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Ecclesiastes 5:6–9

The "messenger" and "a king to a field"

Two hard sentences. In 5:6 (Hebrew 5:5) one should not tell "the messenger" (mal'akh) that a broken vow was a mistake: the library's Greek reads "before God," the Vulgate "before the angel." In 5:9 (Hebrew 5:8) the Hebrew is so terse that the witnesses produce four different sentences; it also carries a ketiv/qere note.

Manuscript variant: witnesses differ in wording

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. The book as first writtenOften dated 4th–3rd century BC (debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The book as first written
Greek
  1. Greek Ecclesiastes (library: Giguet's French)Greek translation c. 1st–2nd century AD (debated); French 1872Translated from the Greek Ecclesiastes
Latin
  1. Latin Vulgate (Clementine)Jerome c. AD 398, from Hebrew; edition 1592Translated from the Hebrew text Jerome used
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

  1. Often dated 4th–3rd century BC (debated)

    The book as first written

    – No copy survives

    No original survives. The oldest Hebrew copies of Ecclesiastes are two Qumran fragments, 4Q109 (4QQoh-a, mid-2nd century BC, reported) and 4Q110 (4QQoh-b, reported).

  2. Jerome c. AD 398, from Hebrew; edition 1592

    Latin Vulgate (Clementine)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Hebrew text Jerome used

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    Ne dederis os tuum ut peccare facias carnem tuam, neque dicas coram angelo: Non est providentia: ne forte iratus Deus contra sermones tuos dissipet cuncta opera manuum tuarum. Ubi multa sunt somnia, plurimæ sunt vanitates, et sermones innumeri; tu vero Deum time. Si videris calumnias egenorum, et violenta judicia, et subverti justitiam in provincia, non mireris super hoc negotio: quia excelso excelsior est alius, et super hos quoque eminentiores sunt alii; et insuper universæ terræ rex imperat servienti.

    Latin numbering: Ecclesiastes 5:5–8. Jerome translated Ecclesiastes from Hebrew (c. AD 398), after writing a commentary on it (c. 388); the Vulgate is an indirect witness to a Hebrew text, with Jerome's interpretation.

  3. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The book as first written

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    אַל־תִּתֵּ֤ן אֶת־פִּ֙יךָ֙ לַחֲטִ֣יא אֶת־בְּשָׂרֶ֔ךָ וְאַל־תֹּאמַר֙ לִפְנֵ֣י הַמַּלְאָ֔ךְ כִּ֥י שְׁגָגָ֖ה הִ֑יא לָ֣מָּה יִקְצֹ֤ף הָֽאֱלֹהִים֙ עַל־קוֹלֶ֔ךָ וְחִבֵּ֖ל אֶת־מַעֲשֵׂ֥ה יָדֶֽיךָ׃ כִּ֣י בְרֹ֤ב חֲלֹמוֹת֙ וַהֲבָלִ֔ים וּדְבָרִ֖ים הַרְבֵּ֑ה כִּ֥י אֶת־הָאֱלֹהִ֖ים יְרָֽא׃ אִם־עֹ֣שֶׁק רָ֠שׁ וְגֵ֨זֶל מִשְׁפָּ֤ט וָצֶ֙דֶק֙ תִּרְאֶ֣ה בַמְּדִינָ֔ה אַל־תִּתְמַ֖הּ עַל־הַחֵ֑פֶץ כִּ֣י גָבֹ֜הַּ מֵעַ֤ל גָּבֹ֙הַ֙ שֹׁמֵ֔ר וּגְבֹהִ֖ים עֲלֵיהֶֽם׃ וְיִתְר֥וֹן אֶ֖רֶץ בַּכֹּ֣ל היא ה֑וּא מֶ֥לֶךְ לְשָׂדֶ֖ה נֶעֱבָֽד׃

    Do not let your mouth make your flesh sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was an error (v. 6)… and the advantage of a land in all of it is: a king for a cultivated field (v. 9)

    Hebrew numbering: Ecclesiastes 5:5–8.

  4. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands? For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou God. If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they. Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served by the field.

  5. Greek translation c. 1st–2nd century AD (debated); French 1872

    Greek Ecclesiastes (library: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Greek Ecclesiastes

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    Ne permets pas à ta bouche de faire pécher ta chair; ne dis pas devant Dieu que tu ne savais pas, de peur que Dieu ne s’irrite de tes paroles, et qu’il ne détruise les œuvres de tes mains. Tout cela encore est abondance de songes, de vanités et de paroles; pour toi, crains Dieu. Si tu vois en une contrée le pauvre trompé, le jugement et la justice rendus par violence, n’en sois point surpris; car c’est un grand qui surveille un grand, et il y a plus grands encore au-dessus d’eux. L’abondance de la terre est pour tous, quand, sous un roi les champs sont cultivés.

    Greek (digital file) numbering: Ecclesiastes 5:5–8. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text (D check). A C check needs the Göttingen edition of Greek Ecclesiastes (P. J. Gentry, 2019).

What changed, and why

Mal'akh: a priest or temple official (Malachi 2:7 calls the priest "the messenger of the LORD of hosts"), an angel, or God. The Greek's "God" may interpret, or may reflect a Hebrew text with ha-elohim. The point is clear in all readings: do not excuse a broken vow as an unintentional error (shegagah).

5:8 describes layers of officials, each "watching" the one below. 5:9: KJV "the king himself is served by the field"; Giguet's Greek "the abundance of the earth is for all, when under a king the fields are cultivated"; the Vulgate "and moreover the king rules over the whole land that serves him"; modern versions often "a king who cultivates the land is an advantage." The ketiv/qere (written hi', read hu') is minor.

No reading should be used to reconstruct a specific administrative system.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedThe library's Greek of 5:6 reads 'God' where the Hebrew has 'the messenger.'
  • Independently documentedThe witnesses translate 5:9 in incompatible ways.
  • DisputedThe messenger of 5:6 is a priest.

Sources

    Related lessons

    • Ecclesiastes 5: Few Words Before God →In English numbering: guard your steps going to the house of God; listen rather than offer "the sacrifice of fools" (5:1). Do not rush to speak; "God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few" (v. 2). Pay what you vow (vv. 4–6) and fear God (v. 7). Oppression in a province should not surprise you: officials watch over officials (vv. 8–9). The lover of money is never satisfied (v. 10); more goods, more mouths (v. 11); the laborer sleeps sweetly, the rich man cannot (v. 12). Hoarded wealth is lost in a bad venture, and we leave as naked as we came (vv. 13–17). So it is good to eat, drink and enjoy one's work: "it is his portion," and God keeps him occupied with the joy of his heart (vv. 18–20).
    • Investigation: Injustice Under the Sun →Ecclesiastes looks at injustice more directly than any other wisdom book: wickedness in the courts, tears of the oppressed with no comforter, layers of officials, the righteous perishing and the wicked praised, the poor wise man forgotten, fools in high places. It holds three things in tension: what Qoheleth sees, what he believes about God's judgment, and the limits of human knowledge.