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¹ Guard your feet when you go to the house of God, and draw near to hear, more than to give a sacrifice, as do the fools. For they do not know that they are doing evil.² Do not be hasty with your mouth, and do not let your heart hurry to bring forth a word before God. For God is in Heaven, and you are on earth; on account of this, let your words be few.³ For the dream comes through the greatness of the task; and the voice of the fool is known by the many words.

⁴ When you vow a vow to God, do not wait to fulfill it. For He has no pleasure in fools. Fulfill that which you have vowed.⁵ It is better that you should not vow, than that you should vow and not fulfill it.⁶ Do not allow your mouth to cause your flesh to sin; do not say before the angel that it was an error. Why should God be angry over your voice, and destroy the work of your hands?⁷ For in the multitude of dreams, both words and vanities abound; but fear God.⁸ If you see the oppression of the poor, or the removing of justice and righteousness in the province, do not be amazed at the purpose. For a high one over a high one is watching; and high ones are over them.

⁹ And the advantage of a land, it is among all; even a king has a field being tilled.¹⁰ He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver; and he who loves abundance does not gain. This is also vanity.¹¹ When the good thing increases, those who devour it increase; then what profit is it to its owners, except to see it with his eyes?¹² The sleep of the 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 painful evil which I have seen under the sun: riches being kept for their owner to his evil;¹⁴ but those riches perish by an evil use; and he fathers a son, and nothing is in his hand.¹⁵ As he came forth from his mother's womb naked, he shall return to go as he came. And from his labor he may not carry anything that may go in his hand.¹⁶ And this also is a painful evil, that in all, as he came, so shall he go. And what profit is to him who has labored for the wind?¹⁷ Also all his days he eats in darkness, and with much grief, along with his sickness and wrath.

¹⁸ See what I have seen: It is good which a laborer does to eat and to drink and to see good in all his labor which as a laborer does under the sun, the number of the days of his life which God gives to him, for it is his portion.¹⁹ Also every man to whom God has given riches and treasures, and gives him power to eat of it, and to take his share, and to rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God.²⁰ For he shall not much remember the days of his life, because God answers him in the joy of his heart.