Pay your Vows

[Ecc. 5:4] When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.
[When you vowest - When in distress and difficulty, men are apt to promise much to G-d if He will relieve them; but generally forget the vow when the distress or trouble is gone by. A vow should not be hastily made (Jud. 11:35; 1 Sam. 14:24). When made, it must be kept (Ps 76:11), even as G-d keeps His word to us (Ex 12:41, 51; Joshua 21:45).
Vows - A vow is a bond upon the soul (Num. 30:2), we use them as free and indifferent things, which persons may make or not; there is no precept for them in the word of G-d; instances and examples there are, and they may be lawfully made, when they are in the power of man to perform, and are not inconsistent with the will and word of G-d. Unto G-d - to whom it is made, who expects it, and do so speedily.
Defer not - to vow this, or that, or the other thing, which a man previous to his vow is not obliged unto, had better be let alone: but however, when a vow is made that is lawful to be done.
No pleasure in fools - no excuses nor delays should be made; the Father has no pleasure in them, He will not be mocked by them; He will resent such treatment of Him, as to vow and not pay, or defer payment and daily, with Him.
Pay - precisely and punctually; both as to the matter, manner, and time of it.
[5] Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.
Better not vow – For a vow is an arbitrary thing; a man is not bound to make it, and while he vows not, it is in his own power, and at his option, whether he will do this or that, or not; but when he has once vowed, he is then brought under an obligation.
Then to vow and not pay - for this shows great weakness and folly, lightheartedness and inconstancy, and is resented by the Father.
Deut. 23:21, 23.
[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?
Suffer not thy mouth - Do not get carried away with religious enthusiasm, and do not make promises you cannot or do not intend to keep.
Cause your flesh to sin - making sinful excuses after he has made the vow, and so is guilty of lying, or false swearing, or other sins of the flesh.
The angel - The messenger refers to a functionary sent to collect whatever was pledge.
It was an error - which it was done ignorantly and through mistake: that it was not intended, and that this was not the meaning of the vow; and therefore desires to be excused performing it.
G-d be angry - G-d can be expected to take retributive action against those who make but do not keep their promises.
Work of your hands - wrought with success, for which the vow was made; and so, instead of its succeeding, is destroyed, and comes to nothing. Vows made by the Jews were chiefly about their houses, or fields, or cattle; see (Lev. 27:28); and so the destruction suggested may signify the curse that G-d would bring upon any of these, for excusing or not performing the vow made. Blast all your labors, and particularly that work or enterprise for the success whereof you did make these vows.
People expose themselves to the wrath of G-d, for He is angry at the voice of those that thus lie unto Him with their mouth and flatter Him with their tongue, and is displeased at their dissimulation, and destroys the works of their hands, that is, blasts their enterprises, and defeats those purposes which, when they made these vows, they were seeking to G-d for the success of. If we treacherously cancel the words of our mouths, and revoke our vows, G-d will justly overthrow our projects, and walk contrary, and at all adventures, with those that thus walk contrary, and at all adventures with Him. It is a snare to a man, after vows, to make enquiry.
Why wilt you provoke G-d to anger at these frivolous excuses? We are under constant obligations to live to G-d; no vow can make it more so.
If you are fully determined, and strong in faith relative to the point, bind and hold fast; but if not fully, rationally, and conscientiously determined, "do not suffer your mouth to cause your soul to sin."