Ecclesiastes 5:1-7

Proper Worship of God

v. 1. Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, carefully watching lest it stray aside from the path leading to the Lord's Temple and such a person's heart be affected with thoughts which interfere with true devotion, and be more ready to hear, rather, "approach to hear," to listen to and to heed the Word of God, than to give the sacrifice of fools, as is done in thoughtless and hypocritical worship; for they consider not that they do evil, they do not realize how deeply they offend the Lord with their irreverent behavior.

v. 2. Be not rash with thy mouth, quick to speak, especially in thoughtless prayer, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God, since prayer demands an attitude of true devotion; for God is in heaven, exalted above all levity and thoughtless form of worship, and thou upon earth, immeasurably beneath the majesty of the almighty Sovereign of the earth; therefore let thy words be few, not indulging in heathenish babbling, Matthew 6:7.

v. 3. For a dream cometh through the multitude of business, when a person is engrossed with the cares and anxieties of his work, his dreams are apt to mislead him into a land of make believe; and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words, he believes the efficacy of prayer depends upon the amount of language expended, whereas it depends upon the sincerity of the mind resting upon the true devotion of faith.

v. 4. When thou vowest a vow unto God, such vows among the Jews being included in the precepts of their religion, Numbers 30:2; Deuteronomy 23:21-Isaiah :, defer not to pay it, this admonition being directed against hasty and ill-considered vows; for He hath no pleasure in fools, God wants no vows to be made in a spirit of levity, without regarding their sanctity; pay that which thou hast vowed, Psalms 66:13-2 Chronicles :.

v. 5. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, Deuteronomy 23:22, not make rash promises supported by an obligation before the Lord, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay, provided the vow is in agreement with the great precepts of God's Word, especially the command of love.

v. 6. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin, for the sensual nature of man is stimulated by the sins of the tongue; neither may thou before the angel, before the priest, as the representative of the Lord, that it was an error, the object being to escape the consequences of an unfulfilled vow; wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, which has thus become guilty of lying, and destroy the work of thine hands? The punishment of God, in a case of this kind, is shown not only in the failure of undertakings, but also in the overthrowing of projects already established.

v. 7. For in the multitude of dreams, foolish fancies concerning God's requirements of men in worship, and many words, hasty and ill-considered, there are also divers vanities, they are unreliable and do not fit a person for the duties which the Word of God lays upon him; but fear thou God, for the fear of God, as the basis of all true wisdom, will guide the steps of man aright on the way of true sanctification.