Speak not any thing rashly, and let not thy heart be hasty to utter a word before God. For God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.

Ne temere quid loquaris, neque cor tuum sit velox ad proferendum sermonem coram Deo. Deus enim in cælo, et tu super terram; idcirco sint pauci sermones tui.

When thou standest in God’s presence, do not pour out with rash haste all that is in thy heart. God sees as heaven sees, thou as earth; few words are best.

Dreams follow many cares: and in many words shall be found folly.

Multas curas sequuntur somnia, et in multis sermonibus invenietur stultitia.

Sure as dreams come from an overwrought brain, from glib utterance comes ill-considered speech.

If thou hast vowed any thing to God, defer not to pay it: for an unfaithful and foolish promise displeaseth him: but whatsoever thou hast vowed, pay it.

Si quid vovisti Deo, ne moreris reddere: displicet enim ei infidelis et stulta promissio, sed quodcumque voveris redde:

Vow to God if thou utterest, without delay perform it, he will have no light and rash promises; vow made must be vow paid.

And it is much better not to vow, than after a vow not to perform the things promised.

multoque melius est non vovere, quam post votum promissa non reddere.

Far better undertake nothing than undertake what thou dost not fulfil.

Give not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin: and say not before the angel: There is no providence: lest God be angry at thy words, and destroy all the works of thy hands.

Ne dederis os tuum ut peccare facias carnem tuam, neque dicas coram angelo: Non est providentia: ne forte iratus Deus contra sermones tuos dissipet cuncta opera manuum tuarum.

Wouldst thou defile thy whole nature through the tongue’s fault? Wouldst thou find thyself saying, with God’s angel to hear thee, No thought I gave to it? Little wonder if God disappoints every ambition of the man who speaks so.

Where there are many dreams, there are many vanities, and words without number: but do thou fear God.

Ubi multa sunt somnia, plurimæ sunt vanitates, et sermones innumeri; tu vero Deum time.

Dreams, empty dreams, led to those glib promises of thine; content thyself rather with the fear of God.

If thou shalt see the oppressions of the poor, and violent judgments, and justice perverted in the province, wonder not at this matter: for he that is high hath another higher, and there are others still higher than these:

Si videris calumnias egenorum, et violenta judicia, et subverti justitiam in provincia, non mireris super hoc negotio: quia excelso excelsior est alius, et super hos quoque eminentiores sunt alii;

Thou seest, it may be, in this province or that, oppression of the poor, false award given, and wrong unredressed? Let not such things bewilder thee; trust me, authority is watched by higher authority, subject in turn to higher authority yet;

Moreover there is the king that reigneth over all the land subject to him.

et insuper universæ terræ rex imperat servienti.

and, above them all, the King of the whole earth rules it as his dominion.

A covetous man shall not be satisfied with money: and he that loveth riches shall reap no fruit from them: so this also is vanity.

Avarus non implebitur pecunia, et qui amat divitias fructum non capiet ex eis; et hoc ergo vanitas.

What is his decree? Why, that covetousness should never fill its own maw; never did he that loved money taste the enjoyment of his money; here is frustration once again.

Where there are great riches, there are also many to eat them. And what doth it profit the owner, but that he seeth the riches with his eyes?

Ubi multæ sunt opes, multi et qui comedunt eas. Et quid prodest possessori, nisi quod cernit divitias oculis suis?

Richer if thou grow, riches will give thee more mouths to feed; profit he has none that owns them, save the feasting of his eyes on them if he will.

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

Dulcis est somnus operanti, sive parum sive multum comedat; saturitas autem divitis non sinit eum dormire.

Full belly or empty, sound is the cottar’s sleep; sleep, to the pampered body of the rich still denied.

There is also another grievous evil, which I have seen under the sun: riches kept to the hurt of the owner.

Est et alia infirmitas pessima quam vidi sub sole: divitiæ conservatæ in malum domini sui.

Another evil I have found past remedy, here under the sun; riches that a man hoards to his own undoing.

For they are lost with very great affliction: he hath begotten a son, who shall be in extremity of want.

Pereunt enim in afflictione pessima: generavit filium qui in summa egestate erit.

By cruel misadventure they are lost to him, and to the son he has begotten nothing he leaves but poverty.

As he came forth naked from his mother’s womb, so shall he return, and shall take nothing away with him of his labour.

Sicut egressus est nudus de utero matris suæ, sic revertetur, et nihil auferet secum de labore suo.

Naked he came, when he left his mother’s womb, and naked still death finds him; nothing to show for all his long endeavour.

A most deplorable evil: as he came, so shall he return. What then doth it profit him that he hath laboured for the wind?

Miserabilis prorsus infirmitas: quomodo venit, sic revertetur. Quid ergo prodest ei quod laboravit in ventum?

Alas, what ailed him, that he should go away no richer than he came? Nothing left of all those wasted labours of his;

All the days of his life he eateth in darkness, and in many cares, and in misery, and sorrow.

cunctis diebus vitæ suæ comedit in tenebris, et in curis multis, et in ærumna atque tristitia.

all his life long the cheerless board, the multitudinous cares, the concern, the melancholy!

This therefore hath seemed good to me, that a man should eat and drink, and enjoy the fruit of his labour, wherewith he hath laboured under the sun, all the days of his life, which God hath given him: and this is his portion.

Hoc itaque visum est mihi bonum, ut comedat quis et bibat, et fruatur lætitia ex labore suo quo laboravit ipse sub sole, numero dierum vitæ suæ quos dedit ei Deus; et hæc est pars illius.

Better far, by my way of it, that a man should eat and drink and enjoy the revenues of his own labour, here under the sun, as long as God gives him life; what more can he claim?

And every man to whom God hath given riches, and substance, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to enjoy his portion, and to rejoice of his labour: this is the gift of God.

Et omni homini cui dedit Deus divitias atque substantiam, potestatemque ei tribuit ut comedat ex eis, et fruatur parte sua, et lætetur de labore suo: hoc est donum Dei.

God’s gift it is, if a man has wealth and goods and freedom to enjoy them, taking what comes to him and profiting by what he has earned.

For he shall not much remember the days of his life, because God entertaineth his heart with delight.

Non enim satis recordabitur dierum vitæ suæ, eo quod Deus occupet deliciis cor ejus.

Few be his days or many, he regards little, so long as God gives his heart content.