All vows to God, especially vows of self-dedication, should be made with great deliberation, and be carefully considered, because, whatever man vows to his Maker he is obligated to fulfil.

1 KEEP thy foot when thou enterest into the house of God;

For drawing nigh to hear is better than sacrifice, the oblation of

fools;

For they know not to be contrite.

2 Be not rash with thy mouth,

Nor let thy heart be in haste to utter a word before God;
For God is in heaven and thou art upon earth;

Therefore let thy words be few.

3 Truly a dream is associated with a multitude of incidents ; So is the voice of the fool with a multitude of words.

4 When thou vowest a vow unto God,

Defer not to perform it,

For He hath no pleasure in fools:
Perform that which thou hast vowed.

5 Better is it that thou shouldest not vow,

Than that thou shouldest vow, and not perform it.

6 Suffer not thy mouth to bring punishment on thy flesh; Neither say thou before the Angel that it was an oversight, Wherefore should God be provoked by thy voice,

And blast the work of thy hands?

7 Truly in a multitude of dreams, so in many words, are there vani

ties;

Therefore fear thou God.

VERSE 1.

The sacrifices enjoined by the Mosaic ritual were designed to be a symbolic teaching to the Jewish people, significant and premonitory unto them of good things to come. The whole ritual prefigured the promised Messiah, and was given to the Jews to be their pedagogue or scholastic conductor to Christ, the great prophet and teacher of His people of every age and every clime. On some of these sacrifices the offerers were permitted to feast in whole or in part. Solomon's admonition to the worshippers in the Temple was an injunction to offer the oblation of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving, from their hearts; and in their sacrificial feasts in the outer courts to have their minds intent on the inward spiritual grace rather than on the outward visible signs. Solomon's admonition is a solemn warning to all Jews and Christians to enter God's house with preparedness of mind, devotion, and reverential awe, and to offer to Him heartfelt oblations of prayer and praise.

'When ye approach God's 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; for He looks down

From heaven, and with paternal care prevents

Our real wants, before we ask.'-Khoheleth.

The Peschito-Syriac version renders this verse: 'Keep thy foot when thou goest into the house of God, and draw nigh to hear: this is better than the sacrificial victims which fools offer, for they know not to do that which is right.'

The Hebrew word rendered TO BE CONTRITE has the same signification in chap. vii. 3, namely, dejection and contrition of countenance.

VERSE 2.

Christ exemplified the exhortation 'Let thy words be few' in the beautiful form of prayer He gave to His disciples-a UNIVERSAL prayer, designed for all nations, languages, tongues, and people-a DAILY prayer for DAILY bread for soul and for body-a SPECIAL prayer for all who by realizing faith can call God, Abba, Father, being His children by regeneration, adoption, and grace.

Solomon does not condemn ALL long prayers, for Christ our exemplar prayed all night ; but careless heartless prayers, prayers for ostentation, vain repetitions of Paternosters and Ave Marias by tale.

VERSES 3 AND 7.

The dreams which are here termed 'vanities' are simply and exclusively the erratic phantasies of the mind during sleep, when the imagination is awake and the judgment slumbers, and are carefully to be distinguished from admonitory and premonitory dreams and apparitions. That premonitory dreams and visions are not the result of any return or re-appearance of the dead to the living, see the Preface, and note on chap. ix. 5 and 6.

VERSE 4.

The spiritual Israel are obligated by baptismal, confirmation, and sacramental vows to self-dedication unto God, to consecrate all the faculties of their minds and all the members of their bodies unto Him, whose they are and whom they serve.

VERSE 6.

The ANGEL of the everlasting covenant; THE ANGEL who spake to Moses out of the burning bush; THE ANGEL who, in the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud, conducted Israel out of Egypt; Jehovah THE ANGEL, both God and man, the Mighty God, the Father of the Everlasting Age, the Prince of Peace; THE WORD OF GOD, THE WISDOM OF GOD, THE MESSENGER OF GOD, THE MEDIATOR between God and man; THE PERSONATOR OF JEHOVAH, whereby Jehovah, invisible in His own nature, in human nature appeared to man. Thus Jehovah manifested Himself to Adam, Cain, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Hagar, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Manoah, etc. Wherever in the Old Testament THE ANGEL OF THE LORD, or THE ANGEL OF GOD, is recorded as appearing to man, that Angel is God Himself in human form.

According to correct construction, and the parallelism of Hebrew poetry, THE ANGEL in the former hemistich, and God in the latter hemistich, must signify one and the same person.

THE ANGEL here named is no priest nor priestly messenger coming to claim the eleemosynary offering, but God Himself, the Second Person of the eternal Trinity, the man Christ Jesus, He who is the brightness of His Father's glory and the express image of His person. The Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions render, BEFORE God.

X.

CHAPTER V. VERSE 8 TO CHAPTER VI. VERSE 9.

