Study Desk

Be not rash with your mouth, and let not your heart be hasty to utter a word before God; for God is in heaven, and you upon earth; therefore let your words be few.

For a dream comes because of the multitude of business; and a fools voice is known by a multitude of words.

When you vow a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it; for he has no pleasure in fools; but as for you, pay that which you have vowed.

For in the multitude of dreams and vain things and many words is false worship; but you should worship God.

If you see the oppression of the poor and violent perversion of judgment and justice in a city, do not marvel at the matter; for he who is higher than the highest is watching; and he who is higher is over them.

Moreover the riches of the earth are for all; the king, himself, is served by cultivating his own field.

And those riches are lost in a bad venture; for when he begets a son, there is nothing in his hand.

And this also is a grievous evil; for just as he came, so shall he go; and what profit has he that has labored for the wind?

This is what I, the Preacher, have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and drink and to enjoy the good of all his labor for which he toils under the sun all the days of his life, which the LORD has given him; for this is his portion.

For he shall remember no more the days of his life; because God will keep him busy with the joy of his heart.

There is a man to whom God has given riches, wealth, and honor, so that he lacks nothing for his soul of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to eat of them; but a stranger eats it. This is vanity, and it is an evil disease.

For he comes in with vanity, and shall go into darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness.

All the labor of a man is for his mouth, and yet his appetite is not filled.

For who knows what is good for man in his life, all the days of his vain life which he spends like a shadow? For who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?

It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting; for this is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.

Sorrow is better than laughter; for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.

It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools.

For as the crackling of thorns burning under a pot, so is the laughter of fools; this is also vanity.

Be not hastily angry, for anger rests in the bosom of the fools.

Say not, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? For you do not enquire wisely concerning this.