KJV - Ecclesiastes Chapter 4 to 6

4 ¹So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter. ²Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive. ³Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.

⁴Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit. ⁵The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh. ⁶Better is an handful with quietness, than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit.

⁷Then I returned, and I saw vanity under the sun. ⁸There is one alone, and there is not a second; yea, he hath neither child nor brother: yet is there no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches; neither saith he, For whom do I labour, and bereave my soul of good? This is also vanity, yea, it is a sore travail.

⁹Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. ¹⁰For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up. ¹¹Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone? ¹²And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

¹³Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished. ¹⁴For out of prison he cometh to reign; whereas also he that is born in his kingdom becometh poor. ¹⁵I considered all the living which walk under the sun, with the second child that shall stand up in his stead. ¹⁶There is no end of all the people, even of all that have been before them: they also that come after shall not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and vexation of spirit.

5 ¹Keep 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. ²Be 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. ³For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words. ⁴When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed. ⁵Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. ⁶Suffer 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? ⁷For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou God.

⁸If 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.

⁹Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served by the field. ¹⁰He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity. ¹¹When 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? ¹²The 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. ¹³There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt. ¹⁴But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand. ¹⁵As 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. ¹⁶And 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? ¹⁷All his days also he eateth in darkness, and he hath much sorrow and wrath with his sickness.

¹⁸Behold 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. ¹⁹Every 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. ²⁰For he shall not much remember the days of his life; because God answereth him in the joy of his heart.

6 ¹There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men: ²A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it: this is vanity, and it is an evil disease.

³If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he. ⁴For he cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness. ⁵Moreover he hath not seen the sun, nor known any thing: this hath more rest than the other.

⁶Yea, though he live a thousand years twice told, yet hath he seen no good: do not all go to one place? ⁷All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled. ⁸For what hath the wise more than the fool? what hath the poor, that knoweth to walk before the living?

⁹Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this is also vanity and vexation of spirit. ¹⁰That which hath been is named already, and it is known that it is man: neither may he contend with him that is mightier than he.

¹¹Seeing there be many things that increase vanity, what is man the better? ¹²For who knoweth what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?