Ecc 5:6  Don’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.

Ecc 5:7  Talk is cheap, like daydreams and other useless activities. Fear God instead.

Ecc 5:4  When 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.

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

Ecc 5:3  Too much activity gives you restless dreams; too many words make you a fool.

Ecc 5:1  As you enter the house of God, keep your ears open and your mouth shut. It is evil to make mindless offerings to God.

Ecc 5:2  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.

Ecc 4:13  It is better to be a poor but wise youth than an old and foolish king who refuses all advice.

Ecc 4:14  Such a youth could rise from poverty and succeed. He might even become king, though he has been in prison.

Ecc 4:15  But then everyone rushes to the side of yet another youth who replaces him.

Ecc 4:16  Endless crowds stand around him, but then another generation grows up and rejects him, too. So it is all meaningless—like chasing the wind.

Ecc 4:9  Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.

Ecc 4:10  For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!

Ecc 4:11  Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone?

Ecc 4:12  And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

Ecc 4:7  Again, I saw vanity under the sun:

Ecc 4:8  one person who has no other, either son or brother, yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches, so that he never asks, “For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure?” This also is vanity and an unhappy business.

Ecc 4:5  The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh.

Ecc 4:6  Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind.

Ecc 4:4  Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man's envy of his neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

Ecc 4:1  Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them.

Ecc 4:2  And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive.

Ecc 4:3  But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun.