Ecclesiastes 5: Work more. Talk less. Keep your word. Job satisfaction is God’s gift – not permanent contracts, wages(employees), land tax and defrauding the poor (rulers). 

1: Watch your step when you walk to The Lord God’s house to hear more than to give sacrifice to the self indulgent (fat ones). 

They do not know that they do evil/trouble.

2: Don’t panic with your heart in your mouth.

Don’t hurry to cause to utter a word (don’t make yourself shoot off your mouth)  in front of The Lord. 

For The Lord God is in heaven and you are upon the earth (land/eretz) and then  there happens to be (/let it be) less of your words. 

3: For The dream traversed through great work. 

But the voice of the self indulgent through great words.  

4: For when you vow a vow to The Lord God, do not loiter to fulfill it for there is no delight in the self indulgent. That which you vow, fulfill.

5: Good which you do not vow than you vow and you do not fulfill. 

6: Do not give your mouth  cause to miss-the-mark-sin over your flesh and do not say to The Messenger’s face, “it (she) was an inadvertent mistake”.

For why (should) The Lord God be angry about your voice and destroy the work of your hand?

7: For great (are) dreams

and vanities and words are made great,

 but fear The Lord God. 

8: If you see fraud on the defrauded and Plunder of justice and righteousness in a jurisdiction (Medina), do not be shocked over the delight, for the official over the official is watching –  and the officials over them.

9: For a king is served by all the land profit of a field.

10: Silver lovers are not satisfied with silver.

And who loves abundance but not revenue?

This is also a vanity (empty/ unsatisfactory/ transitory).

11: To increase in the good(s), is to increase its consumer.

And what is success to owners if but to see it with their eyes?

12: A working man’s sleep is sweet – whether a little or caused to be a lot. 

He eats.

But none of the riches of the rich cause him to slacken. 

 13: There is a sickening evil/Trouble I had seen under the sun:

To their owner/lord, watched-over riches (is) to evil/Trouble.

14: And riches perished which had been evilly/troublesomely in labour and caused to bear a son,

(who) for no fault (of his) had nothing in his hand

15: as he broke forth naked from his mum’s tummy, (so) he turned back to walk as he came,

And,for no fault (of his), lifts nothing up  from his job in his hand.  He is made to walk away (resign/laid off). 

16: And this also is worne-out, all- encompassing evil/Trouble:

He came (was appointed),

then walks (resigns)!

For what profit does he toil?

For Wind!

17: Also he eats in darkness all his days –  and increasing sorrow, disease and indignation.

18: Behold what good had I seen which is pleasant  to me is to eat and to drink and to see all the good in his toil. He labours under the sun for a (contractual, accounted) period of days in his life which The Lord gave him.

For this is his inheritance. 

19: Also for every man whom The Lord gave wealth and treasures, He caused him to exert dominion, to eat of it and to lift up his inheritance and to be glad in his job.

This is it – God’s gift.

20: For He is not made to increasingly remember the days of his (working) life for The Lord kept (his head) down in gladness of heart. 

Prayer:

Lord, thank you for your advice on working life priorities. Let me enjoy my work daily.  May I always keep my word.  May I never misuse my power over the disempowered and make empty profit from what is Your gift. And when I retire,  let me remember work satisfaction – not the personal gain. Amen.