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Expanded Comments |
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| 1 Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and draw near to hear, rather than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they know not that they do evil. |
Keep thy foot – Take heed to your standing, your walk, your conduct. R3990:1
Not literal feet, but being circumspect in one's daily life. R5186:3
Do not go to the house of God as to the market place, or to some place of amusement. R5186:3
Decorum, reverence, is necessary in every place where God is worshipped. R5187:1
House of God – Whether we meet in a parlor, church, or opera house, the fact that God's people are there makes that building a holy place. R5187:1
Ready to hear – Listen; not full of mirth. All conversation should be of a kind that would edify, build up, along spiritual lines. R5187:1
We do not know any lesson the Lord's people need to learn more than that of reverence. R5187:2
Sacrifice of fools – Laughter, levity, foolish talk, jesting. R5186:6
Consider not – Many parents become so accustomed to the ways of their children that they do not realize that others are being annoyed. R5187:4
To come into the meeting late is out of harmony with the principles of both justice and love. R5187:4
He who is indifferent to the rights of others manifests that he is lacking in the spirit of love. R5187:4
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| 2 Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thy heart be hasty to utter anything before God: for God is in the heavens, and thou upon earth; therefore let thy words be few. |
Before God – In view of the fact that "All things are naked and open with him with whom we have to do." (Heb. 4:13) R1938:1
For God – Our Judge. R1938:1
Is in heaven – Upon the throne. R1938:1
Thou upon earth – Under trial before the bar of God. R1938:1
Thy words be few – Thoughtful, wise, as uttered before God; not rash, hasty and ill-considered. R1938:1
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| 3 For a dream cometh through the multitude of business, and a fool's voice through a multitude of words. |
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| 4 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. |
Vowest a vow – Makest a covenant or promise. R2081:1*
Our "consecration" or "baptismal" vow, if a proper one, was all comprehensive--involving the sacrifice of all that we possessed or ever would acquire. R4238:1
Defer not to pay it – The Lord expects faithfulness in each one who has taken his covenant upon him. R5855:5
One who consecrates cannot, by subsequently changing his mind, be released from the obligations thus incurred. R2080:6*
Pay that...vowed – Its observance tends to strengthen the entire life. R5613:6
"It is a snare for a man to devour that which is holy, and after vows to make inquiry." (Prov. 20:25) R4265:5
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| 5 Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. |
Better is it – Our Lord emphasized the same lesson. (Luke 14:28-33) R4238:2
And not pay – Its violation serves to weaken the conscience. R5613:6
It is not enough that we have consecrated. It will avail nothing if we prove unfaithful to it, except to rise up in judgment against us. R2154:5
If death is not voluntary the Lord will destroy our flesh. If we resist this it will mean the hopeless death of our being. R5855:5
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| 6 Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an inadvertence. Wherefore should God be wroth at thy voice, and destroy the work of thy hands? |
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| 7 For in the multitude of dreams are vanities; so with many words: but fear God. |
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| 8 If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter; for a higher than the high is watching, and there are higher than they. |
Marvel not – Take comfort that God's judgments will some day be manifest and prevail. R1532:5
That is higher – God is above all the judges of the earth. R1532:5
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| 9 Moreover the earth is every way profitable: the king himself is dependent upon the field. |
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| 10 He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with increase. This also is vanity. |
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| 11 When goods increase, they are increased that eat them; and what profit is there to the owner thereof, except the beholding of them with his eyes? |
What good is there – Business prosperity he regards as an empty bubble and the excessive labor to accomplish it as laboring for the wind. R1532:5
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| 12 The sleep of the labourer is sweet, whether he have eaten little or much; but the fulness of the rich doth not suffer him to sleep. |
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| 13 There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt; |
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| 14 or those riches perish by some evil circumstance, and if he have begotten a son, there is nothing in his hand. |
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| 15 As he came forth from his mother's womb, naked shall he go away again as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand. |
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| 16 And this also is a grievous evil, that in all points as he came so doth he go away, and what profit hath he, in having laboured for the wind? |
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| 17 All his days also he eateth in darkness, and hath much vexation, and sickness, and irritation. |
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| 18 Behold what I have seen good and comely: it is to eat and to drink, and to enjoy good in all his labour wherewith man laboureth under the sun, all the days of his life which God hath given him: for that is his portion. |
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| 19 Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and power to eat thereof, and to take his portion and to rejoice in his labour: that is a gift of God. |
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| 20 For he will not much remember the days of his life, because God answereth him with the joy of his heart. |
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