1When you enter God’s temple, you should be sure to listen carefully. Doing that is better than offering sacrifices to God and then not obeying him, which is foolish.
2Think carefully before you speak [MTY]
3If you are continually thinking and worrying about things,
4When you solemnly promise God that you will do something, do not be foolish by delaying in doing it, because God is not pleased with foolish people. Do all the things that you promise God that you will do.
5It is better to not promise anything than to promise to do something, and then not doing it.
6Do not sin by promising to do something and then not doing it. And when you promise God to do something and do not do it, do not say to God’s priest that it was a mistake for you to promise to do that. If you do that, God will certainly [RHQ] become very angry with you, and he will take from you everything that you [SYN] have worked to acquire.
7Promising to do something and not doing it is like [SIM] a dream that has no value; instead, revere God by doing what you promised him that you would do.
8Do not be surprised if you see poor people being ◄oppressed/treated cruelly► by powerful/influential people, or if you see judges making unjust decisions throughout the land. That happens because the people who do that are supervised and cheated by more important officials [DOU],
9and even the king forces the people to give him some of the crops that they harvest.
10Everyone who tries to get as much money as they can
11The more money that we have,
12Those who work hard sleep peacefully at night,
13I have seen another terrible thing that happens here on the earth [MTY]:
14because something happens that causes their money to be gone,
15When we are born,
16That also seems senseless.
17Furthermore, rich people are always miserable [MET] and sad,
18So, the best thing for people to do here on the earth during the few years that God allows them to be alive is to eat and drink and to enjoy their work, because those are the things that God has given to them.
19If people are rich and have a lot of possessions, and are able to ◄enjoy/be happy with► the things that they have and to enjoy their work, those things are also gifts from God.
20Those people do not worry much about everything that has happened during the time that they have been alive, because God enables them to be happy doing everything that they do.