Lectionary Calendar
Wednesday, April 30th, 2025
the Second Week after Easter
Attention!
StudyLight.org has pledged to help build churches in Uganda. Help us with that pledge and support pastors in the heart of Africa.
Click here to join the effort!

Read the Bible

Easy-to-Read Version

Ecclesiastes 5:3

Bad dreams come from too many worries, and too many words come from the mouth of a fool.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Dream;   Speaking;   Words;   Thompson Chain Reference - Dreams;   Evil;   Folly;   Fools;   Silence-Speech;   Speaking, Evil;   Talk, Vain;   Vain Talk;   Wisdom-Folly;   The Topic Concordance - Foolishness;   Speech/communication;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Dreams;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Dream;   Gossip;   Tongue;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Word;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Incomprehensibility of God;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Man;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Jephthah;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Ecclesiastes, Book of;   Israel, History of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Ecclesiastes;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Dream (2);   Temple (2);   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Business;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Business;   Ecclesiastes, or the Preacher;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Church Fathers;   Jerome (Eusebius Hieronymus Sophronius);   Ḳorban;  

Devotionals:

- Every Day Light - Devotion for September 14;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Just as dreams accompany much labor, so also a fool’s voice comes with many words.
Hebrew Names Version
For as a dream comes with a multitude of cares, so a fool's speech with a multitude of words.
King James Version
For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words.
English Standard Version
For a dream comes with much business, and a fool's voice with many words.
New American Standard Bible
For the dream comes through much effort, and the voice of a fool through many words.
New Century Version
The saying is true: Bad dreams come from too much worrying, and too many words come from foolish people.
Amplified Bible
For the dream comes through much effort, and the voice of the fool through many words.
World English Bible
For as a dream comes with a multitude of cares, so a fool's speech with a multitude of words.
Geneva Bible (1587)
For as a dreame commeth by the multitude of businesse: so the voyce of a foole is in the multitude of wordes.
Legacy Standard Bible
For the dream comes through abundant endeavor and the voice of a fool through abundant words.
Berean Standard Bible
As a dream comes through many cares, so the speech of a fool comes with many words.
Contemporary English Version
If you keep thinking about something, you will dream about it. If you talk too much, you will say the wrong thing.
Complete Jewish Bible
If you make a vow to God, don't delay in discharging it. For God takes no pleasure in fools, so discharge your vow!
Darby Translation
For a dream cometh through the multitude of business, and a fool's voice through a multitude of words.
George Lamsa Translation
For a dream comes because of the multitude of business; and a fools voice is known by a multitude of words.
Good News Translation
The more you worry, the more likely you are to have bad dreams, and the more you talk, the more likely you are to say something foolish.
Lexham English Bible
For a dream comes with many cares, and the voice of a fool with many words.
Literal Translation
For the dream comes through the greatness of the task; and the voice of the fool is known by the many words.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For where moch carefulnesse is, there are many dreames: & where many wordes are, there men maye heare fooles.
American Standard Version
For a dream cometh with a multitude of business, and a fool's voice with a multitude of words.
Bible in Basic English
As a dream comes from much business, so the voice of a foolish man comes with words in great number.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for He hath no pleasure in fools; pay that which thou vowest.
King James Version (1611)
For a dreame commeth through the multitude of businesse, and a fooles voyce is knowen by multitude of words.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
For where much carefulnesse is, there are many dreames: and where many wordes are, there men may heare fooles.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Whenever thou shalt vow a vow to God, defer not to pay it; for he has no pleasure in fools: pay thou therefore whatsoever thou shalt have vowed.
English Revised Version
For a dream cometh with a multitude of business; and a fool's voice with a multitude of words.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Dremes suen many bisynessis, and foli schal be foundun in many wordis.
Update Bible Version
For a dream comes with a multitude of business, and a fool's voice with a multitude of words.
Webster's Bible Translation
For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice [is known] by a multitude of words.
New English Translation
Just as dreams come when there are many cares, so the rash vow of a fool occurs when there are many words.
New King James Version
For a dream comes through much activity, And a fool's voice is known by his many words.
New Living Translation
Too much activity gives you restless dreams; too many words make you a fool.
New Life Bible
For a dream comes with much work, and the voice of a fool comes with many words.
New Revised Standard
For dreams come with many cares, and a fool's voice with many words.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For a dream cometh through the multitude of business, - and, the voice of a dullard, is with a multitude of words.
Douay-Rheims Bible
(5-2) Dreams follow many cares: and in many words shall be found folly.
Revised Standard Version
For a dream comes with much business, and a fool's voice with many words.
Young's Literal Translation
For the dream hath come by abundance of business, and the voice of a fool by abundance of words.
THE MESSAGE
Overwork makes for restless sleep. Overtalk shows you up as a fool.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
For the dream comes through much effort and the voice of a fool through many words.

Contextual Overview

1 Be very careful when you go to worship God. It is better to listen to God than to give sacrifices like fools. Fools often do bad things, and they don't even know it. 2 Be careful when you make promises to God. Be careful about what you say to him. Don't let your feelings cause you to speak too soon. God is in heaven, and you are on the earth. So you need to say only a few things to him. This saying is true: 3 Bad dreams come from too many worries, and too many words come from the mouth of a fool.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

a fool's: Ecclesiastes 10:12-14, Proverbs 10:19, Proverbs 15:2

Reciprocal: Job 13:5 - and it Proverbs 14:23 - but Proverbs 17:28 - General Ecclesiastes 5:2 - for Ecclesiastes 5:7 - in the Ecclesiastes 10:3 - and he Ecclesiastes 10:14 - fool Matthew 6:7 - use James 1:19 - slow to speak

Cross-References

Genesis 4:25
Adam again had sexual relations with his wife, and she gave birth to another son. She named him Seth. Eve said, "God has given me another son. Cain killed Abel, but now I have Seth."
Genesis 5:2
He created them male and female. And on the same day he made them, he blessed them and called them "humans."
Genesis 5:3
After Adam was 130 years old, he had another son. This son looked just like Adam. Adam named his son Seth.
Genesis 5:14
So Kenan lived a total of 910 years; then he died.
Genesis 5:16
After Jared was born, Mahalalel lived 830 years and had other sons and daughters.
Job 14:4
"No one can make something clean from something so dirty.
Job 25:4
How can anyone claim to be right before God? No human being can really be pure.
Psalms 51:5
I was born to do wrong, a sinner before I left my mother's womb.
Luke 1:35
The angel said to Mary, "The Holy Spirit will come to you, and the power of the Most High God will cover you. The baby will be holy and will be called the Son of God.
John 3:6
The only life people get from their human parents is physical. But the new life that the Spirit gives a person is spiritual.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For a dream cometh through the multitude of business,.... Or, "for as a dream" q, so Aben Ezra; as that comes through a multiplicity of business in the daytime, in which the mind has been busied, and the body employed; and this brings on dreams in the night season, which are confused and incoherent; sometimes the fancy is employed about one thing, and sometimes another, and all unprofitable and useless, as well as vain and foolish;

and a fool's voice [is known] by multitude of words; either his voice in conversation, for a fool is full of words, and pours out his foolishness in a large profusion of them; or his voice in prayer, being like a man's dream, confused, incoherent, and rambling. The supplement, "is known", may be left out.

q כי בא "ut prodit somnium", Junius Tremellius "nam ut venit", Piscator; "quia sicut venit", Mercerus, Ramabachius, so Broughton.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Ecclesiastes 5:3. For a dream cometh — That is, as dreams are generally the effect of the business in which we have been engaged during the day; so a multitude of words evidence the feeble workings of the foolish heart.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile