Quhalath (Ecclesiastes) — 5

Approaching ALUAH with Care

1 As you enter the house of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH, keep your ears open and your mouth shut. It is evil to make mindless offerings to your 𐤀𐤋𐤅𐤄_ALUAH. 

2 Do not make rash promises, and do not be hasty in bringing matters before 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH. After all, 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH is in Shamaym, and you are here on the Arath. So let your words be few.

3 Too much activity gives you restless dreams; too many words make you a fool.

4 When you make a promise to 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH, do not delay in following through, for 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH takes no pleasure in fools. Keep all the promises you make to Him. 

5 It is better to say nothing than to make a promise and not keep it. 

6 Do not let your mouth make you sin, and do not defend yourself by telling the Temple messenger that the promise you made was a mistake. That would make your 𐤀𐤋𐤅𐤄_ALUAH angry, and He might wipe out everything you have achieved.

7 Talk is cheap, like daydreams and other useless activities. Fear 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH  instead.

The Futility of Wealth

8 Do not 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. 

9 Even the king milks the land for his own profit!

10 Those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness! 

11 The 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!

12 People who work hard sleep well, whether they eat little or much. But the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep.

13 There is another serious problem I have seen under the sun. Hoarding riches harms the saver. 

14 Money 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. 

15 We all come to the end of our lives as naked and empty-handed as on the day we were born. We can not take our riches with us.

16 And 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. 

17 Throughout their lives, they live under a cloud frustrated, discouraged, and angry.

18 Even so, I have noticed one thing, at least, that is good for people to eat, drink, and enjoy their work under the sun during the short life 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH has given them, and to accept their lot in life. 

19 And it is a good thing to receive wealth from 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life, this is indeed a gift from your 𐤀𐤋𐤅𐤄_ALUAH. 

20 For 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH keeps such people so busy enjoying life that they take no time to brood over the past.