Ecclesiastes 5:6

King James Version with Strong's Numbers

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?

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

כִּ֣י בְרֹ֤ב חֲלֹמוֹת֙ וַהֲבָלִ֔ים וּדְבָרִ֖ים הַרְבֵּ֑ה כִּ֥י אֶת־הָאֱלֹהִ֖ים יְרָֽא׃

Transliteration

For in rōḇ ḥălōmôṯ and haḇālîm and ḏəḇārîm harbēh, for ʾeṯ-hāʾĕlōhîm yərāʾ

Grammar Details

• *rōḇ*: noun, masculine singular construct - abundance/multitude of
• *ḥălōmôṯ*: noun, masculine plural - dreams
• *haḇālîm*: noun, masculine plural - vanities/emptiness
• *ḏəḇārîm*: noun, masculine plural - words/matters
• *harbēh*: verb (hiphil infinitive absolute used as adverb) - many/much
• *ʾeṯ-hāʾĕlōhîm*: direct object marker + definite article + noun, masculine plural - God (lit. the gods)
• *yərāʾ*: qal imperative, masculine singular - fear

Word Meanings

• *ḥălōmôṯ*: dreams/visions during sleep
• *haḇālîm*: vanities/vapors/breath/emptiness
• *ḏəḇārîm*: words/matters/things/affairs
• *harbēh*: many/much/greatly/abundantly
• *yərāʾ*: fear/be afraid/stand in awe of/revere

Referenced Verses

• Mal 2:7 : 7 For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.
• Mal 3:1 : 1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.
• Acts 7:30-35 : 30 And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush. 31 When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him, 32 Saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold. 33 Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet: for the place where thou standest is holy ground. 34 I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt. 35 This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.
• 1 Cor 3:13-15 : 13 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. 14 If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. 15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
• 1 Cor 11:10 : 10 For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.
• 1 Tim 5:21 : 21 I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality.
• Heb 1:14 : 14 Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?
• Jas 1:26 : 26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.
• Jas 3:2 : 2 For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.
• 2 John 1:8 : 8 Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.
• Gen 48:16 : 16 The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.
• Lev 5:4-6 : 4 Or if a soul swear, pronouncing with his lips to do evil, or to do good, whatsoever it be that a man shall pronounce with an oath, and it be hid from him; when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty in one of these. 5 And it shall be, when he shall be guilty in one of these things, that he shall confess that he hath sinned in that thing: 6 And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the LORD for his sin which he hath sinned, a female from the flock, a lamb or a kid of the goats, for a sin offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his sin.
• Lev 27:9-9 : 9 And if it be a beast, whereof men bring an offering unto the LORD, all that any man giveth of such unto the LORD shall be holy. 10 He shall not alter it, nor change it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good: and if he shall at all change beast for beast, then it and the exchange thereof shall be holy.
• Num 15:25 : 25 And the priest shall make an atonement for all the congregation of the children of Israel, and it shall be forgiven them; for it is ignorance: and they shall bring their offering, a sacrifice made by fire unto the LORD, and their sin offering before the LORD, for their ignorance:
• Eccl 5:1-2 : 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.
• Hos 12:4-5 : 4 Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us; 5 Even the LORD God of hosts; the LORD is his memorial.
• Hag 1:9-9 : 9 Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. 10 Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. 11 And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands.
• Hag 2:14-17 : 14 Then answered Haggai, and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith the LORD; and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is unclean. 15 And now, I pray you, consider from this day and upward, from before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the LORD: 16 Since those days were, when one came to an heap of twenty measures, there were but ten: when one came to the pressfat for to draw out fifty vessels out of the press, there were but twenty. 17 I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands; yet ye turned not to me, saith the LORD.