Ecclesiastes 5:3

3 For out of much preoccupation comes the dream, and the voice of the fool out of a multitude of words.

Ecclesiastes 5:3 Meaning and Commentary

Ecclesiastes 5:3

For a dream cometh through the multitude of business
Or, "for as a dream" ^F17, so Aben Ezra; as that comes through a multiplicity of business in the daytime, in which the mind has been busied, and the body employed; and this brings on dreams in the night season, which are confused and incoherent; sometimes the fancy is employed about one thing, and sometimes another, and all unprofitable and useless, as well as vain and foolish; and a fool's voice [is known] by multitude of words;
either his voice in conversation, for a fool is full of words, and pours out his foolishness in a large profusion of them; or his voice in prayer, being like a man's dream, confused, incoherent, and rambling. The supplement, "is known", may be left out.

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FOOTNOTES:

F17 (ab yk) "ut prodit somnium", Junius & Tremellius; "nam ut venit", Piscator; "quia sicut venit", Mercerus, Ramabachius, so Broughton.

Ecclesiastes 5:3 In-Context

1 Watch thy feet when thou goest to the house of God and draw near with more willingness to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know how to do what God wants.

2 Do not be rash with thy mouth and do not let thy 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 out of much preoccupation comes the dream, and the voice of the fool out of a multitude of words.

4 When thou dost vow a vow unto God, do not defer to pay it; for he has no pleasure in fools; pay that which thou hast vowed.

5 It is better that thou should not vow than that thou should vow and not pay.