Ecclesiastes 5:8

Verse 8 of 20. The 5th of 12 chapters in Ecclesiastes, in Poetry and Wisdom.

4When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.

5Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.

6Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?

7For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou God.

8If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they.

9Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served by the field.

10He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.

11When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?

12The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.

Read Ecclesiastes 5

Ecclesiastes 5:8 in the World English Bible

If you see the oppression of the poor, and the violent taking away of justice and righteousness in a district, don’t marvel at the matter, for one official is eyed by a higher one, and there are officials over them.
Read Ecclesiastes 5:8 in the WEB

Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 5:8

With that to keep down the fear of man, v. 8. "Set God before thee, and then, if thou seest the oppression of the poor, thou wilt not marvel at the matter, nor find fault with divine Providence, nor think the worse of the institution of magistracy, when thou seest the ends of it thus perverted, nor of religion, when thou seest it will not secure men from suffering wrong." Observe here, 1.

Read Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 5:4–8: The Obligation of a Vow.

Pray Ecclesiastes 5:8 with someone reading it aloud.

Start praying with Pray.com

King James Version. Public domain. Set as prose throughout, including the poetry, because the text is published to us without its lines.