Kings, Folly, and Wisdom
One dead fly makes the perfumer’s ointment give off a rancid stench, so a little folly can outweigh much wisdom. A wise person’s good sense protects him, but a fool’s lack of sense leaves him vulnerable. Even when a fool walks along the road he lacks sense, and shows everyone what a fool he is. If the anger of the ruler flares up against you, do not resign from your position, for a calm response can undo great offenses. I have seen another misfortune on the earth: It is an error a ruler makes. Fools are placed in many positions of authority, while wealthy men sit in lowly positions. I have seen slaves on horseback and princes walking on foot like slaves. One who digs a pit may fall into it, and one who breaks through a wall may be bitten by a snake. One who quarries stones may be injured by them; one who splits logs may be endangered by them. If an iron axhead is blunt and a workman does not sharpen its edge, he must exert a great deal of effort; so wisdom has the advantage of giving success. If the snake should bite before it is charmed, the snake charmer is in trouble. The words of a wise person win him favor, but the words of a fool are self-destructive. At the beginning his words are foolish and at the end his talk is wicked madness, yet a fool keeps on babbling. No one knows what will happen; who can tell him what will happen in the future? The toil of a stupid fool wears him out, because he does not even know the way to the city. Woe to you, O land, when your king is childish, and your princes feast in the morning! Blessed are you, O land, when your king is the son of nobility, and your princes feast at the proper time – with self-control and not in drunkenness. Because of laziness the roof caves in, and because of idle hands the house leaks. Feasts are made for laughter, and wine makes life merry, but money is the answer for everything. Do not curse a king even in your thoughts, and do not curse the rich while in your bedroom; for a bird might report what you are thinking, or some winged creature might repeat your words (Ecclesiastes 10:1-20).
The Preacher is famous for his proverbs. He provided many in his exhortation.
Throughout Ecclesiastes 1:1-9:18 the Preacher meditated upon the hevel of life under the sun: all is vain, futile – truly absurd. He compares most human endeavors toward meaning as “chasing after wind”: people pursue pleasure, wealth, wisdom, or other things looking for ultimate purpose and satisfaction and will be disappointed and frustrated by all of them. To rage against such truths is itself futile and striving after wind. God understands better than we do. In Ecclesiastes 10:1-20 the Preacher continued meditating on wisdom and folly in a series of proverbial style aphorisms, loosely organized around the themes of wisdom, folly, and the king.
The Preacher began with an observation from the world of perfumes: despite being quite small and seemingly insignificant, if a fly dies in ointment, its rotting flesh can cause the entire perfume to stink; so it also goes for a little folly compared to much wisdom (Ecclesiastes 10:1). The Preacher did not intend to suggest folly is superior to wisdom in any way, shape, or form; he instead speaks of influence. A little bit of foolishness is all which is required to overthrow the appeals of the wise.
The NET well interprets Ecclesiastes 10:2 in its translation. The Preacher spoke of the wise man having his heart at his right hand but the fool has his on the left, reflecting cultural biases normalizing right-handedness and stigmatizing left-handedness much more than anything about political alignments over the past two and a half centuries. Thus the wise use good sense which can provide assurance, comfort, and protection, while the fool is left exposed in his folly. The fool, after all, cannot help him or herself; no matter how much he or she may attempt to cover it, their folly will become manifest (Ecclesiastes 10:3).
The Preacher continued with a series of observations about power. A king or ruler might become angry with a given official or counselor, but the latter does better to maintain their position rather than resign, and find a way to respond with gentleness and patience (Ecclesiastes 10:4). The Preacher remained well aware of the implications of the power of rulers: a great misfortune takes place when a ruler makes an error, since his error will invariably lead to many negative consequences for some people (Ecclesiastes 10:5). The Preacher also observed times in which fools were granted power while the wealthy were degraded and humiliated; likewise, he has seen slaves on horses while their masters walk like slaves (Ecclesiastes 10:6-7). The Preacher remained a big fan of the hierarchies and systems of order of his day.
The Preacher pondered some ironic misfortunes: a person who digs a pit might fall into it; a person who breaks through a wall might get bitten by a snake; one might get injured by the stones one breaks or the wood one chops (Ecclesiastes 10:8-9). Perhaps the Preacher would like for people to exercise better workplace safety habits; yet he most likely would have us consider situations in which we harm ourselves by the very things we are trying to accomplish.
The Preacher gave his version of “work smarter, not harder”: the blunt ax requires a lot more effort, and so using wisdom can provide success or at least make life a little easier (Ecclesiastes 10:10). If a snake bites the snake charmer before he is charmed, such would be a failure and is without profit (Ecclesiastes 10:11): perhaps the Preacher would have us consider if an endeavor is doomed from the start, and we should act accordingly.
The Preacher again set forth a series of contrasts regarding the wise and the foolish. The words of the wise provide him or her favor. But foolish words prove destructive, often incoherent or mad, and yet the foolish keep talking even though, in truth, they have no great insight or understanding about what will happen (Ecclesiastes 10:12-14). A foolish person’s toil wears them out and they do not even know how to get to the city (Ecclesiastes 10:15): perhaps the Preacher chides foolish people for engaging in agricultural work rather than the work in the city, but more likely he imagines the foolish person as unable to manage basic and important behaviors or would have the foolish person of Ecclesiastes 10:12-14 so weary himself out with toil that he will not know how to go to town and speak his folly. We most likely understand the type regardless.
The Preacher considered kingship again with a woe and a blessing: woe to the land whose ruler is a child or childish and whose princes begin feasting early, but blessed is the land whose ruler is nobly born and whose princes feast at the appropriate time and not unto drunkenness (Ecclesiastes 10:16-17). The Preacher’s aristocratic bias is indeed exposed, but there is something to the general principle that a land and nation do better with well prepared rulers who understand they are servants of the people but are far worse off if their rulers are unprepared and immature and live in frivolity.
Laziness, or a lack of effort, leads to houses in disrepair (Ecclesiastes 10:18), a lament with which anyone who lives in a home can appreciate. The Preacher spoke of how feasts and wine were for partying and merriment, and either confesses money is the answer to everything or says those who are merry think money is the answer to everything (Ecclesiastes 10:19). We do well to understand the Preacher’s observations as more descriptive than prescriptive.
The Preacher counseled against cursing rulers or the wealthy in the mind or what one believes to be a secret space lest a bird might repeat the thoughts or words (Ecclesiastes 10:20). We still use the metaphor of how “a little bird” told us about something when we really heard it from another person. The Preacher wisely warns people about their thoughts and words in secret: they have a tendency of getting exposed.
In these matters the Preacher remained in the general mainstream of the ancient Near Eastern wisdom tradition of which he is a part. We do well to give heed to the Preacher’s wisdom, subject it to the purposes of God in Christ through the Spirit, and find eternal life in Jesus and the resurrection!
Ethan R. Longhenry
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