VW-Edition Bible (2010)

1Guard your feet when you go to the house of God, and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools. For they do not know that they are doing evil. 2Do not be rash with your mouth, and do not let your heart be hasty to say a word before God. For God is in Heaven, and you are on earth; therefore let your words be few. 3For a dream comes through much activity; and a fool's voice by the multitude of words. 4When you vow a vow to God, do not hesitate to pay it; for He has no pleasure in fools. Pay that which you have vowed. 5It is better that you should not vow, than that you should vow and not pay.  6Do not permit your mouth to cause your flesh to sin; do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? 7For in the multitude of dreams and increasing of words there is also vanity; but fear God. 8If you see the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, do not be astonished at the matter; for He who is higher than the highest watches; so there are those higher than they. 9And the advantage of the land is for all; even a king has fields being tilled. 10He who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he who loves abundance, with gain. This also is vanity. 11When the goods increase, those who eat it increase; what profit is it, then, to its owners, except to see it with their eyes? 12The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much; but the abundance of the rich will not allow him to sleep. 13There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun: riches kept for their owners to their hurt. 14But those riches perish by evil use. And he begets a son, and there is nothing in his hand. 15As he came forth from his mother's womb, naked he shall return, to go as he came. And from his labor he shall take away nothing that he may carry in his hand. 16And this also is a sore evil, that in all, as he came, so shall he go; and what profit does he have who has labored for the wind? 17All his days he eats in darkness, and he has much sorrow and wrath with his sickness. 18Behold that which I have seen: It is good and right for one to eat and to drink, and to see good in all his labor that he labors under the sun all the days of his life, which God gives him; for it is his portion. 19Also every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and has given him power to eat of it and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God. 20For he does not excessively dwell on the days of his life, because God keeps him busy in the joy of his heart.


Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary
 1   (Ecc. 5:1-20)
From vanity connected with kings, he passes to vanities (Eccl 5:7) which may be fallen into in serving the King of kings, even by those who, convinced of the vanity of the creature, wish to worship the Creator.
Keep thy foot--In going to worship, go with considerate, circumspect, reverent feeling. The allusion is to the taking off the shoes, or sandals, in entering a temple (Exod 3:5; Josh 5:15, which passages perhaps gave rise to the custom). WEISS needlessly reads, "Keep thy feast days" (Exod 23:14, Exod 23:17; the three great feasts).
hear--rather, "To be ready (to draw nigh with the desire) to hear (obey) is a better sacrifice than the offering of fools" [HOLDEN]. (Vulgate; Syriac). (Ps 51:16-Ps 51:17; Pro 21:3; Jer 6:20; Jer 7:21-Jer 7:23; Jer 14:12; Amos 5:21-Amos 5:24). The warning is against mere ceremonial self-righteousness, as in Eccl 7:12. Obedience is the spirit of the law's requirements (Deut 10:12). Solomon sorrowfully looks back on his own neglect of this (compare 1Kgs 8:63 with Eccl 11:4, Eccl 11:6). Positive precepts of God must be kept, but will not stand instead of obedience to His moral precepts. The last provided no sacrifice for wilful sin (Num 15:30-Num 15:31; Heb 10:26-Heb 10:29).

 2   rash--opposed to the considerate reverence ("keep thy foot," Eccl 5:1). This verse illustrates Eccl 5:1, as to prayer in the house of God ("before God," Isa 1:12); so Eccl 5:4-Eccl 5:6 as to vows. The remedy to such vanities is stated (Eccl 5:6). "Fear thou God."
God is in heaven--Therefore He ought to be approached with carefully weighed words, by thee, a frail creature of earth.

 3   As much "business," engrossing the mind, gives birth to incoherent "dreams," so many words, uttered inconsiderately in prayer, give birth to and betray "a fool's speech" (Eccl 10:14), [HOLDEN and WEISS]. But Eccl 5:7 implies that the "dream" is not a comparison, but the vain thoughts of the fool (sinner, Ps 73:20), arising from multiplicity of (worldly) "business." His "dream" is that God hears him for his much speaking (Matt 6:7), independently of the frame of mind [English Version and MAURER].
fool's voice--answers to "dream" in the parallel; it comes by the many "words" flowing from the fool's "dream."

 4   When thou vowest a vow unto God--Hasty words in prayer (Eccl 5:2-Eccl 5:3) suggest the subject of hasty vows. A vow should not be hastily made (Judg 11:35; 1Sam 14:24). When made, it must be kept (Ps 76:11), even as God keeps His word to us (Exod 12:41, Exod 12:51; Josh 21:45).

 5   (Deut 23:21, Deut 23:23).

