Ecclesiastes 5:7

For in the multitude of dreams The order of the words in the A. V. is not that of the Hebrew, which gives For in the multitude of dreams and vanities and many words, but is adopted by many commentators as representing a more correct text. The introduction of the word "vanities" (the "divers" of the A. V. has, as the italics shew, nothing answering to it in the Hebrew,) indicates the purpose of the writer in thus noting the weak points of popular religionism. They also, the dreams which seemed to them as messages from heaven, the "many words" of long and resounding prayers, took their place in the induction which was to prove that "all is vanity." So Theophrastus (Charact. xvi.) describes the superstitious man (δεισιδαίμων) as agitated when he sees a vision and straightway going off to consult a soothsayer. In contrast with the garrulous rashness and the inconsiderate vows and the unwise reliance on dreams which Judaism was learning from heathenism (Matthew 6:7) Koheleth falls back on the "fear of God," the temper of reverential and silent awe, which was "the beginning of wisdom" (Proverbs 1:7; Job 28:28). It is significant that here again the teaching of Koheleth has a parallel in that of the Epicurean poet who traces the "religions" of mankind (in his sense of the word) in no small measure to the influence of dreams.

"Quippe etenim jam tum divum mortalia sæcla

Egregias animo facies vigilante videbant,

Et magis in somnis mirando corporis auctu."

"Even then the race of mortal men would see

With waking soul the mighty forms of Gods,

And in their dreams with shapes of wondrous size."

Lucret. De Rer. Nat. v. 1169 71.