5:1 你不要在天主前冒然开口，你的心也不要急于发言应许，因为天主在天上，你在地下，为此你说话应当简单。
Be not hasty in your utterance and let not your heart be quick to make a promise in God’s presence. God is in heaven and you are on earth; therefore let your words be few. 5:2 因为夜梦由于事务繁杂，乱语出于多言。
For nightmares come with many cares, and a fool’s utterance with many words. 5:3 你一向天主许愿，就不可拖延偿还，因为他不喜欢人怠慢；你许了愿，就应速还；
When you make a vow to God, delay not its fulfillment. For God has no pleasure in fools; fulfill what you have vowed. 5:4 不许愿好过许而不还。
You had better not make a vow than make it and not fulfill it. 5:5 不要放任你的口，使你陷于罪过，免得你在使者前说是「错许了。」为何要天主因你这句话而发怒，破坏你手中的工作﹖
Let not your utterances make you guilty, and say not before his representative, "It was a mistake," lest God be angered by such words and destroy the works of your hands. 5:6 多梦多虚幻，多言多胡涂；你要敬畏天主。
Rather, fear God! 5:7 你若在某省看见欺压穷人，违犯公道和正义的事，不必对此惊奇，因为高者之上还有更高者在上鉴察，而他们之上还有更高者。
If you see oppression of the poor, and violation of rights and justice in the realm, do not be shocked by the fact, for the high official has another higher than he watching him and above these are others higher still ?. 5:8 国家全面的利益，在乎有一位关心农业的君王。
Yet an advantage for a country in every respect is a king for the arable land. 5:9 爱钱的，钱不能使他满足；爱财的，进益不能使他满足：这也是空虚。
The covetous man is never satisfied with money, and the lover of wealth reaps no fruit from it; so this too is vanity. 5:10 钱财增多，消费的人也随之增多；财主除饱享眼福外，能有什么益处﹖
Where there are great riches, there are also many to devour them. Of what use are they to the owner except to feast his eyes upon? 5:11 工人不论吃多吃少，总睡得香甜；饱食的富人，却难于安眠。
Sleep is sweet to the laboring man, whether he eats little or much, but the rich man’s abundance allows him no sleep. 5:12 我看见在太阳下有一件惨痛的事：财主积蓄财富，反而害了自己。
This is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches kept by their owner to his hurt. 5:13 生意一次失败，财产尽失：生了个儿子，手中一无所有。
Should the riches be lost through some misfortune, he may have a son when he is without means. 5:14 他赤身出离母胎，也照样赤身归去；他劳力之所得，丝毫不能带去。
As he came forth from his mother’s womb, so again shall he depart, naked as he came, having nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand. 5:15 这也是一件惨痛的事：他怎样来，也怎样去；他操劳追风，究有什么益处；
This too is a grievous evil, that he goes just as he came. What then does it profit him to toil for wind? 5:16 况且他一生在黑暗中生活，遭受许多烦恼、疾病和悲愤的事。
All the days of his life are passed in gloom and sorrow, under great vexation, sickness and wrath. 5:17 我所认为幸福美满的事：是人在天主所赏的少数岁月内，有吃有喝，且享受他在太阳下一切劳碌所得的福乐，这原是他应得的一分。
Here is what I recognize as good: it is well for a man to eat and drink and enjoy all the fruits of his labor under the sun during the limited days of the life which God gives him; for this is his lot. 5:18 的确，天主赏赐人财产和富裕，叫他能享用；能取得应有的一分，能享受劳碌所得的快乐，实是天主的恩赐。
Any man to whom God gives riches and property, and grants power to partake of them, so that he receives his lot and finds joy in the fruits of his toil, has a gift from God. 5:19 那么，人就不甚顾虑人生岁月的短促，因为天主以喜乐充满了他的心。
For he will hardly dwell on the shortness of his life, because God lets him busy himself with the joy of his heart.