1A dead fly makes the perfumer’s oil chalice stink. Heavier than weighty wisdom is a bit of folly. 2A wise man’s mind is at his right, and the fool’s mind at his left. 3Even when the fool walks on the road, his mind is absent, and it says to all, he is a fool. 4If the ruler’s mood goes against you, do not leave your place, for calmness puts great offenses to rest. 5There is an evil I have seen under the sun, a true error that comes forth from the person in power. 6Folly is set on great heights, and the rich dwell down below. 7I have seen slaves on horses and noblemen walking like slaves on the ground. 8He who digs a pit will fall in it, and he who breaches a wall, a snake will bite him. 9He who moves stones will be hurt by them, and he who splits wood is endangered by it. 10If the iron is dull and he has not honed its edge, he will exert great effort. And the advantage of skill is wisdom. 11If a snake bites with no snake-charm, there is no advantage for the expert of incantations. 12The words of a wise man’s mouth bring favor, and the lips of a fool bring him ruin. 13The first of the words of his mouth are folly, and the last of them evil revelry. 14And the fool speaks many words. Man knows not what will be, and what will be after him, who can tell him? 15The toil of a fool wears him out, so that he knows not how to go to town. 16Woe to you, land, whose king is a lackey, and your princes dine in the morning. 17Happy are you, land, whose king is a noble, and your princes dine in fit time, in manliness, not in drunkenness. 18Through sloth the roof-beam sags, and through slack hands the house leaks. 19For food is set out for merriment and wine that gladdens the living. And money keeps everyone busy. 20Even on your couch revile not a king, and in your sleeping chambers revile not a rich man, for the fowl of the heavens will carry the sound and the wingèd thing will tell the word.
CHAPTER 10 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
1. A dead fly. The Hebrew, zevuvey mawet, seems to say “flies of death,” but if one moves the final yod at the end of the first word to the beginning of the second word, the consonantal text reads zevuv yamut (literally, “a fly that dies”)—the single fly that spoils the ointment.
chalice. With many analysts, this translation reads gaviʿa, “chalice,” for the puzzling yabiʿa (“bubbles”? or “ferments”?). A dead fly would not make oil ferment.
weighty. The form of the Hebrew mikavod is peculiar and syntactically awry, but the context argues for the sense of “weight,” one of the meanings of this root.
2. mind. The Hebrew is literally “heart,” thought to be the seat of understanding, but the context puts an emphasis on cognition, not feeling, and one must avoid the comic error of Molière’s physician despite himself, who places the heart on the right side.
4. mood. The basic meaning of the Hebrew ruaḥ is “spirit.”
5. a true error. “True” is added because the particle kaf before the noun is an indication of emphasis, not, as it is more commonly, of comparison.
6. Folly . . . the rich. This opposition, especially because of the second term, reflects Qohelet’s social conservatism. He accepts established hierarchies and thinks something is out of joint if the foolish (or the lowly) are on top and the wise (or the rich) on the bottom. A similar sentiment is expressed in the next verse in his dismay over slaves mounted on horseback.
8. He who digs a pit . . . he who breaches a wall. This maxim is purely prudential, much like what one finds in the Book of Proverbs: you have to be careful of the consequences of your actions. The walls were built of piled-up stones without mortar, so it was easy to make a small breach in which a snake could hide.
10. If the iron is dull. This is again prudential advice: if you don’t prepare your tools properly for the task to be performed, you will have a harder job.
the advantage of skill is wisdom. The Hebrew is equally cryptic. Some scholars revocalize hakhsher, “skill,” to yield hakasher, “the skilled man,” which mitigates the difficulty but does not remove it.
11. If a snake bites. This is a little obscure. The likely meaning is that if the snake charmer does not bother to practice his art before the snake bites, what good is his skill?
14. Man knows not what will be. The relevance in context of this reiterated idea is that since no one knows what will be, the chattering of the fool is all the more pointless.
15. so that he knows not how to go to town. The fool is so exhausted by his witless efforts that he ends up having no idea where he is headed. Fox cites an Egyptian saying, “does not reach the city,” that has the sense of “does not know where he is going,” and the expression here sounds like such a proverbial idiom.
16. lackey. The Hebrew naʿar means “lad” or “youth” but also by extension a servant or anyone in a subordinate position. The opposition to “a noble” in the next verse suggests that the sense of an underling is intended. Once again, Qohelet’s attachment to established social hierarchies is evident.
dine in the morning. They give themselves over to a life of irresponsible carousing at all times, again in contrast to the princes in the next verse. The implication is that a country ruled by a lackey will lose all sense of appropriate restraint and fall into a round of hedonistic merrymaking.
18. Through sloth. This is more prudential counsel in the spirit of the Book of Proverbs.
19. money keeps everyone busy. The verb here, yaʿaneh, most commonly means “answer” in biblical Hebrew, but as several recent commentators have argued, this verbal stem in Qohe-let’s distinctive vocabulary is associated with business, as in the reiterated noun ʿinyan, which means “business.” The evident idea here is that people may fling themselves into feasting and drinking, but their overriding preoccupation is money—which, among other uses, pays the bills for the carousing.
20. Even on your couch. The Hebrew noun madaʿ generally means “knowledge” (in modern Hebrew it is the term for “science”). Many modern interpreters construe it as “thought” or “mind”—an understanding already registered in the King James Version. But if a person is merely thinking nasty thoughts about the king without speaking them, how could the fowl of the heavens carry the sound? The parallelism between the two clauses here invites the emendation of madaʿakha, “your thought,” to matsaʿakha, “your couch.” Perhaps an emendation is not even necessary: Seow proposes that the “knowing” reflected in the root of the word is knowing in the sexual sense, which could make this an otherwise unattested term for the place where sexual intimacy is consummated.