What Does Ecclesiastes 5:5 Mean in the King James?
Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.
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
The Hebrew root behind “pay” also means “make whole”: fulfilling a vow is what completes the spoken word.
THE MEANING
When a promise leaves your mouth, the verse treats it as a real obligation, not a passing wish. Fulfillment brings the spoken commitment to completion; without it, the vow remains unpaid. The verse says an unmade vow is better than a made promise left unfulfilled.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that making a promise is the same as fulfilling it.
THE ROOT
תְשַׁלֵּם
teshallem
GROWS FROM
שלם
To be complete or whole; in this verb form, to pay or fulfill.
English “pay” can sound purely transactional, but its Hebrew root also carries the idea of wholeness and completion. The verse frames fulfillment as bringing the spoken vow to completion, while an unpaid vow remains unfinished.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being, peace.
שָׁלוֹם
This familiar word shares the root, revealing that payment and fulfillment belong to a wider language of making whole.
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
This form makes the root’s idea of completion explicit: the vow is not whole while it remains unfulfilled.
shillem: Repaid, compensated, made restitution.
שִׁלֵּם
This related verb shows how the root expresses completion through repayment, as in the verse’s “pay.”
תִדֹּר
tiddor
GROWS FROM
נדר
To vow, make a pledge.
Hebrew uses this same root for both the act of vowing and the vow itself. The spoken act and the commitment it creates remain joined: the vow is not just an intention but something that must be fulfilled.
ALSO GROWS
nadar: To vow, pledge.
נָדַר
This verb names the act in the verse: making the commitment through speech.
neder: A vow, pledged commitment.
נֶדֶר
This noun comes from the same root, holding the spoken act together with the promise it creates.
THE PATTERN
A spoken commitment takes its full shape when the speaker follows through on it.
In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the LORD. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.THE THREAD
When thou shalt vow a vow unto the LORD thy God, thou shalt not slack to pay it: for the LORD thy God will surely require it of thee; and it would be sin in thee.Deuteronomy uses the same Hebrew vow root נדר (n-d-r; nadar, to vow) and fulfillment root שלם (sh-l-m; shalam, to complete or fulfill). Their pairing makes explicit what Ecclesiastes compresses: a vow and its fulfillment belong together.
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