Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.
Be not rash with thy mouth - answering to the considerate reverence indicated by the foot ("Keep thy foot," Ecclesiastes 5:1). This verse illustrates Ecclesiastes 5:1, as to prayer in the house of God ("before God," Isaiah 1:12); so Ecclesiastes 5:4-6, as to vows. The remedy to such vanities is living faith, as is stated (Ecclesiastes 5:7), "Fear thou God."
God is in heaven - therefore He ought to be approached with carefully weighed words, by thee, a frail creature of "earth."
Let thy words be few - not directed against the earnest and frequent prayers of true believers, but against the formal petitions of those who think to make up for the devotion they lack by the multitude of their words. So the Pharisees (Mark 12:40), and the pagan (Matthew 6:7-8); as the antidote, Jesus gave the Lord's prayer; the beginning of which, "Our Father which art in heaven" refers to this passage. While as our Father He is to be loved, He at the same time, as being "in heaven," is to be reverently feared in our approaches to Him.