Bible Strands
Ecclesiastes 5:4
When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it, because He takes no pleasure in fools. Fulfill your vow.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The Preacher addresses his audience within a cluster (5:1–7) on worship and vows, bracketed by a warning against the many words of a fool (v. 3) and the counsel that it is better not to vow at all (v. 5).
The words — נֶ֜דֶר (neder) is a formal, binding vow, not a casual promise; תְּאַחֵר (te'acher) names the specific failure: delay, not refusal.
The thread — Deuteronomy 23:21 commands the same urgency ("do not be slow to keep it"); Numbers 30:2 states the obligation in absolute terms ("he must not break his word"); Psalms 76:11 pairs the making and fulfilling as a single act.
Why it lands — The verse removes the excuse of timing: the moment a vow is spoken, it is owed, and delay is the named sin. It asks the reader to treat their word to God as already binding at the instant of utterance.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Numbers 30:2 If a man makes a vow to the LORD or swears an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word; he must do everything he has promised.
- Deuteronomy 23:21 If you make a vow to the LORD your God, do not be slow to keep it, because He will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin.
- Psalms 76:11 Make and fulfill your vows to the LORD your God; let all the neighboring lands bring tribute to Him who is to be feared.
- Matthew 5:33 Again, you have heard that it was said to the ancients, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill your vows to the Lord.’
- Psalms 66:13 I will enter Your house with burnt offerings; I will fulfill my vows to You—
- Psalms 50:14 Sacrifice a thank offering to God, and fulfill your vows to the Most High.
- Psalms 119:106 I have sworn and confirmed that I will keep Your righteous judgments.
- Psalms 116:14 I will fulfill my vows to the LORD in the presence of all His people.
- Psalms 147:10 He does not delight in the strength of the horse; He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man.
- Malachi 1:10 “Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would no longer kindle useless fires on My altar! I take no pleasure in you,” says the LORD of Hosts, “and I will accept no offering from your hands.