Ecclesiastes 4:13-5:12

  1. Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished.
  2. For out of prison he cometh to reign; whereas also he that is born in his kingdom becometh poor.
  3. I considered all the living which walk under the sun, with the second child that shall stand up in his stead.
  4. 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.
  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.