BOOK 21 OF 66 · WISDOM & POETRY · KING JAMES BIBLE

Ecclesiastes 5

Ecclesiastes book home•Chapter 5 of 12•20 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Ecclesiastes 5 Overview

The Preacher warns against careless worship and rash vows, observes oppression and bureaucratic hierarchy, exposes the emptiness of loving money, and again commends receiving work and possessions as God-given portions.

EcclesiastesBook

5Chapter

20Verses

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Before you read Ecclesiastes 5

Coming from

Chapter 4 showed oppression, rivalry, isolation, and unstable popularity. Chapter 5 asks how a person should approach God and possessions in such a world.

In this chapter

Leads into

Chapter 6 considers the tragedy of possessing wealth and honor without receiving the ability to enjoy them, sharpening the limits of earthly abundance.

Key understandingExplore deeper

“Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God” calls for thoughtful reverence. The chapter contrasts listening with the “sacrifice of fools,” many words, and vows made lightly.

The wealth section distinguishes possession from enjoyment. A person may accumulate much yet remain unsatisfied; the ability to enjoy one’s portion is itself presented as God’s gift.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Worship requires reverence

Listening before God is better than careless religious speech.

Words and vows matter

A person should not promise lightly and then treat the vow as meaningless.

Money cannot satisfy the love of money

Increasing abundance often increases claimants and anxieties rather than producing contentment.

God-given enjoyment is a mercy

The good described is to labor and enjoy one’s portion during the days God gives.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Deuteronomy 23:21-23

The law likewise requires that vows made to the LORD not be delayed or treated casually.

Matthew 6:7-8

Jesus warns against vain repetitions and assumes that the Father is not impressed by multiplied words.

1 Timothy 6:6-10

Paul contrasts godliness with contentment against the destructive love of money.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not use the vow warning to teach salvation by promise-keeping.

The subject is truthful reverence and accountability before God, not earning eternal life.

Do not assume wealth itself is condemned.

The chapter condemns trusting, loving, and being consumed by riches while also speaking of wealth and the power to enjoy it as gifts God may give.

Read Ecclesiastes 5 watching for…

careful approach to worship

warnings about many words

the seriousness of vows

the inability of silver to satisfy

the difference between owning and enjoying

Chapter outline4 sections

1-3Approach the house of God carefully, hear more than you speak, and avoid rash words 4-8Pay vows to God, fear him, and do not be surprised by oppression within human government 9-17Love of money never satisfies, riches can hurt their owner, and all earthly wealth is left behind 18-20It is good to receive life, labor, and enjoyment as God’s gift

Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.

Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.

For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words.

When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.

Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.

Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?

For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou God.

If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they.

Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served by the field.

He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.

When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?

The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.

There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.

But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand.

As he came forth of his mother's womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand.

And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?

All his days also he eateth in darkness, and he hath much sorrow and wrath with his sickness.

Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his portion.

Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God.

For he shall not much remember the days of his life; because God answereth him in the joy of his heart.

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Ecclesiastes 5:19

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