“Wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?”
The full verse · Ecclesiastes 5:6 · KJV
not thy to cause thy to ; neither thou the , that it was an : wherefore should be at thy , and the of thine ?
Asked by
Asked to
The original audience of Israelites under the covenant, and by extension all readers who approach God with vows and worship.
Why It Was Asked
The purpose behind the questionThe Teacher uses a question to press the gravity of careless speech before God, making the hearer confront the irrational risk of provoking divine anger through broken vows. A direct command would instruct, but the question forces reflection on consequences.
The Response
What Scripture recordsNo direct response is recorded. The Teacher’s question stands as a rhetorical warning, with the answer implied: there is no good reason to invite God’s anger through careless vows, so the wise will guard their speech carefully.
The Bigger Picture
Where this fits in God's storyThe question confronts the foolishness of treating God casually. In Hebrew the question begins with lammah, ‘for what purpose,’ demanding justification for an unjustifiable action. The Teacher has just warned against hasty vows (verse 4-5), and now escalates to the consequence of trying to escape them through excuses. The rhetorical force lies in its unanswerable nature: no rational person would deliberately provoke the Creator’s wrath. By framing it as a question rather than a prohibition, the Teacher makes the reader complicit in recognizing the absurdity. The phrase ‘destroy the work of your hands’ echoes covenant curses in Deuteronomy 28:20, where disobedience brings ruin to labor. This question functions as pastoral theology, teaching that God’s holiness demands integrity in speech, especially in worship contexts where His name and reputation are at stake.
Your words before God carry weight He will not ignore. Before you promise something in prayer, a small group, or a moment of spiritual fervor, count the cost honestly. If you vowed to serve in ministry, tithe consistently, or change a behavior, God remembers even when you forget. Don’t rationalize your way out with ‘I didn’t really mean it’ or ‘circumstances changed.’ James 5:12 echoes this wisdom: let your yes be yes. The grace of Christ doesn’t make your promises meaningless; it empowers you to keep them through His strength, and when you fail, to confess rather than excuse.
Built from the biblical text and checked against trusted commentaries and lexicons. References & Sources
Keep questioning
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