Ecclesiastes 5:4 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

When thou vowest a vow unto God When thou obligest thyself by a solemn promise to honour God, and serve the interest of his kingdom; or to do good to any of thy fellow-creatures in some particular way, to do which thou wast not under any antecedent obligation: when, for instance, under the sense of some affliction, or through thy desire of obtaining, or in thankfulness for having obtained, some particular mercy, thou hast vowed such a vow as this unto God, know that thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord, and thou canst not go back; defer not to pay it Perform thy vow while the sense of thine obligation is fresh and strong upon thy mind; lest thou either seem to repent of thy promises, or delay should end in denials and resolutions of non-performance: see on Leviticus 27:2; Numbers 30:2. For he hath no pleasure in fools In hypocritical and perfidious persons, who, when they are in distress, make liberal vows, and when the danger is past, neglect and break them. He calls them fools, because it is the highest folly, as to think of mocking or deceiving the all- seeing and almighty God: so also to despise and provoke him. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow For this would be no sin, because men are free to make such vows, or not to make them, as they think best; but, having made them, they cannot forbear to pay them, without sin.