a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
[13] Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king,
who will no more be admonished.
[14] For out of prison he cometh to reign; whereas also he that is born
in his kingdom becometh poor.
[15] I considered all the living which walk under the sun, with the second
child that shall stand up in his stead.
[16] There is no end of all the people, even of all that have been
before them: they also that come after shall not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and vexation of
spirit.
Qoh.5
[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.
Qoh.6
[1] There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men:
[2] A man to whom
God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth,
yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it: this is vanity, and it is an evil disease.
[3]
If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and
his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better
than he.
[4] For he cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered
with darkness.
[5] Moreover he hath not seen the sun, nor known any thing: this hath more rest than the
other.
[6] Yea, though he live a thousand years twice told, yet hath he seen no good: do not all go to
one place?
[7] All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.
[8] For what hath
the wise more than the fool? what hath the poor, that knoweth to walk before the living?
[9] Better is
the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this is also vanity and vexation of spirit.
[10] That
which hath been is named already, and it is known that it is man: neither may he contend with him that
is mightier than he.
[11] Seeing there be many things that increase vanity, what is man the better?
[12]
For who knoweth what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a
shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?