Be not rash with thy mouth - Do not hasten with thy mouth; weigh thy words, feel deeply, think much, speak little.

"When ye approach his altar, on your lips

Set strictest guard; and let your thoughts be pure,

Fervent, and recollected. Thus prepared,

Send up the silent breathings of your souls,

Submissive to his will."

C.

Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God,.... In private conversation care should be taken that no rash and unadvised words be spoken in haste, as were by Moses and David; and that no evil, nor even any idle word he uttered, since from, the abundance of the heart the mouth is apt to speak, and all is before, the Lord; not a word in the tongue but is altogether known by him, and must be accounted for to him, Psalm 106:33. Jerom interprets this of words spoken concerning God; and careful men should be of what they say of him, of his nature and perfections, of his persons, and of his works; and it may be applied to a public profession of his name, and of faith in him; though this should be done with the heart, yet the heart and tongue should not be rash and hasty in making it; men should consider what they profess and confess, and upon what foot they take up and make a profession of religion; whether they have the true grace of God or no: and it will hold true of the public ministry of the word, in which everything that comes uppermost in the mind, or what is crude and undigested, should not be, uttered; but what ministers have thought of, meditated on, well weighed in their minds, and properly digested. Some understand this of rash vows, such as Jephthah's, is supposed to be, which are later repented of; but rather speaking unto God in prayer is intended. So the Targum,

"thy, heart shall not hasten to bring out speech at the time thou prayest before the Lord;''

anything and everything that comes up into the mind should not be, uttered before God; not anything rashly and hastily; men should consider before they speak to the King of kings; for though set precomposed forms of prayer are not to be used, yet the matter of prayer should be thought of beforehand; what our wants are, and what we should ask for; whether for ourselves or others; this rule I fear we often offend against: the reasons follow;

for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth; his throne is in the heavens, he dwells in the highest heavens, though they cannot contain him; this is expressive of his majesty, sovereignty, and supremacy, and of his omniscience and omnipotence; he is the high and lofty One, that dwells in the high and holy place; he is above all, and sees and knows all persons and things; and he sits in the heavens, and does whatever he pleases; and therefore all should stand in awe of him, and consider what they say unto him. Our Lord seems to have respect to this passage when he directed his disciples to pray, saying, "Our Father, which art in heaven", Matthew 6:9; and when we pray to him we should think what we ourselves are, that we are on the earth, the footstool of God; that we are of the earth, earthly; dwell in houses of clay, which have their foundation in the dust; crawling worms on earth, unworthy of his notice; are but dust and ashes, who take upon us to speak unto him;

therefore let, by words be few; of which prayer consists; such was the prayer of the publican, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner", Luke 18:13; and such the prayer which Christ has given as a pattern and directory to his people; who has forbid vain repetitions and much speaking in prayer, Matthew 6:7; not that all lengthy prayers are to be condemned, or all repetitions in them; our Lord was all night in prayer himself; and Nehemiah, Daniel, and others, have used repetitions in prayer, which may be done with fresh affection, zeal, and fervency; but such are forbidden as are done for the sake of being heard for much speaking, as the Heathens; and who thought they were not understood unless they said a thing a hundred times over (p); or when done to gain a character of being more holy and religious than others, as the Pharisees.

(p) "Ohe jam desine deos obtundere----Ut nihil credas intelligere, nisi idem dictum eat centies." Terent. Heautont. Acts 5. Sc. 1. v. 6, 8.

