5:1 Keep thy m foot when thou goest to the house of God, and
be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of n
fools: for they consider not that they do evil.
(m) That is, with what affection you come to hear the word
of God.
(n) Meaning, of the wicked, who think to please God with
common uses, and have neither faith nor repentance.
5:2 Be not a rash with thy mouth, and let not thy heart be
hasty to utter [any] thing before God: for God [is] in
heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be
b few.
(a) Either in vowing or in praying, meaning, that we should
use all reverence toward God.
(b) He hears you not for the sake of your many words or
often repetitions, but considers your faith and
servant's mind.
5:4 When thou vowest a vow to God, defer not to pay it; for [he
hath] no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast c
vowed.
(c) He speaks of vows which are approved by God's word and
serve to his glory.
5:6 Allow not thy mouth to cause thy d flesh to sin; neither
say thou before the e angel, that it [was] an error: why
should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of
thy hands?
(d) Do not cause yourself to sin by vowing rashly as they do
who make a vow to live unmarried and such like.
(e) That is, before God's messenger when he will examine
your doing, as though your ignorance should be a just
excuse.
5:8 If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent
perverting of judgment and justice in a province, wonder not
at the matter: for [he that is] f higher than the highest
regardeth; and [there are] higher than they.
(f) Meaning, that God will address these things, and
therefore we must depend on him.
5:9 Moreover the g profit of the earth is for all: the king
h [himself] is served by the field.
(g) The earth is to be preferred above all things which
belong to this life.
(h) Kings and princes cannot maintain their estate without
tillage, which commends the excellency of tillage.
5:12 The sleep of a labouring man [is] sweet, whether he eateth
little or much: but the i abundance of the rich will not
allow him to sleep.
(i) That is, his great abundance of riches, or the
surfeiting, which comes by his great feeding.
5:13 There is a grievous evil [which] I have seen under the sun,
[namely], riches k kept for the owners of them to their
hurt.
(k) When covetous men heap up riches, which turn to their
destruction.
5:14 But those riches perish by evil labour: and he begetteth a
son, and [there is] nothing in his l hand.
(l) He does not enjoy his father's riches.
5:16 And this also [is] a grievous evil, [that] in all points as
he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath
laboured for the m wind?
(m) Meaning, in vain and without profit.
5:17 All his days also he eateth in n darkness, and [he hath]
much sorrow and wrath with his sickness.
(n) In affliction and grief of mind.
5:18 Behold [that] which I have seen: [it is] good and proper
[for one] to o eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of
all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of
his life, which God giveth him: for it [is] his portion.
(o) )Read Geneva "Ec 3:22")
5:20 For he shall not much remember the days of his p life;
because God answereth [him] in the joy of his heart.
(p) He will take no great thought for the pains that he has
endured in times past.
