--- title: "Ecclesiastes 5 - Study King James Bible with keil and delitzsch old testament commentary" description: "Read Ecclesiastes 5 with keil and delitzsch old testament commentary commentary. 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 ev" image: "/_app/immutable/assets/missing.C7wGMEZ6.jpg" url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/keil-and-delitzsch-old-testament-commentary/ecclesiastes/5" --- [ Read](/kjv/ecclesiastes/5)[ Commentary](/study/ecclesiastes/5)[ Interlinear](/interlinear/ecclesiastes/5) Audio 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* thing 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 4](/study/ecclesiastes/4) [Ecclesiastes 6](/study/ecclesiastes/6) ## Commentary To verse 1 “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and to go to hear is better than that fools give a sacrifice; for the want of knowledge leads them to do evil.” The “house of God” is like the “house of Jahve,” [2 Samuel 12:20](/kjv/2-samuel/12/20); [Isaiah 37:1](/kjv/isaiah/37/1), the temple; אל , altogether like אל־מ־אל , [Psalms 73:17](/kjv/psalms/73/17). The Chethı̂b רגליך is admissible, for elsewhere also this plur. (“thy feet”) occurs in a moral connection and with a spiritual reference, *e.g.*, [Psalms 119:59](/kjv/psalms/119/59); but more frequently, however, the comprehensive sing. occurs. [Psalms 119:105](/kjv/psalms/119/105); [Proverbs 1:15](/kjv/proverbs/1/15); [Proverbs 4:26](/kjv/proverbs/4/26)., and the Kerı̂ thus follows the right note. The correct understanding of what follows depends on רע ... כּי־ . Interpreters have here adopted all manner of impossible views. Hitzig's translation: “for they know not how to be sorrowful,” has even found in Stuart at least one imitator; but עשׂות רע would, as the contrast of 'asoth tov , [Ecclesiastes 3:12](/kjv/ecclesiastes/3/12), mean nothing else than, “to do that which is unpleasant, disagreeable, bad,” like 'asah ra'ah , [2 Samuel 12:18](/kjv/2-samuel/12/18). Gesen., Ewald (§336*b*), Elster, Heiligst., Burger, Zöckl., Dale, and Bullock translate: “they know not that they do evil;” but for such a rendering the words ought to have been עשׂותם רע (cf. [Jeremiah 15:15](/kjv/jeremiah/15/15)); the only example for the translation of לעשׂות after the manner of the *acc. c. inf*. = *se facere malum* - viz. at [1 Kings 19:4](/kjv/1-kings/19/4) - is incongruous, for למות does not here mean *se mori*, but *ut moreretur*. Yet more incorrect is the translation of Jerome, which is followed by Luther: *nesciunt quid faciant mali*. It lies near, as at [Ecclesiastes 2:24](/kjv/ecclesiastes/2/24) so also here, to suppose an injury done to the text. Aben Ezra introduced רק before לעשׂ , but Koheleth never uses this limiting particle; we would have to write כי אם־לעשׂות , after [Ezra 3:12](/kjv/ezra/3/12); [Ezra 8:15](/kjv/ezra/8/15). Anything thus attained, however, is not worth the violent means thus used; for the ratifying clause is not ratifying, and also in itself, affirmed of the כסילים , who, however, are not the same as the resha'im and the hattaim , is inappropriate. Rather it might be said: they know not to do good (thus the Syr.); or: they know not whether it be good or bad to do, *i.e.*, they have no moral feeling, and act not from moral motives (so the Targ.). Not less violent than this remodelling of the text is the expedient of Herzberg, Philippson, and Ginsburg, who from לשׁמע derive the subject-conception of the obedient ( השּׂמעים ): “For those understand not at all to do evil;” the subj. ought to have been expressed if it must be something different from the immediately preceding כסילים . We may thus render enam yod'im , after [Psalms 82:5](/kjv/psalms/82/5); [Isaiah 56:10](/kjv/isaiah/56/10), as complete in itself: they (the fools) are devoid of knowledge to do evil = so that they do evil; *i.e.*, want of knowledge brings them to this, that they do evil. Similarly also Knobel: they concern themselves not, - are unconcerned (viz., about the right mode of worshipping God), - so that they do evil, with the correct remark that the consequence of their perverse conduct is here represented as their intention. But ידע לא , *absol*., does not mean to be unconcerned (wanton), but to be without knowledge. Rashbam, in substance correctly: they are predisposed by their ignorance to do evil; and thus also Hahn; Mendelssohn translates directly: “they sin because they are ignorant.” If this interpretation is correct, then for לשׁמע it follows that it does not mean “to obey” (thus *e.g.