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Chapter 5
AS YOU ENTER the Temple, keep your ears open and your mouth shut! Don't be
a fool who doesn't even realize it is sinful to make rash promises to God,
for he is in heaven and you are only here on earth, so let your words be
few. Just as being too busy gives you nightmares, so being a fool makes
you a blabbermouth. So when you talk to God and vow to him that you will
do something, don't delay in doing it, for God has no pleasure in fools.
Keep your promise to him. It is far better not to say you'll do something
than to say you will and then not do it. In that case, your mouth is
making you sin. Don't try to defend yourself by telling the messenger from
God that it was all a mistake [to make the vow]. That would make God very
angry and he might destroy your prosperity. Dreaming instead of doing is
foolishness, and there is ruin in a flood of empty words, fear God
instead.
If you see some poor man being oppressed by the rich, with miscarriage
of justice anywhere throughout the land, don't be surprised! For every
official is under orders from higher up, and the higher officials look up
to their superiors. And so the matter is lost in red tape and bureaucracy.
And over them all is the king. Oh, for a king who is devoted to his
country! Only he can bring order from this chaos.
He loves money shall never have enough. The foolishness of thing that
wealth brings happiness! The more you have, the more you spend, right up
to the limits of your income, so what is the advantage of wealth-except
perhaps to watch it as it runs through your fingers! The man who works
hard sleeps well whether he eats little or much, but the rich must worry
and suffer insomnia.
There is another serious problem. I have seen everywhere-savings are
put into risky investments that turn sour, and soon there is nothing left
to pass on to one's son. The man who speculates is soon back to where he
began-with nothing. This, as I said, is a very serious problem, for all
his hard work has been for nothing; he has been working for the wind. It
is all swept away.
All the rest of his life he is under a cloud-gloomy, discouraged,
frustrated, and angry.
Well, one thing, at least, is good: it is for a man to eat well, drink
a good glass of wine, accept his position in life, and enjoy his work
whatever his job may be, for however long the Lord may let him live.
And, of course, it is very good if a man has received wealth from the
Lord, and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and to accept
your lot in life-that is indeed a gift from God. The person who does that
will not need to look back with sorrow on his past, for God gives him joy. |
