2 Be not rash with thy │ Do not be hasty with thy lips, mouth, and let not thine heart │ nor in thought hurry forth a be hasty to utter _any_ ¹thing │ word against the Almighty, for before God: for God _is_ in │ that Almighty is in the heaven, and thou upon earth: │ heavens, and thou art upon the therefore let thy words be │ earth: on this account let thy few. │ words be sparing. Because just │ as there comes dreaming through 3 For a dream cometh through │ a multitude of anxieties, so the multitude of business; and │ there comes the voice of a a fool’s voice _is known_ by │ befooled through a multitude of multitude of words. │ reasonings. │ ¹ _Or_, word. │ (2, 3.) =Do not hasten= (the hastiness of vexation, see Job iv. 5, xxiii. 15, Psalms vi. 10) =upon thy mouth= (the preposition is by no means redundant), =and thy heart do not hurry= (the usual word denoting the hurry of want of time. The meaning then is, do not speak, no, do not even think, hastily) =to cause to send out a word= (with the usual meaning of ‘a reason to be acted on’) =before the Deity, because the Deity= (as this is a repetition, the word becomes emphatic, ‘that Deity’) =in the heavens and thou= (emphatic) =on the earth, therefore be thy words a few= (_i.e._ diminished rather than increased, hence the following). =For comes the dream in the multitude of anxiety, and a voice= of =a befooled= one (for it is without the article) =in the multitude of words= (or ‘reasons,’ as above). The argument now passes over from rash speeches to rash vows. A vow is a favourite resource with the foolish for obtaining the accomplishment of their wishes: they think to bribe Providence with gifts and offerings. 4 When thou vowest a vow │ (2.) Shouldst thou have vowed unto God, defer not to pay it; │ specially to God, do not be for _he hath_ no pleasure in │ slow to pay it; because there fools: pay that which thou │ is no providence with the hast vowed. │ befooled ones: just what thou │ hast vowed pay. (4.) =When thou hast vowed a vow= (‘If by any means thou hast done this,’ for considerable emphasis is given by the repetition of ‘vow,’ according to the well-known Hebrew idiom) =to God, do not defer to pay it= (the alacrity with which men vow is commonly in strong contrast with the tardiness with which they pay), =because there is nothing= of =providence= (חפץ, with its usual technical meaning, and also equivocal, in the sense of ‘pleasure’) =in befooled= ones: =with respect to what thou hast vowed, pay= (the LXX. render σὺ οὖν ‘thou then,’ but the emphasis given by את אשר may easily account for this).