Chiasm

Ecclesiastes 5:1–8

Ecclesiastes 5:1–85 matched frames1 pivot

Read down to the center, where the pattern turns; then rise back out through its mirror.

A 1a Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God.
- B 1b–2 And be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.
  - C 3a For a dream cometh through the multitude of business;
    - D 3b and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words.
      - E 4a When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it;
        F 4b for he hath no pleasure in fools.
      - E' 5 Pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.
    - D' 6 Suffer 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?
  - C' 7a For in the multitude of dreams
- B' 7b and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou God.
A' 8 If 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.

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Chiasm 1