Chapter V.
Second, a remedy is given against foolish speech, which occurs in a threefold manner.
Do not rashly speak anything. Here he gives a remedy against foolish or disordered speech. Now speech is disordered either because it is inconsiderate; or because it is false, and this he prohibits there: If you have vowed anything, etc.; or because it is erroneous, and this he prohibits there: Do not give your mouth, so as to cause to sin, etc.
Regarding inconsiderate speech, he prohibits rashness and adds the reason and provides confirmation by example.
(Verse 1.) He therefore prohibits rashness; whence he says: Do not rashly speak anything, that is, inconsiderately; Sirach 9: "He who is rash in his speech will be hateful"; and again Sirach 28: "Make a balance for your words and a bridle for your mouth." And because a man who is hasty cannot deliberate, therefore he adds: Nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word, indeed one ought to deliberate at length; whence Proverbs 29: "Have you seen a man hasty in his speech? Folly is to be expected rather than his correction." Whence there ought to be a distance between mouth and heart; against which Sirach 21: "In the mouth of fools is their heart." Whence it is said in James 1: "Let every man be swift to hear and slow to speak"; and Seneca: "I want you to be slow of speech."
And the reason is added, namely the divine judgment, which sees all things; therefore he says: For God is in heaven, supply: seeing all things; whence in the Psalm: "The Lord looked from heaven upon the earth"; and you are upon earth, placed in plain sight before Him, so you do not escape His notice; Sirach 23: "The eyes of the Lord are far brighter than the sun, looking round about all the ways of men." Therefore let your words be few, because namely you speak before God, because He Himself will demand an account of all things; Matthew 12: "Of every idle word that men shall have spoken, they shall render an account thereof on the day of judgment."
And it can scarcely be that he who speaks much does not displease God. Whence he makes this clear by example and similitude, saying: Dreams follow many cares, and therefore it is foolish to attend to them; Sirach 34: "Dreams have led many astray." And in many words folly is found; Sirach 20: "He who uses many words injures his own soul"; and Proverbs 10: "In much speaking sin will not be lacking"; but on the contrary, below in chapter 10: "The fool multiplies words."
(Verses 3-4.) If you have vowed anything, etc. Here secondly he prohibits false speech, by which namely that is promised which is not fulfilled.
He therefore exhorts one to fulfill what has been promised: whence he says: If you have vowed anything to God, that is, you have promised by a vow: do not delay to render it: whence in the Psalm: "Vow, and render to the Lord your God, all you who round about him bring gifts"; and the Gloss says: "To vow is voluntary, but to render is necessary," because otherwise a man is false in his promise; whence he adds: For an unfaithful and foolish promise displeases God: unfaithful, in which there is no truth: foolish, in which there is no judgment, because a foolish promise is not to be kept: whence Isidore says: "In evil promises, break faith; in a base vow, change your decree." Therefore he adds that truth is to be kept in a promise, when he says: But whatever you have vowed, render it, without wavering; Leviticus twenty-seven: "A clean animal that can be sacrificed, if anyone has vowed it, shall be holy and cannot be changed, neither for better nor for worse."
Otherwise it would have been better not to vow: therefore he says: And it is much better not to vow, that is, it is less evil, because without fault: than after a vow not to render what was promised: Second Peter two: "It would have been better for them not to have known the way of truth than after knowing it to turn back"; because Luke nine: "No one putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God."
(Verse 6). Do not give your mouth etc. Here thirdly he prohibits erroneous speech: and he dissuades from error of speech, and then adds the reason, and afterward reveals the root of the error.
