Ecclesiastes 5:4-15

⁴If thou hast avowed anything to God, tarry thou not to yield it; for an unfaithful and fond promise displeaseth him; but yield thou whatever thing thou hast avowed;

⁵and it is much better to make not a vow, than after a vow to yield not the promises.

⁶Give thou not thy mouth, that thou make thy flesh to do sin; neither say thou before an angel, No purvey-ance there is; lest peradventure the Lord be wroth on thy words, and destroy all the works of thine hands.

⁷Where be many dreams, be full many vanities, and words without number; but dread thou God.

⁸If thou seest false challenges of needy men, and violent dooms, and that rightfulness is destroyed in the province, wonder thou not on this doing; for another is higher than an high man, and also other men be more high above these men;

⁹and furthermore the king of all earth commandeth to the servant.

¹⁰An avaricious man shall not be ful filled of money; and he that loveth riches shall not take fruits of them; and therefore this is vanity.

¹¹Where there be many riches, also many men there be, that eat those; and what profiteth it to the holder, but that he seeth the riches with his eyes?

¹²Sleep is sweet to him that worketh, whether he eat little either much; but the fullness of a rich man suffereth not him to sleep.

¹³Also another sickness is full evil, which I saw under the sun; riches be kept into the harm of their lord.

¹⁴For they perish in the worst torment; he begat a son, that shall be in sovereign neediness.

¹⁵As he went naked out of his mother’s womb, so he shall turn again; and he shall take away with him nothing of his travail.