*, Zöckler), which in general it never means without some words being added to it (cf. on the contrary, [1 Samuel 15:22](/kjv/1-samuel/15/22)), but “to hear,” - viz. the word of God, which is to be heard in the house of God, - whereby, it is true, a hearing is meant which leads to obedience. In the word הורות , priests are not perhaps thought of, although the comparison of [Ecclesiastes 5:5](/kjv/ecclesiastes/5/5) ( המלאך ) with [Malachi 2:7](/kjv/malachi/2/7) makes it certainly natural; priestly instruction limited itself to information regarding the performance of the law already given in Scripture, [Leviticus 10:11](/kjv/leviticus/10/11); [Deuteronomy 33:9](/kjv/deuteronomy/33/9)., and to deciding on questions arising in the region of legal praxis, [Deuteronomy 24:8](/kjv/deuteronomy/24/8); [Haggai 2:11](/kjv/haggai/2/11). The priesthood did not belong to the teaching class in the sense of preaching. Preaching was never a part of the temple cultus, but, for the first time, after the exile became a part of the synagogue worship. The preachers under the O.T. were the prophets, - preachers by a supernatural divine call, and by the immediate impulse of the Spirit; we know from the Book of Jeremiah that they sometimes went into the temple, or there caused their books of prophecy to be read; yet the author, by the word לשׁמע of the foregoing proverb, scarcely thinks of them. But apart from the teaching of the priests, which referred to the realization of the letter of the law, and the teaching of the prophets to the realization of the spirit of the law, the word formed an essential part of the sacred worship of the temple: the *Tefilla*, the *Beracha*, the singing of psalms, and certainly, at the time of Koheleth, the reading of certain sections of the Bible. When thou goest to the house of God, says Koheleth, take heed to thy step, well reflecting whither thou goest and how thou hast there to appear; and (with this ו he connects with this first *nota bene* a second) drawing near to hear exceeds the sacrifice-offering of fools, for they are ignorant (just because they hear not), which leads to this result, that they do evil. מן , *prae*, expresses also, without an adj., precedence in number, [Isaiah 10:10](/kjv/isaiah/10/10), or activity, [Isaiah 9:17](/kjv/isaiah/9/17), or worth, [Ezekiel 15:2](/kjv/ezekiel/15/2). קרוב is *inf*. *absol*. Böttcher seeks to subordinate it as such to שׁמר : take heed to thy foot ... and to the coming near to hear more than to ... . But these obj. to שמר would be incongruous, and מתת וגו clumsy and even distorted in expression; it ought rather to be מתּתּך כּכסי־לים זבח . As the *inf*. *absol*. can take the place of the obj., [Isaiah 7:15](/kjv/isaiah/7/15); [Isaiah 42:24](/kjv/isaiah/42/24); [Lamentations 3:45](/kjv/lamentations/3/45), so also the place of the subj. (Ewald, §240*a*), although [Proverbs 25:27](/kjv/proverbs/25/27) is a doubtful example of this. That the use of the *inf*. *absol*. has a wide application with the author of this book, we have already seen under [Ecclesiastes 4:2](/kjv/ecclesiastes/4/2). Regarding the sequence of ideas in זבח ... מתּת (first the subj., then the obj.), *vid*., Gesen. §133. 3, and cf. above at [Ecclesiastes 3:18](/kjv/ecclesiastes/3/18). זבח ( זבחים ), along with its general signification comprehending all animal sacrifices, according to which the altar bears the name מזבּח , early acquired also a more special signification: it denotes, in contradistinction to עולה , such sacrifices as are only partly laid on the altar, and for the most part are devoted to a sacrificial festival, [Exodus 18:12](/kjv/exodus/18/12) (cf. [Exodus 12:27](/kjv/exodus/12/27)), the so-called shelamim , or also zivhhe shelamim , [Proverbs 7:14](/kjv/proverbs/7/14). The expression זבח נתן makes it probable that here, particularly, is intended the festival ([1 Kings 1:41](/kjv/1-kings/1/41)) connected with this kind of sacrifice, and easily degenerating to worldly merriment (*vid*., under [Proverbs 7:14](/kjv/proverbs/7/14)); for the more common word for תּת would have been הקריב or שׁחוט ; in תּת it seems to be indicated that it means not only to present something to God, but also to give at the same time something to man. The most recent canonical Chokma-book agrees with [Proverbs 21:3](/kjv/proverbs/21/3) in this depreciation of sacrifice. But the *Chokma* does not in this stand alone. The great word of Samuel, [1 Samuel 15:22](/kjv/1-samuel/15/22)., that self-denying obedience to God is better than all sacrifices, echoes through the whole of the Psalms. And the prophets go to the utmost in depreciating the sacrificial cultus. 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