5 Better _is it_ that thou │ For it is better that thou shouldest not vow, than that │ shouldst not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not │ thou shouldst be vowing and not pay. │ pay. (5.) =A good is it that thou shouldst not vow= (the sentence is ambiguous, but the equivoke is ‘thou hadst better _not_ vow’), =than that thou shouldst vow and not pay.= 6 Suffer not thy mouth │ Do not allow thy mouth to cause to cause thy flesh to sin; │ thy body to sin; and say not in neither say thou before the │ the presence of God’s messenger, angel, that it _was_ an error: │ ‘It was but an inadvertence:’ wherefore should God be angry │ why should the Almighty be at thy voice, and destroy the │ angry with your prattle, and work of thine hands? │ put an arrest on the work of │ your hands? (6.) =Do not give with respect to thy mouth= (the את is not redundant, ‘do not appoint,’ which is the meaning of תתן), =to cause to make to sin with respect to thy flesh= (the meaning then must be, ‘do not so arrange matters as to cause thy mouth to make thy flesh sin,’ by, that is, preferring the ease, pleasure, of the flesh or the like, to the sacrifice caused by a redemption of the vow), =and do not say in the presence of the angel= (with the article; had this been noticed as it ought, less difficulty would have been felt in the interpretation of this passage; the angel is the messenger of Providence who comes to require the vow, and whom, of course, with or without sufficient reason, the person bound by the vow expects) =that= (כי) =an error it is=: (see Leviticus iv. 2, 22, 27, and Numbers xv. 24, 25, 29; when too this passage is compared with Leviticus iv. 2, we can have no doubt that ‎‏לפ׳ מא׳ here is the equivalent of לפ׳ יי׳ there) =why= (LXX. ἵνα μὴ, ‘so that not’), =should be angry= (Genesis xl. 2, Deuteronomy i. 24) =the Deity over thy voice= (Ginsburg, excellently, ‘with thy prattle’), =and destroy= (as this word is used to signify the ‘giving a pledge,’ this peculiar signification conveys the idea, ‘destroy by exacting a pledge,’ ‘make thee bankrupt by insisting upon payment’) =with respect to the work of your hands?= 7 For in the multitude of │ For in the multitude of dreams dreams and many words _there │ and vanities even so reasons are_ also _divers_ vanities: │ are multiplied that GOD is to but fear thou God. │ be feared. (7.) =For in a multitude of dreams= (‘conjectures’ probably) =and vanities and reasonings, the much= (_i.e._ these reasonings are increased); =for= (כי is repeated, and this repetition makes it emphatic――‘so indeed’) =with respect to the Deity fear.= The probable meaning is, ‘fear God under all circumstances: vanity and conjectures only increase the reasons for so doing,’――thus is revealed the real conclusion of the whole treatise.