"Be not hasty with thy mouth, and let not thy heart hasten to speak a word before God: for God is in heaven, and thou art upon earth; therefore let thy words be few. For by much business cometh dreaming, and by much talk the noise of fools." As we say in German: auf Flgeln fliegen [to flee on wings], auf Einem Auge nicht sehen [not to see with one eye], auf der Flte blasen [to blow on the flute], so in Heb. we say that one slandereth with (auf) his tongue (Psalm 15:3), or, as here, that he hasteth with his mouth, i.e., is forward with his mouth, inasmuch as the word goes before the thought. It is the same usage as when the post-bibl. Heb., in contradistinction to התורה שׁבּכתב, the law given in the Scripture, calls the oral law הת שׁבּעל־פּה, i.e., the law mediated על־פה, oraliter equals oralis traditio (Shabbath 31a; cf. Gittin 60b). The instrument and means is here regarded as the substratum of the action - as that which this lays as a foundation. The phrase: "to take on the lips," Psalm 16:4, which needs no explanation, is different. Regarding בּהל, festinare, which is, like מהר, the intens. of Kal, vid., once it occurs quite like our "sich beeilen" to hasten, with reflex. accus. suff., 2 Chronicles 35:21. Man, when he prays, should not give the reins to his tongue, and multiply words as one begins and repeats over a form which he has learnt, knowing certainly that it is God of whom and to whom he speaks, but without being conscious that God is an infinitely exalted Being, to whom one may not carelessly approach without collecting his thoughts, and irreverently, without lifting up his soul. As the heavens, God's throne, are exalted above the earth, the dwelling-place of man, so exalted is the heavenly God above earthly man, standing far beneath him; therefore ought the words of a man before God to be few, - few, well-chosen reverential words, in which one expresses his whole soul. The older language forms no plur. from the subst. מעט (fewness) used as an adv.; but the more recent treats it as an adj., and forms from it the plur. מעטּים (here and in Psalm 109:8, which bears the superscription le-david, but has the marks of Jeremiah's style); the post-bibl. places in the room of the apparent adj. the particip. adj. מועט with the plur. מוּעטים (מוּעטין), e.g., Berachoth 61a: "always let the words of a man before the Holy One (blessed be His name!) be few" (מוע). Few ought the words to be; for where they are many, it is not without folly. This is what is to be understood, Ecclesiastes 5:2, by the comparison; the two parts of the verse stand here in closer mutual relation than Ecclesiastes 7:1, - the proverb is not merely synthetical, but, like Job 5:7, parabolical. The ב is both times that of the cause. The dream happens, or, as we say, dreams happen ענין בּרב; not: by much labour; for labour in itself, as the expenditure of strength making one weary, has as its consequence, Ecclesiastes 5:11, sweet sleep undisturbed by dreams; but: by much self-vexation in a man's striving after high and remote ends beyond what is possible (Targ., in manifold project-making); the care of such a man transplants itself from the waking to the sleeping life, it if does not wholly deprive him of sleep, Ecclesiastes 5:11, Ecclesiastes 8:16, - all kinds of images of the labours of the day, and fleeting phantoms and terrifying pictures hover before his mind. And as dreams of such a nature appear when a man wearies himself inwardly as well as outwardly by the labours of the day, so, with the same inward necessity, where many words are spoken folly makes its appearance. Hitzig renders כסיל, in the connection קול כּ, as adj.; but, like אויל (which forms an adj. ěvīlī), כסיל is always a subst., or, more correctly, it is a name occurring always only of a living being, never of a thing. There is sound without any solid content, mere blustering bawling without sense and intelligence. The talking of a fool is in itself of this kind (Ecclesiastes 10:14); but if one who is not just a fool falls into much talk, it is scarcely possible but that in this flow of words empty bombast should appear.

Another rule regarding the worship of God refers to vowing.

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.

5:2 Rash - Speak not without due consideration. To utter - Either in prayer, or vows. For God - Is a God of infinite majesty, holiness, and knowledge. Thy words - Either in prayer or in vowing.

thing: or, word

2. rash-opposed to the considerate reverence ("keep thy foot," Ec 5:1). This verse illustrates Ec 5:1, as to prayer in the house of God ("before God," Isa 1:12); so Ec 5:4-6 as to vows. The remedy to such vanities is stated (Ec 5:6). "Fear thou God."

God is in heaven-Therefore He ought to be approached with carefully weighed words, by thee, a frail creature of earth.

5:1-3 Address thyself to the worship of God, and take time to compose thyself for it. Keep thy thoughts from roving and wandering: keep thy affections from running out toward wrong objects. We should avoid vain repetitions; copious prayers are not here condemned, but those that are unmeaning. How often our wandering thoughts render attendance on Divine ordinances little better than the sacrifice of fools! Many words and hasty ones, used in prayer, show folly in the heart, low thoughts of God, and careless thoughts of our own souls.