“Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.”
My Notes
What Does Ecclesiastes 5:2 Mean?
Solomon commands restraint in prayer: "Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few." The instruction is grounded in a spatial reality: God is in heaven. You're on earth. The distance should produce verbal restraint.
The word "rash" (bahal — to be alarmed, to be hasty, to act without thought) describes speech that outpaces reflection. The mouth opens before the mind has processed. The words arrive before the thought is complete. The prayer is spoken before the praying has considered who's being addressed.
The rationale — "God is in heaven, and thou upon earth" — establishes the power differential: the one you're speaking to occupies an infinitely higher position than the one speaking. The spatial metaphor is theological: the gap between heaven and earth represents the gap between God's wisdom and yours. The distance should moderate your confidence in your own words.
Reflection Questions
- 1.How does the heaven-earth gap change how many words you use in prayer?
- 2.What's the difference between passionate prayer (genuine urgency) and rash prayer (thoughtless haste)?
- 3.Where are your prayers more like a drive-through order than a throne-room audience?
- 4.What would 'let thy words be few' look like in your actual prayer practice?
Devotional
God is in heaven. You're on earth. Let your words be few. Solomon's instruction for prayer is the opposite of what most prayer advice recommends: say less. The God you're addressing is so far above you that verbal restraint is the appropriate posture.
The rashness Solomon prohibits isn't passion in prayer. It's thoughtlessness. The mouth that opens without the mind engaging. The prayer that recites demands without considering who's receiving them. The hasty speech that treats the throne room of heaven the way you'd treat a drive-through window: fast, casual, without reverence for the one behind the counter.
The heaven-earth distance is the theological foundation: the spatial gap represents the wisdom gap. God's perspective encompasses what yours can't see. God's timing operates on a scale yours can't process. God's plans include variables yours can't calculate. Given that gap, the appropriate number of words is: fewer than you think. Because every word you speak to God carries the assumption that you understand enough to say it — and you usually don't.
The 'let thy words be few' (devarekha yihyu me'attim — your words should be diminished, reduced, minimal) is the practical instruction: say less. Not nothing — few. The prayer should be compressed by the reverence the pray-er feels for the one being addressed. When you genuinely grasp who you're talking to, the word count drops naturally.
Jesus echoes this in Matthew 6:7: don't use vain repetitions. The Father knows what you need before you ask. The brevity Solomon prescribes and Jesus affirms isn't about restricting communication with God. It's about matching the communication to the relationship. You're on earth. He's in heaven. The gap suggests humility. And humility speaks less.
How many of your prayers are rash — hasty words that outpace reflection about who you're addressing?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God,.... In private conversation…
Solomon's design, in driving us off from the world, by showing us its vanity, is to drive us to God and to our duty,…
Be not rash with thy mouth The rule follows the worshipper from the threshold into the Temple-court and tells him how he…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture