World English Bible · The united kingdom
Ecclesiastes 5
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Guard your steps when you go to house; for to draw near to listen is better than to give the of fools, for they don't know that they do evil. Don't be rash with your , and don't let be hasty to utter anything before ; for is in , and you on earth. Therefore let your words be few. For as a comes with a multitude of cares, so a fool's speech with a multitude of words. When you a to , don't defer to pay it; for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay that which you . It is better that you should not , than that you should and not pay. Don't allow your to lead you into . Don't protest before that this was a mistake. Why should be angry at your voice, and destroy the work of your hands? For in of there are , as well as in many words; but you must . If you see the of , and the taking away of justice and in a district, don't marvel at the matter, for one official is eyed by a higher one, and there are officials over them. Moreover the profit of the earth is for all. The king profits from the field. He who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This also is . When goods increase, those who eat them are increased; and what advantage is there to its owner, except to feast on them with his eyes? The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much; but the abundance of the rich will not allow him to sleep. There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: wealth kept by its owner to his harm. Those riches by misfortune, and if he has fathered a son, there is nothing in his hand. As he came out of his mother's , shall he go again as he came, and shall take nothing for his labor, which he may carry away in his hand. This also is a grievous evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go. And what profit does he have who labors for the wind? All his days he also eats , he is frustrated, and has sickness and . Behold, that which I have seen to be good and proper is for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy good in all his labor, in which he labors under the sun, all the days of his life which has given him; for this is his . Every man also to whom has given riches and wealth, and has given him to eat of it, and to take his , and to rejoice in his labor—this is the gift of . For he shall not often reflect on the days of his life, because occupies him with the joy of .
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · The united kingdom, 1050 BC to 931 BC ›
Saul, David, and Solomon. A rare window when both Egypt and Mesopotamia are weak, which is how a small kingdom in the corridor between them could briefly become a regional power.
- The power vacuum
- This is the whole political explanation for the united kingdom. Egypt is fragmented, Assyria is recovering but still local, the Hittites are gone, and nobody is in a position to object to a strong state in the corridor. It lasts about a century, and Israel's golden age fits exactly inside it.
- Phoenicia
- Tyre under Hiram is the commercial power of the coast, and supplies the cedar, the craftsmen, and the shipping for Solomon's building programme. The alliance is trade, not charity: Israel had grain and a land route, Tyre had timber and ships.
- Egypt
- Weak enough that a pharaoh gives a daughter in marriage to an Israelite king, which is the opposite of Egyptian practice in stronger centuries. Late in the era it recovers under a new house, and Shishak will invade within five years of Solomon's death.
- Further afield
- Greece is still in its dark age but beginning to recover, and will adopt the Phoenician alphabet within a century or two. Carthage is founded by settlers from Tyre by tradition in 814 BC. In the Americas the Olmec centre shifts to La Venta.