfortune, and if he has fathered a son, there is nothing in his hand.Cross-references: 1Sam 2:6 · 1Sam 2:36 · 1Ki 14:26 · Job 5:5 · Job 20:15 · Job 27:16 · +7 more

15As he came out of 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.Cross-references: Job 1:21 · Ps 49:17 · Luke 12:20 · 1Tim 6:7

16This 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?Cross-references: 1Sam 12:21 · Prov 11:29 · Eccl 1:3 · Eccl 2:22 · Eccl 5:13 · Isa 26:18 · +4 more

17All his days he also eats in darkness, he is frustrated, and has sickness and wrath.Cross-references: Gen 3:17 · 1Ki 17:12 · 2Ki 1:2 · 2Ki 1:6 · 2Ki 5:27 · 2Chr 16:10 · +10 more

18Behold, 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.Cross-references: Eccl 2:10 · Eccl 2:24 · Eccl 3:12 · Eccl 3:22 · Eccl 8:15 · Eccl 9:7 · +3 more

19Every 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.Cross-references: Deut 8:18 · 1Ki 3:13 · 2Chr 1:12 · Eccl 2:24 · Eccl 3:13 · Eccl 6:2

20For he shall not often reflect on the days of his life, because God occupies him with the joy of his heart.Cross-references: Deut 28:8 · Deut 28:47 · Ps 4:6 · Ps 37:16 · Isa 64:5 · Isa 65:13 · +3 more