OPPRESSION is a dark page in providence, calling for the exercise of faith and patience. It is some alleviation to reflect that the ruler is subject to the superior jurisdiction of his monarch, and that both monarch and ruler are not only responsible to, but under the providential control of, Him by whom kings reign and princes decree justice.

Avarice chains down the heart to the things of time and sense, despoils man of the lawful enjoyments of life, expels the love of God from the soul, and verifies the Divine sentence, 'If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.'

Contentment of mind, resulting from fiducial reliance on God's sovereignty in the administration of human affairs, is man's highest wisdom and truest happiness. It realizes the faithfulness of Jehovah, humbles the pride of man, alleviates the sorrows of time, and devolves our cares, sorrows, and conflicts on Him who doeth all things well.

8 IF thou shalt see in a country oppression of the poor, and perversion of judgment and justice,

Be not dismayed concerning the matter;

For one higher than him in authority overlooketh ;

And the most High Ones are supreme over them and over the eminent of the earth.

9 He, the King of the earth, is to be served above all.

10 He who loveth money will not be satisfied with money,

Nor he who loveth wealth with its accumulation.

This also is vanity.

11 With the increase of goods, they who consume them are increased, And what advantage is there to the owners thereof,

Saving the beholding of them with their eyes?

12 Sweet is the sleep of a labourer, whether he eat little or much; But the abundance of the rich man suffers him not to sleep.

13 There is a grievous evil I have seen under the sun :

Riches treasured up for the owner thereof unto his harm, 14 And these riches perish through some adverse traffic,

And he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand. 15 As he came forth from the womb of his mother, Naked shall he again depart as he came ;

And when he dieth, there is nothing in his hand which he hath acquired by his labour.

16 This also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he depart;

And what profit hath he that he hath laboured for the wind ? 17 Yea, all his days he eateth in gloom,

And in much sorrow, and infirmities, and indignation.

18 Behold, I have considered that it is good, that it is comely, That a man should eat, and drink, and experience delight in all his labour,

Wherein he laboureth under the sun,

During the number of the days of his life which God hath assigned

him :

Truly this is his allotted portion.

19 Yea, to every man to whom God hath given riches and wealth, And hath enabled him to eat thereof,

And to sustain his allotted portion, and to rejoice in his labour; This is the very gift of God.

20 Let him remember that the days of his life will not be many, That God, by the joy of his heart, answers his prayers.

VI.

1 There is an afflictive evil which I have seen under the sun, And heavily does it press upon man :

2 A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, And he wanteth nothing for himself of all which he desireth, Yet God enableth him not to eat thereof,

But a stranger eateth it.

This is vanity, yea, it is a grievous affliction. 3 If a man shall beget an hundred children, And shall live many years,

And many shall be the days of his years;

Yet himself shall have no enjoyment of that prosperity,
And moreover to him there shall be no burial :

I say, an untimely birth is better off than he.

4 For it cometh forth in vain, and goeth away in darkness, And its name is buried in darkness,

5 Moreover, it hath not seen the sun, nor had any perception. To it there is more tranquillity than to him,

6 Yea, though he should live a thousand years twice told,

And enjoy no prosperity.

Do they not both go to the same place?

7 All the labour of man is for his mouth,

And yet desire cannot be satisfied.

8 Then what advantage is there to the wise man over the fool? What advantage to the indigent man, who hath understanding to struggle against life?

9 That which the eyes behold is better than the wandering of desire. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.

VERSES 8 AND 9.

The king is supreme over all in authority and office under him, and will overlook them, and bring them to account. The triune Jehovah (called by Solomon, THE MOST HIGH ONES, and THE KING OF THE EARTH) are supreme over angels and men, over all kings and all their subordinates, and will visit their transgressions by retributive justice in time, or by never-ending punishment in eternity. A king cannot rule a country, nor reign over a people, without subordinates in office, whose evil deeds he may be ignorant of, or, if he know them, may not possess the power of prevention, or of punishment. Witness David's dying charge to Solomon (1 Kings ii. 9). No government, civil or ecclesiastical, is to be censured because it is not faultless in ALL its details. Perfection of government will never be attained, until the will of God shall be done universally and perfectly ON EARTH, as it is now done universally and perfectly in heaven, until the saints shall be kings and priests, and reign with Christ UPON THE EARTH, until the twelve apostles shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

VERSE 10.

The progressive baneful effect of the love of money on the human heart, impelling it to increase of worldliness, and to increasing apostasy from God's word and will, is painfully exemplified in Balaam, Judas Iscariot, and Demas. Balaam, the unregenerate prophet of Jehovah to the Gentile world, twice courteously received the messengers of Balak, the king of the idolatrous Moabites, and twice sought Divine direction concerning their message, though he foreknew that their solicitations were contradictory to God's eternal, immutable decree. He covetously desired, and daringly essayed, to curse whom God had not cursed, and to defy whom God had not defied. He counselled Moab to tempt Israel to fornication and idolatry, and he perished amidst God's enemies, without hope and without salvation, and with a full