Ecclesiastes 5:3

3 For a dream cometh through a multitude of business, and a fool's voice is known by 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 Guard thy feet when thou goest into the house of God; and be more ready to hear than to make 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 anything before God. For God is in heaven and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.

3 For a dream cometh through a multitude of business, and a fool's voice is known by a multitude of words.

4 When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it, for He hath no pleasure in fools; pay that which thou hast vowed.

5 Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.