and (with this ו he connects with this first nota bene a second) drawing near to hear exceeds the sacrifice-offering of fools, for they are ignorant (just because they hear not), which leads to this result, that they do evil. מן, prae, expresses also, without an adj., precedence in number, Isa 10:10, or activity, Isa 9:17, or worth, Eze 15:2. קרוב is inf. absol. Böttcher seeks to subordinate it as such to שׁמר: take heed to thy foot ... and to the coming near to hear more than to ... . But these obj. to שמר would be incongruous, and מתת וגו clumsy and even distorted in expression; it ought rather to be מתּתּך כּכסי־לים זבח. As the inf. absol. can take the place of the obj., Isa 7:15; Isa 42:24; Lam 3:45, so also the place of the subj. (Ewald, §240a), although Pro 25:27 is a doubtful example of this. That the use of the inf. absol. has a wide application with the author of this book, we have already seen under Ecc 4:2. Regarding the sequence of ideas in זבח ... מתּת (first the subj., then the obj.), vid., Gesen. §133. 3, and cf. above at Ecc 3:18. זבח (זבחים), along with its general signification comprehending all animal sacrifices, according to which the altar bears the name מזבּח, early acquired also a more special signification: it denotes, in contradistinction to עולה, such sacrifices as are only partly laid on the altar, and for the most part are devoted to a sacrificial festival, Exo 18:12 (cf. Exo 12:27), the so-called shelamim, or also zivhhe shelamim, Pro 7:14. The expression זבח נתן makes it probable that here, particularly, is intended the festival (1Ki 1:41) connected with this kind of sacrifice, and easily degenerating to worldly merriment (vid., under Pro 7:14); for the more common word for תּת would have been הקריב or שׁחוט; in תּת it seems to be indicated that it means not only to present something to God, but also to give at the same time something to man. The most recent canonical Chokma-book agrees with Pro 21:3 in this depreciation of sacrifice. But the Chokma does not in this stand alone. The great word of Samuel, 1Sa 15:22., that self-denying obedience to God is better than all sacrifices, echoes through the whole of the Psalms. And the prophets go to the utmost in depreciating the sacrificial cultus.
The second rule relates to prayer.
Verses 2-3
Ecc 5:2-3 “Be not hasty with thy mouth, and let not thy heart hasten to speak a word before God: for God is in heaven, and thou art upon earth; therefore let thy words be few. For by much business cometh dreaming, and by much talk the noise of fools.” As we say in German: auf Flügeln fliegen [to flee on wings], auf Einem Auge nicht sehen [not to see with one eye], auf der Flöte blasen [to blow on the flute], so in Heb. we say that one slandereth
