Ecclesiastes 5

Ecclesiastes 5:1

Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools; &c.

When thou goest up to the temple of God, look carefully with what affections thou presentest thyself there: see that thou have a mind free from worldly cares and distractions; and think not that the very outward work of a sacrifice, formally offered, can serve thy turn: this imagination is for a foolish and ignorant

Ecclesiastes 5:2

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.

Be not thou rash and over hasty in the engaging of thyself by vows unto God; but be well advised, both what thou undertakest, and how thou shalt perform it; and let those prayers, which thou shalt pour forth unto God, be well digested in thy thoughts, for thou hast to do with a pure and holy, as also with a glorious and omnipotent God, who dwelleth in the heaven; whereas thou, a base silly creature upon earth, art open to his all-seeing eye, and obnoxious to his almighty power; let therefore thy vows be both rare and solemn, and thy prayers free from loquacity and idle babblings:

Ecclesiastes 5:3

For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool’s voice is known by multitude of words.

For, as in a multitude of businesses there will be troublesome and confused dreams, so in a multitude of words there will be futility and error.

Ecclesiastes 5:4

For he taketh no pleasure in fools.

It is the part of a fool, to vow that, which either he cannot or will not perform; and God takes no pleasure in those, that are thus impiously foolish.

Ecclesiastes 5:6

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

Suffer not thy tongue, through the rashness of thy vow, to make it and thy whole self guilty of a sin before God, and obnoxious to judgment; neither think to excuse it before God and his angels, by a plea of error. Why shouldst thou draw God’s anger upon thee, by the sinful temerity of thy vow, so far, as that he should plague thee with an utter destruction?

Ecclesiastes 5:7

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

For as there are many vain phantasies in the multitude of dreams, so surely there are many hateful and dangerous vanities in the multitude of hasty vows; but thou, settle thou the fear of God in thy heart, and that shall ever both guide and preserve thy tongue.

Ecclesiastes 5:8

If thou, &c. marvel not for the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they.

Be not amazed and dismayed, as if all things were let loose, and as if these earthly things were not orderly swayed by a wise and just Providence; for, as God hath appointed kings and princes over men, so he hath appointed his spiritual creatures in a degree above them, and himself is infinitely above all the degrees of them.

Ecclesiastes 5:9

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

Surely, there is excellent and necessary use of husbandry: whence have we the good things whereby our life is preserved, but from the fruitful bounty of the earth? Even the states of kings cannot well subsist, without a due culture of the earth.

Ecclesiastes 5:11

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

If a man have great store of lands, and much stock in his hands, there must be many hands employed in the managing of it; so that, as his means are greater, so the mouths that spend it are more: and what gaineth the owner hereby, above the servant, more than this, that he sees his goods both brought in and wasted; whereof himself can take no more part, than to feed and clothe him!

Ecclesiastes 5:13

Riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.

I have noted those riches, which men account blessings, to turn to the great harm and mischief of the owners; both of their bodies, and souls, and lives, and estates: for, besides their difficulty in getting, and care in keeping, how ordinarily are they the occasions of violence offered to their persons, of unjust suggestions of capital crimes against their lives, &c.!

Ecclesiastes 5:14

But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand.

And those very riches have I seen to vanish away under the owner’s hand; in the midst of all his toil and travail: so as, the son whom he begets shall have nothing at all left him of that wealth, wherewith his father seemed to abound; neither shall the father have ought to leave him.

Ecclesiastes 5:17

All his days also he cateth in darkness, and he hath much sorrow and wrath in his sickness.

He abridgeth himself of all comfort, through his too eager pursuit of wealth; and both pincheth his body, and tortureth his mind with many vexations and discontentments.

Ecclesiastes 5:20

For he shall not much remember the days of his life; because God answereth him in the joy of his heart.

His days go away merrily, and seem short, for that God gives him cheerfulness and contentment in the fruition of what he hath.