| English Standard Version | New Living Translation |
| 1Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. | 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. |
| 2Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. | 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. |
| 3For a dream comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words. | 3Too much activity gives you restless dreams; too many words make you a fool. |
| 4When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. | 4When 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. |
| 5It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. | 5It is better to say nothing than to make a promise and not keep it. |
| 6Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? | 6Don’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. |
| 7For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity; but God is the one you must fear. | 7Talk is cheap, like daydreams and other useless activities. Fear God instead. The Futility of Wealth |
| 8If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and righteousness, do not be amazed at the matter, for the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them. | 8Don’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. |
| 9But this is gain for a land in every way: a king committed to cultivated fields. | 9Even the king milks the land for his own profit! |
| 10He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. | 10Those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness! |
| 11When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes? | 11The 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! |
| 12Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep. | 12People who work hard sleep well, whether they eat little or much. But the rich seldom get a good night’s sleep. |
| 13There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owner to his hurt, | 13There is another serious problem I have seen under the sun. Hoarding riches harms the saver. |
| 14and those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he is father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand. | 14Money 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. |
| 15As he came from his mother’s womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand. | 15We 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. |
| 16This also is a grievous evil: just as he came, so shall he go, and what gain is there to him who toils for the wind? | 16And 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. |
| 17Moreover, all his days he eats in darkness in much vexation and sickness and anger. | 17Throughout their lives, they live under a cloud—frustrated, discouraged, and angry. |
| 18Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. | 18Even 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. |
| 19Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God. | 19And 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. |
| 20For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart. | 20God keeps such people so busy enjoying life that they take no time to brood over the past. |
| ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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