He dissuades from error of speech, saying: Do not give your mouth to cause your flesh to sin, that is, do not speak erroneous speech by which you may be cast headlong into sins. And he specifies what kind of speech he means, adding: Neither say before the Angel: There is no providence, that is, do not say it, neither in secret nor in hidden places, because in hidden places the Angels hear, who are appointed for guardianship; whence below in chapter ten: "Do not detract from the king in your thought, and in the secret of your bedchamber do not curse the rich, for the birds of the sky will carry your voice." And the reason for the exhortation is added: Lest perhaps the Lord, being angry, destroy your works, that is, render them useless: angry, not through a disturbance of the soul, but through a rigid punishment of fault. So he was angry over the words
of Rabshakeh and destroyed all the works of the kings of the Assyrians through an Angel by night: Isaiah thirty-seven: "If only the Lord your God would hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of the Assyrians sent to blaspheme the living God"; Proverbs twenty: "A wise king scatters the wicked" etc.
And the origin of this speech is added: because it does not arise from right reason, but from the illusion of dreams; on account of which he says: Where there are many dreams, there are very many vanities, because a dream is vanity: Isaiah twenty-nine: "The hungry man dreams and eats, and afterwards, when he has awakened, his soul is empty." And innumerable words, which follow upon dreams, because nothing certain can be known from them: because Ecclesiasticus thirty-four: "Divination of error and lying auguries and dreams of evildoers are vanity." And therefore one should not be concerned with such things, but with God: whence he adds: But you, fear God, because he alone is the one who can destroy and save us, not dreams, not auguries: Luke twelve: "I will show you whom you should fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has the power to cast into hell."
Third, a remedy is given against erroneous thinking.
(Vers. 7. 8.) If you see the oppressions, etc. Here thirdly he draws back from erroneous thinking, namely so that from seeing the malice of men one should not believe that providence is lacking: whence he says: If you see the oppressions of the needy: above in chapter four: "I saw the oppressions that are carried on under the sun, and the tears of the innocent." And violent judgments, which he saw, above in chapter three: "I saw under the sun, in the place of judgment, wickedness." And justice overturned in the province: which he had similarly seen above in chapter three: "I saw in the place of justice, iniquity." From this consideration, I say, one should not wonder, as though there were no one who governs nor who corrects: whence he says: Do not wonder at this matter, as though there were no one who governs, because there is one orderer of all things: whence he adds: Because one higher than the high watches over, and there are others yet more eminent above these: whence in Matthew eight the centurion said: "I am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me, and I say to this one: Go, and he goes."
And moreover the king of all the earth commands one who serves him: although therefore they do not serve one another and are not ordered through themselves, they are nevertheless ordered by God, who knows how to use evils well: in Genesis forty-one it is signified: "I am Pharaoh; without your command no one shall move hand or foot in all the land of Egypt." Whence it is said in Revelation nineteen: "He had written on his garment and on his thigh: King of kings and Lord of lords." And he himself perverts nothing: whence it is said in Deuteronomy ten: "The Lord our God, he is the God of gods and Lord of lords, the Lord great, mighty, and terrible, who does not accept persons nor gifts: he executes judgment for the orphan and the widow"; and therefore, if he commands, justice is not perverted.
QUESTIONS.
I. Here a question arises concerning what he says: Whatever you have vowed, pay it: whether one who has vowed indiscreetly is bound, supposing that he intends to obligate himself: because, if not:
Then he gains an advantage from his own indiscretion
2. Likewise, one is bound to practice truth: but he who does not do what he promised does not practice truth, indeed he lies: therefore such a person is bound to do what he vowed.
3. Likewise, Jephthah vowed indiscreetly and fulfilled it, and he is commended by the Apostle in Hebrews 11: therefore we ought to pay and fulfill indiscreet vows.
On the contrary: 1. What is indiscreet to say is indiscreet to do: if therefore he who vows thus, by the very fact that he says it, is indiscreet, if he does it he is much more indiscreet and sins more greatly: therefore by omitting it he does well.
2. Likewise, a preceding evil does not excuse a following one: therefore if someone vowed something foolish and does it, he is no less blameworthy than if he did it without a vow: nor is the vow less blameworthy than if he did not fulfill it: therefore etc.
3. Likewise, Isidore says: "In evil promises break faith, in a shameful vow change your resolve": therefore etc.