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Chapter 5
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209 CHAPTER V CHAPTER 5 ECCLESIASTES 5:1-6 REMEDY AGAINST FOOLISH SPEECH 1. Do not speak anything rashly. He now gives a remedy against foolish or disordered speech. Now speech is disordered by being thoughtless, either because it is false. And he forbids this here: If you have vowed anything, etc. Or because it is wrong.And he forbids this here: Give not your mouth to cause your flesh to sin, etc. – Relative to thoughtless speech he forbids being hasty with rash speech and gives the reason for this and provides an example to confirm the reason. 2. (Verse 1). So he forbids being hasty: Do not speak anything rashly, that is, without thinking. Sirach 9:25 states: “The person who is rash in his word will be hateful.” And again Sirach 28:29 reads: “Make a balance for your words and a just bridle for your mouth.” And since a person cannot think all that fast, he adds: And let not your heart be hasty to utter a word.1 A person should deliberate for a long time. Proverbs 29:20 counsels: “Have you seen a person hasty to speak? Folly is rather to be looked for than 1 For some reason Bonaventure does not finish this verse with coram Deo (“before God”), which is the reading of the Vulgate. 210 ST. BONAVENTURE’S COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES his amendment.” For there must be a distance between the mouth and the heart. Sirach 21:29 has: “The heart of fools is in their mouth.”Thus, it is said in James 1:19:“Let every person be in haste to hear and2 slow to speak.” And Seneca says: “I want you to be slow of speech.”3 3. He adds as the reason divine judgment which sees all: For God is in heaven. Supply: seeing everything. Thus, we read in Psalm 101:20: “From heaven the Lord has looked upon the earth.” And you upon the earth, standing in the open before God, so that you are not out of God’s sight. Sirach 23:28 reads: “The eyes of the Lord are far brighter than the sun, looking roundabout into4 all the ways of men and women.”Therefore,let your words be few,because when you speak before God, God will demand an account of all. Matthew 12:36 states: “For5 every idle word that men and women will speak, they will render an account for them on the day of judgment.” 4. And it can hardly be that the person who says much to God does not displease God. He makes this clear by an example from something similar: Dreams follow many cares, and so it is stupid to pay attention to them. Sirach 34:7 says: “Dreams have deceived many.” And in many 2 On p. 43 n. 2 QuarEd rightly suggest that the Vulgate reads autem (“but”) while Bonaventure has et (“and”). 3 On p. 43 n. 2 QuarEd cite Seneca, Epistulae Morales 40. See Letter 40:14 in Epistulae Morales I, 270: Tardilocum esse te iubeo (“I bid you be slow of speech”). Bonaventure’s quotation is: Tardiloquum te esse volo (“I want you to be slow of speech”). Hugh of St. Cher, 84v, Introduction: Et Senec.Tardiloquum te esse volo. . . . (“And Seneca says: I want you to be slow of speech”). 4 On p. 43 n. 3 QuarEd correctly mention that the Vulgate does not read in (“into”). 5 On p. 43 n. 3 QuarEd accurately intimate that the Vulgate does not read de (“For”). 6 Hugh of St. Cher, 84v, g also cites Proverbs 10:19. [18.232.125.188] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 12:31 GMT) 211 CHAPTER V words will be found folly. Sirach 20:8 reads: “The person who uses many words will hurt his own soul.” And Proverbs 10:19 states: “In the multitude of words sin will not be absent.”6 But on the other hand, Ecclesiastes 10:14 has: “A fool multiplies words.” 5.( Verses 3–4). If you have vowed anything, etc. Second, he treats of false speech by which one promises something that is not fulfilled. – So he exhorts people to fulfill what they promise: If you have vowed anything to God, that is, you have promised by means of a vow. Do not defer to pay it.Thus, we read in Psalm 75:12:“Vow and pay to the Lord your God. All you who are round about him bring7 presents .” And a...