 6   thy flesh--Vow not with "thy mouth" a vow (for example, fasting), which the lusts of the flesh ("body," Eccl 2:3, Margin) may tempt thee to break (Pro 20:25).
angel--the "messenger" of God (Job 33:23); minister (Rev 1:20); that is, the priest (Mal 2:7) "before" whom a breach of a vow was to be confessed (Lev 5:4-Lev 5:5). We, Christians, in our vows (for example, at baptism, the Lord's Supper, &c.) vow in the presence of Jesus Christ, "the angel of the covenant" (Mal 3:1), and of ministering angels as witnesses (1Cor 11:10; 1Tim 5:21). Extenuate not any breach of them as a slight error.

 7   (See on Eccl 5:3). God's service, which ought to be our chief good, becomes by "dreams" (foolish fancies as of God's requirements of us in worship), and random "words," positive "vanity." The remedy is, whatever fools may do, "Fear thou God" (Eccl 12:13).

 8   As in Eccl 3:16, so here the difficulty suggests itself. If God is so exact in even punishing hasty words (Eccl 5:1-Eccl 5:6), why does He allow gross injustice? In the remote "provinces," the "poor" often had to put themselves for protection from the inroads of Philistines, &c., under chieftains, who oppressed them even in Solomon's reign (1Kgs 12:4).
the matter--literally, "the pleasure," or purpose (Isa 53:10). Marvel not at this dispensation of God's will, as if He had abandoned the world. Nay, there is coming a capital judgment at last, and an earnest of it in partial punishments of sinners meanwhile.
higher than the highest-- (Dan 7:18).
regardeth-- (2Chr 16:9).
there be higher--plural, that is, the three persons of the Godhead, or else, "regardeth not only the 'highest' kings, than whom He 'is higher,' but even the petty tyrants of the provinces, namely, the high ones who are above them" (the poor) [WEISS].

 9   "The profit (produce) of the earth is (ordained) for (the common good of) all: even the king himself is served by (the fruits of) the field" (2Chr 26:10). Therefore the common Lord of all, high and low, will punish at last those who rob the "poor" of their share in it (Pro 22:22-Pro 22:23; Amos 8:4-Amos 8:7).

 10   Not only will God punish at last, but meanwhile the oppressive gainers of "silver" find no solid "satisfaction" in it.
shall not be satisfied--so the oppressor "eateth his own flesh" (see on Eccl 4:1 and Eccl 4:5).
with increase--is not satisfied with the gain that he makes.

 11   they . . . that eat them--the rich man's dependents (Ps 23:5).

 12   Another argument against anxiety to gain riches. "Sleep . . . sweet" answers to "quietness" (Eccl 4:6); "not suffer . . . sleep," to "vexation of spirit." Fears for his wealth, and an overloaded stomach without "laboring" (compare Eccl 4:5), will not suffer the rich oppressor to sleep.

 13   Proofs of God's judgments even in this world (Pro 11:31). The rich oppressor's wealth provokes enemies, robbers, &c. Then, after having kept it for an expected son, he loses it beforehand by misfortune ("by evil travail"), and the son is born to be heir of poverty. Eccl 2:19, Eccl 2:23 gives another aspect of the same subject.

 16   Even supposing that he loses not his wealth before death, then at least he must go stripped of it all (Ps 49:17).
laboured for the wind-- (Hos 12:1; 1Cor 9:26).

 17   eateth--appropriately put for "liveth" in general, as connected with Eccl 5:11-Eccl 5:12, Eccl 5:18.
darkness--opposed to "light (joy) of countenance" (Eccl 8:1; Pro 16:15).
wrath--fretfulness, literally, "His sorrow is much, and his infirmity (of body) and wrath."

 18   Returns to the sentiment (Eccl 3:12-Eccl 3:13, Eccl 3:22); translate: "Behold the good which I have seen, and which is becoming" (in a man).
which God giveth--namely, both the good of his labor and his life.
his portion--legitimately. It is God's gift that makes it so when regarded as such. Such a one will use, not abuse, earthly things (1Cor 7:31). Opposed to the anxious life of the covetous (Eccl 5:10, Eccl 5:17).

 19   As Eccl 5:18 refers to the "laboring" man (Eccl 5:12), so Eccl 5:19 to the "rich" man, who gets wealth not by "oppression" (Eccl 5:8), but by "God's gift." He is distinguished also from the "rich" man (Eccl 6:2) in having received by God's gift not only "wealth," but also "power to eat thereof," which that one has not.
to take his portion--limits him to the lawful use of wealth, not keeping back from God His portion while enjoying his own.

 20   He will not remember much, looking back with disappointment, as the ungodly do (Eccl 2:11), on the days of his life.
answereth . . . in the joy--God answers his prayers in giving him "power" to enjoy his blessings. GESENIUS and Vulgate translate, "For God (so) occupies him with joy," &c., that he thinks not much of the shortness and sorrows of life. HOLDEN, "Though God gives not much (as to real enjoyment), yet he remembers (with thankfulness) the days; for (he knows) God exercises him by the joy," &c. (tries him by prosperity), so Margin, but English Version is simplest.