Ecclesiastes — Chapter 5

Ne temere quid loquaris neque cor tuum sit velox

Lapide comments on restraining speech before God: since God is in heaven and you on earth, let your words be few. Rash, verbose prayer is condemned because it proceeds from a wandering mind rather than from the heart. He cites the Chaldee (\"do not be hasty to bring forth a word of falsehood before God\") and Jerome, and argues that prayer should be brief, fervent, and reverent, not a flood of distracted words.

Multas curas sequuntur somnia

Lapide explains that just as excessive worldly cares breed troubled dreams, so excessive words breed folly. He connects dreams to the preceding verse: the man whose mind is distracted by many anxieties during the day will dream confused dreams at night, and similarly, he who multiplies words will inevitably fall into foolish speech. Jerome and Olympiodorus concur that wordiness in prayer produces vanity.

Si quid vovisti Deo ne moreris reddere

Lapide teaches that a vow once made must be promptly fulfilled, for God is displeased by a faithless and foolish promise. He defines a vow as a deliberate promise to God of a greater good, obligating under sin, and discusses the conditions for a valid vow (deliberation, possibility, moral goodness of the thing vowed). He cites Deuteronomy 23:21-22 and various Fathers on the gravity of breaking vows.

Multoque melius est non vovere quam post votum promissa non reddere

Lapide expounds that it is far better never to vow than to vow and not fulfill: the non-vower commits no sin, but the vow-breaker sins gravely, adding sacrilege (breach of faith to God) to whatever the matter of the vow may be. He distinguishes this from the question whether vowing itself is meritorious (it is, when done prudently), and cites Augustine, Jerome, and Thomas Aquinas on the merit and peril of vows.

Ne dederis os tuum ut peccare facias carnem tuam

Lapide interprets \"do not let your mouth cause your flesh to sin\" as a warning against rash vows that one cannot or will not keep, thereby incurring sin upon oneself. \"Before the angel\" he explains variously as the guardian angel, the priest (messenger of God), or God Himself, before whom one must not say \"it was an error\" (i.e., I did not mean my vow). God's wrath at such faithlessness may destroy all the works of one's hands.

Ubi multa sunt somnia plurimae sunt vanitates

Lapide sums up the section on vows and prayer: where there are many dreams and many words, there is much vanity — but you, fear God. Dreams, vain fantasies, and verbose speeches are all unreliable; the one solid foundation is the fear of God. He reads this as the conclusion of the preceding admonitions: avoid rash speech, rash vows, and reliance on dreams; instead, cultivate reverent fear of the Lord.

Si videris calumnias egenorum et violenta judicia

Lapide explains Solomon's counsel not to marvel when you see the oppression of the poor and the perversion of justice in a province, because above every high official stands a higher one, and above them all stands God. He takes this as teaching divine providence: injustice is permitted temporarily, but God watches over all and will judge the judges. The Chaldee reads it as a chain of heavenly watchers; Jerome sees ascending grades of angelic and divine oversight.

Et insuper universae terrae rex imperat servienti

Lapide discusses the king who commands the whole cultivated land. Some read this of an earthly king who profits from agriculture (the Vulgate's \"servienti\" meaning land under tillage); others, more probably, read it of God the supreme King who rules all the earth and its servants. Lapide favors the theological reading: God is the universal sovereign above all lesser rulers, ensuring ultimate justice despite apparent injustices in provinces.

Avarus non implebitur pecunia

Lapide extensively treats the insatiability of avarice: the lover of money is never satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its fruits. He gives the a priori reason (the human soul is immense, and cupidity exceeds the whole world's gold) and compares the miser to a dropsical man who thirsts more the more he drinks. He cites Bernard at length on how money can no more fill a spiritual soul than inflated air can satisfy a starving man.

Ubi multae sunt opes multi et qui comedunt eas

Lapide explains the vanity that where wealth increases, so do its consumers — servants, parasites, relatives, tax collectors, and thieves — so that the rich owner gains nothing except to behold his riches with his eyes. The more one possesses, the more dependents and expenses multiply, leaving the owner no better off than before. Hugo Cardinal lists eight reasons why the miser is never sated, including that wealth has no proportion to the soul's infinite capacity.

