3 A dream comes when there are many cares, and many words mark the speech of a fool.
3 For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words.
3 For a dream comes with much business, and a fool's voice with many words.
3 Over-work makes for restless sleep. Over-talk shows you up as a fool.
3 For a dream comes through much activity, And a fool's voice is known by his many words.
3 Too much activity gives you restless dreams; too many words make you a fool.
7 Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore fear God.
7 For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou God.
7 For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity;
7 But against all illusion and fantasy and empty talk There's always this rock foundation: Fear God!
7 For in the multitude of dreams and many words there is also vanity. But fear God.
7 Talk is cheap, like daydreams and other useless activities. Fear God instead.
(Read Ecclesiastes 5:4-8)
When a person made engagements rashly, he suffered his mouth to cause his flesh to sin. The case supposes a man coming to the priest, and pretending that his vow was made rashly, and that it would be wrong to fulfil it. Such mockery of God would bring the Divine displeasure, which might blast what was thus unduly kept. We are to keep down the fear of man. Set God before thee; then, if thou seest the oppression of the poor, thou wilt not find fault with Divine Providence; nor think the worse of the institution of magistracy, when thou seest the ends of it thus perverted; nor of religion, when thou seest it will not secure men from suffering wrong. But though oppressors may be secure, God will reckon for all.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Ecclesiastes 5:3
Commentary on Ecclesiastes 5:1-3
(Read Ecclesiastes 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.