5 Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.
For it is better that thou shouldst not vow, than that thou shouldst be vowing and not pay.
(5.) A good is it that thou shouldst not vow (the sentence is ambiguous, but the equivoke is ‘thou hadst better not vow’), than that thou shouldst vow and not pay.
6 Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?
Do not allow thy mouth to cause thy body to sin; and say not in the presence of God’s messenger, ‘It was but an inadvertence:’ why should the Almighty be angry with your prattle, and put an arrest on the work of your hands?
(6.) Do not give with respect to thy mouth (the את is not redundant, ‘do not appoint,’ which is the meaning of תתן), to cause to make to sin with respect to thy flesh (the meaning then must be, ‘do not so arrange matters as to cause thy mouth to make thy flesh sin,’ by, that is, preferring the ease, pleasure, of the flesh or the like, to the sacrifice caused by a redemption of the vow), and do not say in the presence of the angel (with the article; had this been noticed as it ought, less difficulty would have been felt in the interpretation of this passage; the angel is the messenger of Providence who comes to require the vow, and whom, of course, with or without sufficient reason, the person bound by the vow expects) that (כי) an error it is: (see Leviticus iv. 2, 22, 27, and Numbers xv. 24, 25, 29; when too this passage is compared with Leviticus iv. 2, we can have no doubt that לפ׳ מא׳ here is the equivalent of לפ׳ יי׳ there) why (LXX. ἵνα μὴ, ‘so that not’), should be angry (Genesis xl. 2, Deuteronomy i. 24) the Deity over thy voice (Ginsburg, excellently, ‘with thy prattle’), and destroy (as this word is used to signify the ‘giving a pledge,’ this peculiar signification conveys the idea, ‘destroy by exacting a pledge,’ ‘make thee bankrupt by insisting upon payment’) with respect to the work of your hands?