When you make a promise to God, don’t delay in following through, for God takes no pleasure in fools. Keep all the promises you make to him.
Parallel translations
- WEB When you vow a vow to God, don’t defer to pay it; for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay that which you vow.
- KJV 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.
- BSB When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it, because He takes no pleasure in fools. Fulfill your vow.
- NKJV When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it; For He has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you have vowed—
- NASB When you make a vow to God, do not be late in paying it; for He takes no delight in fools. Pay what you vow!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
When you vow to God, pay it promptly, for He takes no pleasure in fools who delay. It matters because broken or neglected promises to God are serious sin.
Overview
The Preacher applies the law of vows (Deuteronomy 23:21-23) to worship. A vow freely made becomes a binding obligation, and to defer payment is folly. The emphasis on integrity before God prepares for the New Testament call to let our yes be yes (Matthew 5:37), reflecting the faithfulness of the God who always keeps His own promises in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Num 30:2When a man vows a vow to Yahweh, or swears an oath to bind his soul with a bond, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.
- Deut 23:21–23When you vow a vow to Yahweh your God, you shall not be slack to pay it; for Yahweh your God will surely require it of you; and it would be sin in you.
- Ps 76:11Make vows to Yahweh your God, and fulfill them! Let all of his neighbors bring presents to him who is to be feared.
- Matt 5:33“Again you have heard that it was said to them of old time, ‘You shall not make false vows, but shall perform to the Lord your vows,’
- Ps 66:13–14I will come into your temple with burnt offerings. I will pay my vows to you,
- Ps 50:14Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Pay your vows to the Most High.
- Ps 119:106I have sworn, and have confirmed it, that I will obey your righteous ordinances.
- Ps 116:14I will pay my vows to Yahweh, yes, in the presence of all his people.
- Mal 1:10“Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you,” says Yahweh of Armies, “neither will I accept an offering at your hand.
- Heb 10:6You had no pleasure in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin.
- Ps 147:10–11He doesn’t delight in the strength of the horse. He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man.
- Ps 116:16–18Yahweh, truly I am your servant. I am your servant, the son of your servant. You have freed me from my chains.
- Jonah 2:9But I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that which I have vowed. Salvation belongs to Yahweh.”
- Gen 28:20Jacob vowed a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and clothing to put on,
- Isa 19:21Yahweh will be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know Yahweh in that day. Yes, they will worship with sacrifice and offering, and will vow a vow to Yahweh, and will perform it.
- Gen 35:1God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel, and live there. Make there an altar to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.”
- Gen 35:3Let us arise, and go up to Bethel. I will make there an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me on the way which I went.”
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Christ at the center
The search that finds everything 'under the sun' to be vapor exposes the emptiness of life without God and drives us to the one who alone gives meaning, the resurrection that makes our labor not in vain.
How Ecclesiastes 5:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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