Ecclesiastes 10

Dead flies make the perfume maker's oil smell rotten. In the same way, a little foolishness outweighs a person's wisdom and honor.

1Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour.

NotePerfumed oil was a manufactured luxury: olive oil steeped with costly spices and resins, used for grooming, hospitality and anointing. A whole expensive jar could be ruined by a few insects falling into it. The second half of the verse is compressed in Hebrew and can be read either as "a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor" or as "a little folly is more costly than wisdom and honor."

2A wise man's heart leans to his right side, but a fool's heart leans to his left.

2A wise man’s heart is at his right hand; but a fool’s heart at his left.

NoteIn Hebrew usage the right hand stood for strength, skill, favor and the place of honor beside a king; the left stood for weakness and clumsiness. To say a man's heart leans right or left is to say his instincts carry him toward what works or toward what does not. The image has nothing to do with political left and right, which is a much later idea.

3Even when a fool is only walking down the road, his good sense is missing, and he shows everyone that he is a fool.

3Yea also, when he that is a fool walketh by the way, his wisdom faileth him, and he saith to every one that he is a fool.

NoteThe Hebrew of the last clause is literally "he says to everyone that he is a fool," and "he" is genuinely ambiguous: it can mean the fool advertises his own foolishness by how he walks along, or that he goes about calling everyone else a fool.

4If a ruler loses his temper at you, do not walk off your post. Staying calm can settle even serious offenses.

4If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place; for yielding pacifieth great offences.

Note"Your place" is a courtier's post or station in a ruler's service; walking off it means resigning or storming out. The word rendered "staying calm" is a Hebrew noun meaning healing or composure, and it is not clear whether the calm belongs to the servant who stays put or is the calming effect his staying has on the ruler.

5There is an evil I have seen in this world, a mistake of the kind that comes from a ruler:

5There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, as an error which proceedeth from the ruler:

NoteThe Hebrew is ambiguous. It can mean an error that a ruler actually makes, or an error of the sort a person in authority makes, a mistake made carelessly rather than deliberately, by someone whose mistakes fall on everyone else.

6Foolish people are placed in the highest positions, while rich people sit in low ones.

6Folly is set in great dignity, and the rich sit in low place.

Note"The rich" here means men of substance and standing, the landowning families who would normally be given office. The contrast is not between wealth and poverty but between the people fit for high position and the people actually put in it.

7I have seen servants riding on horses, while princes walked on the ground like servants.

7I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth.

NoteHorses in this period were the property of kings, nobles and the army, not ordinary transport; a donkey was what a common traveler rode. A slave on horseback while a prince goes on foot was an image of the social order turned upside down.

8Whoever digs a pit may fall into it, and whoever breaks through a stone wall may be bitten by a snake.

8He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.

NoteField walls and terrace walls were built of loose stacked stone, and snakes nested in the gaps. Pulling a gap in someone's wall (to steal, or to take a shortcut) was a familiar way to get bitten. Both halves of the verse describe ordinary work that can turn on the worker.

9Whoever cuts stone out of a quarry may be injured by the stones, and whoever splits logs puts himself in danger.

9Whoso removeth stones shall be hurt therewith; and he that cleaveth wood shall be endangered thereby.

10If the ax is dull and a man does not sharpen the edge, he has to swing harder. But skill and wisdom are what make the work succeed.

10If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength: but wisdom is profitable to direct.

Note"The ax" is literally "the iron", the iron head fitted to a wooden handle. The Hebrew of this verse is among the most obscure in the book; the final phrase can be read as "skill brings success," "wisdom has the advantage," or "wisdom is profitable for directing the work."

11If the snake bites before it is charmed, the charmer gains nothing from his skill with the tongue.

11Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment; and a babbler is no better.

NoteSnake charming was a recognized trade in the ancient Near East, and the charmer was called in Hebrew a "master of the tongue." The same phrase means a babbler or gossip, which is the joke the verse turns on: the man whose whole skill is his tongue is useless once the snake has already struck.

12The words a wise man speaks bring him favor, but a fool's own lips swallow him up.

12The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious; but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself.

Note"Gracious" here means winning favor for the speaker, not kind or generous. The wise man's words earn him goodwill; the fool's words consume the man who speaks them.

13His talk starts out as foolishness, and by the end it has become wicked madness.

13The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness: and the end of his talk is mischievous madness.

14And a fool piles up more and more words. Yet no one knows what is coming; who can tell a man what will happen after he is gone?

14A fool also is full of words: a man cannot tell what shall be; and what shall be after him, who can tell him?

15A fool's work wears him out, because he does not even know the way to town.

15The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city.

NoteProverbial. The road to the nearest town was the one landmark everybody knew, so not knowing the way to town described someone hopelessly incompetent, worn out by effort because he cannot find the obvious path.

16Trouble is coming to you, land, when your king is only a child and your officials are feasting in the morning.

16Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning!

NoteThe Hebrew word can mean a child, a youth, or a servant, so the complaint may be about a king too young to rule or about one of low birth. Morning was when a ruler and his officials heard cases and did the business of government; officials already at the table by morning have abandoned the work of the day.

17You are fortunate, land, when your king comes from a noble family and your officials eat at the proper time, to keep up their strength and not to get drunk.

17Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!

Note"A son of nobles" means free-born and of established family, someone raised and trained to govern, as opposed to the untried figure of the previous verse.

18When a man is very lazy, the roof of the building sags. When his hands do nothing, the house leaks.

18By much slothfulness the building decayeth; and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through.

NoteRoofs were flat, made of wooden beams covered with packed brush and clay, and had to be rolled and resealed regularly. Neglected, the beams sagged and the winter rain came straight through. This is a literal description of an unmaintained house before it is anything else.

19A feast is made for laughing, and wine makes life merry, but money is the answer for everything.

19A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry: but money answereth all things.

Note"Money" is literally silver, weighed out by the piece; coins were not yet in use. The last clause says only "silver answers everything," and readers have long disagreed whether it is being stated approvingly, reported as what the feasters believe, or said with an edge.

20Do not curse the king, not even in your thoughts, and do not curse a rich man even in your bedroom. A bird of the sky may carry your words, and something with wings may report what you said.

20Curse not the king, no not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter.

NoteA proverbial way of saying that words spoken in private get out; the same image survives in English as "a little bird told me." Some readers take the winged creature more concretely, as a court informer. Under a monarchy, cursing the king was a capital matter, which is what gives the warning its force.