Ecclesiastes 5:6 - Exposition

Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin . "Thy flesh" is equivalent to "thyself," the whole personality, the idea of the flesh, as a distinct part of the man, sinning, being alien from Old Testament ontology. The injunction means—Do not, by uttering rash or inconsiderate vows, which you afterwards evade or cannot fulfill, bring sin upon yourself, or, as others render, bring punishment upon yourself. Septuagint, "Suffer not thy mouth to Cause thy flesh to sin ( τοῦ ὠξαμαρτῆσαι τὴν σάρκα σου );" Vulgate, Ut peccare facias carnem tuam . Another interpretation, but not so suitable, is this—Do not let thy mouth ( i . e . thy appetite) lead thee to break the vow of abstinence, and indulge in meat or drink from which (as, e.g ; a Nazarite) thou wast bound to abstain. Neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error . If we take "angel" ( malak ) in the usual sense (and there seems no very forcible reason why we should not), it must mean the angel of God in whose special charge you are placed, or the angel who was supposed to preside over the altar of worship, or that messenger of God whose duty it is to watch man's doings and to act as the minister of punishment ( 2 Samuel 24:16 ). The workings of God's providence are often attributed to angels; and sometimes the names of God and angel are interchanged (see Genesis 16:9 , Genesis 16:13 ; Genesis 18:2 , Genesis 18:3 , etc.; Exodus 3:2 , Exodus 3:4 ; Exodus 23:20 , etc.). Thus the Septuagint here renders, "Say not before the face of God ( πρὸ = προσώπου τοῦ θεοῦ )." If this interpretation be allowed, we have an argument for the literal explanation of the much-disputed passage in 1 Corinthians 11:10 , διὰ τοὺς ἀγγέλους . Thus, too, in 'The Testaments of the XII . Patriarchs,' we have, "The Lord is witness, and his angels are witnesses, concerning the word of your mouth" ('Levi,' 19). But most commentators consider that the word here means "messenger" of Jehovah, in the sense of priest, the announcer of the Divine Law, as in the unique passage Malachi 2:7 . Traces of a similar use of ἄγγελος may be found in the New Testament ( Revelation 1:20 ; Revelation 2:1 , etc.). According to the first interpretation, the man comes before God with his excuse; according to the second, he comes to the priest, and confesses that he was thoughtless and overhasty in making his vow, and desires to be released from it, or, at any rate, by some means to evade its fulfillment. His excuse may possibly look to the eases mentioned in Numbers 15:22 , etc; and he may wish to urge that the vow was made in ignorance, and that therefore he was not responsible for its incomplete execution. We do not know that a priest or any officer of the temple had authority to release from the obligation of a vow, so that the excuse made "before" him would seem to be objectless, while the evasion of a solemn promise made in the Name of God might well be said to be done in the presence of the observing and recording angel. The Vulgate rendering, Non eat providentia , makes the man account for his neglect by assuming that God takes no heed of such things; he deems the long-suffering of God to be indifference and disregard (comp. Ecclesiastes 8:11 ; Ecclesiastes 9:3 ). The original does not bear this interpretation. Wherefore should God be angry at thy voice— the words in which thy evasion and dishonesty are expressed— and destroy the work of thine hands? i . e . punish thee by calamity, want of success, sickness, etc; God's moral government being vindicated by earthly visitations.