What Does Ecclesiastes 5:3 Mean in the King James?
For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool’s voice is known by multitude of words.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Excess gives itself away: crowded activity surfaces in dreams, and a flood of speech makes foolishness audible.
THE MEANING
When your life is crowded with activity, that overflow surfaces in your dreams; when your words keep multiplying, foolishness becomes audible. The verse shows excess revealing what fills you through what rises from you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
More words do not prove wisdom; their abundance can reveal foolishness.
THE ROOT
דְּבָרִים
devarim
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
To speak; word or matter.
The word here, דְּבָרִים (devarim, words), comes from ד־ב־ר, which also gives דָּבָר (davar, word or matter) and דִּבֵּר (dibber, spoke). Hebrew holds speech and matter close: a flood of words is not empty sound but something that reveals what fills the speaker.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: Spoke; said.
דִּבֵּר
This verb shares the root of “words,” tying what is said to the speech that gives it voice.
davar: Word; matter or thing.
דָּבָר
This noun shows that the root can name both speech and a matter, giving words substance beyond their sound.
THE PATTERN
What overflows from a person reveals what fills them.
A fool also is full of words: a man cannot tell what shall be; and what shall be after him, who can tell him?In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise.O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.THE THREAD
In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise.“Words” in both passages is דְּבָרִים (devarim), from the root ד־ב־ר. Ecclesiastes shows abundance of speech exposing foolishness; Proverbs shows the trouble that gathers in that same abundance.
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