Dulcis est somnus operanti

Lapide contrasts the sweet sleep of the laborer (whether he eats little or much) with the restless insomnia of the rich man whose satiety prevents sleep. The worker's moderate life produces health, cheerfulness, and sound sleep, while the wealthy man's anxious cares — like a swarm of wasps or gnats — sting him ceaselessly through the night. He cites Basil on the blessings of sleep, and Bernard on the four tormenting vices (inhumanity, contempt of God, forgetfulness of death, tenacity) that yoke the chariot of avarice.

Est et alia infirmitas pessima: divitiae conservatae in malum domini sui

Lapide identifies a sixth vanity of riches: wealth hoarded to the owner's own harm. He explains \"malum\" as both moral evil (riches occasion pride, gluttony, lust, and all crimes) and punishment (the rich are harassed by lawsuits, robbed, and even murdered for their wealth, as Naboth was slain by Ahab). Ambrose, Chrysostom, and Salvian elaborate how riches stored up become instruments of eternal damnation when not used for good.

Pereunt enim in afflictione pessima: generavit filium qui in summa egestate erit

Lapide explains that the miser's hoarded wealth perishes in a grievous calamity (by theft, shipwreck, fraud, or lawsuit), and his son is left in utter destitution. This seventh vanity of riches afflicts the parent doubly: he suffers not only his own ruin but his child's poverty. Lapide illustrates from English Catholics who, to preserve their faith, lost their estates, leaving their children begging — a harder trial than personal suffering.

Sicut egressus est nudus de utero matris suae sic revertetur

Lapide comments that as a man is born naked, so he returns naked to the earth, taking nothing of his labor with him. He cites Job 1:21, 1 Timothy 6:7, and Psalm 48:18, and draws the moral that all worldly goods are merely lent for the duration of life, like a servant's livery returned when he leaves his master's house. The Chaldee adds that the miser departs naked of good merits, having neglected charity through avarice.

Miserabilis prorsus infirmitas: quomodo venit sic revertetur

Lapide calls this the epitome of human misery: just as one came, so one returns, and what profit has he who labored for the wind? He explains \"wind\" as signifying the fugacity, contrariety, and impetuous vanity of earthly kingdoms and riches (Zechariah 6). The miser is like a laborer expelled naked and sick from his field after years of toil, or a servant dismissed without wages — such is the miser's condition at death.

Cunctis diebus vitae suae comedit in tenebris

Lapide describes the miser's wretched daily existence: he eats in darkness, amid many cares, anger, sickness, and sorrow. He gives five reasons for the \"darkness\": the miser eats alone to avoid hosting others; he is too busy by day to eat except hastily at night; he avoids eating twice daily from stinginess; he keeps only a dim lamp to save oil; and the darkness symbolizes his squalid, gloomy, and melancholy life. Christ rightly calls riches \"thorns\" (Matthew 13:22) because they inflict sharp pains of anxiety on body and soul alike.

Hoc itaque visum est mihi bonum ut comedat quis et bibat

Lapide presents Solomon's repeated conclusion: the best course is to eat, drink, and enjoy the fruit of one's labor during the numbered days God has given, for this is one's portion. He has explained this same conclusion at chapters 2 and 3. It is the practical inference drawn from the vanity of avarice: better to use one's goods moderately and honestly than to hoard them for an uncertain heir. The Chaldee expands this to include almsgiving and keeping the law.

Et omni homini cui dedit Deus divitias

Lapide teaches that when God grants someone riches, substance, and the power to enjoy them, this enjoyment itself is God's gift. The Hebrew \"hishlito\" means God has made him master over his wealth, giving him dominion over his cupidity so that he rules his riches rather than being ruled by them. Seneca confirms: misers are not said to possess riches but to be possessed by them. The liberal man is the true owner; the miser is a slave.

Non enim satis recordabitur dierum vitae suae

Lapide explains that the man whom God blesses with a liberal heart does not brood anxiously over the days of his life, because God fills his heart with joy. He gives five interpretations: (1) the brevity of life does not trouble him; (2) he does not dwell on past sufferings; (3) unlike the miser who dreads the future, the liberal man hopes joyfully; (4) he counts more happy days than sad; (5) the good use of riches is pleasing to God, who responds to the labor of the generous man with proportionate — even superabundant — joy, creating a harmonious music of sorrow and gladness.