Ecclesiastes 5:1-20
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: for they consider not that they do evil.
2 Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thinga before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.
3 For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words.
4 When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.
5 Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.
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?
7 For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou God.
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.
9 Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served by the field.
10 He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.
11 When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?
12 The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.
13 There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.
14 But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand.
15 As he came forth of his mother's womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand.
16 And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?
17 All his days also he eateth in darkness, and he hath much sorrow and wrath with his sickness.
18 Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to 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.
19 Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God.
20 For he shall not much remember the days of his life; because God answereth him in the joy of his heart.
Ecclesiastes 5:1. Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God. Avoid wandering thoughts, and be wholly absorbed in devotion. Do not hear the words of prayer only, but desire the blessings sought. Set the Lord always before you, as enthroned in his temple, and surrounded with cherubim and seraphim. Contemplate God in the glory of his covenant; see yourselves as worms of the dust, and you will gradually enter into the true spirit and power of devotion. Then, when the hour of prayer is come, nothing but necessity will keep you at home. You will enter his temple with all possible reverence, will silently and meekly bow down in his presence, knowing that God is in heaven, and you are on earth. Be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they are rash and noisy, and open their mouth before God without knowing their errand, or waiting for an answer. St. Cyprian, in his discourse on the Lord's prayer, says, When we meet together with our brethren, and celebrate the holy communion with the priest of God, reverence and decency should distinguish our devotion. We ought not to present our prayers with incoherent words, nor vociferate with a tumultuous loquacity the petitions which should be modestly commended to God; for He is the auditor, not of our words, but of our hearts. Quando in unum cum fratribus convenimus, et sacrificia divina cum Dei sacerdote celebramus, verecundiæ et disciplinæ memores esse debemus. Non passim ventilare preces nostras inconditis vocibus; nec petitionem commendandum modeste Deo, tumultuosa loquacitate jactare; quia Deus non vocis, sed cordis auditor est. Edit. Paris, 1633.
Ecclesiastes 5:4. When thou vowest a vow. See Proverbs 20:25.
Ecclesiastes 5:6. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin, in any case of drunkenness, seduction, uncleanness, or otherwise: neither suffer thy mouth to utter rash vows, as was the case with Jephthah, Neither say thou before the angel that it was an error. The LXX, “before the face of God;” that is, before the Messiah, whom Jacob calls the face of God. Genesis 32:30. He is the Angel of Jehovah's presence, and the Angel of the covenant, which distinguishes him from all created intelligences. It is an addition to crime to palliate our sins before the omniscient God, who searches the heart and tries the reins.
REFLECTIONS.
Solomon having described the brutish man, now speaks like himself, like one that is full of wisdom. He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with the vast sums in his coffers, and his banking accounts: the fire is encreased by fresh fuel. If he must pull down his house, and build a new mansion; if he must buy fresh estates; his heart may become divided with heaven, and death may approach as an unwelcome sheriff. And how does he know but his son may be of a temper just the reverse of his father, and waste it all. The golden shields of Solomon were carried away by the king of Egypt; and Crœsus rich to a proverb, was relieved of his load by the army of Cyrus. On the contrary, the sleep of a labouring man is sweet; he fears no invader by night, while the heaps of hoarded gold corrode the heart of the possessor. Those heaps, like manure, are of no use till spread abroad, leaving the miser to return naked to the tomb as he came from the bosom of his mother. The man who labours for earth alone envelopes himself in darkness, and his sun sets in a cloud.
The conclusion is, that the things which are good and comely are, to love and serve God. He to whom God has given riches has power to enjoy them, in a hallowed use of every blessing; to be a husband to the widow, and a father to the orphan; and to spend his days in hymns of praise. He lives for God, getting good and doing good. He should rejoice in the Lord, and again, as the apostle says, rejoice. Then, when called to leave his paradise on earth, he has a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.