The toil of a stupid fool ¹  wears him out, ²  because he does not even know the way to the city. ³ 

biblegateway Ecc 10:15

The toil of a fool so wearies him that he does not even know how to go to a city.

The struggles of fools weary them, for they don't know how to go to the city.

Fools wear themselves out with hard work, because they don’t even know the way to town.

biblegateway Ecc 10:15

A fool’s work wearies him; he does not know the way to town.

The toil of a fool wearies him, for he does not know the way to the city.

bibleoremus Ecc 10:15

The toil of fools wears them out, for they do not even know the way to town.

The fool wearies himself to death with his exertions; he does not even know the way to town!

biblegateway Ecc 10:15

The labor of fools wearies them, For they do not even know how to go to the city!

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

biblegateway Ecc 10:15

The toil of a stupid fool ¹  wears him out, ²  because he does not even know the way to the city. ³ 

¹ tn The plural form of הַכְּסִילִים (hakkÿsilim, from כְּסִיל, kÿsil, “fool”) denotes (1) plural of number: referring to several fools or (2) plural of habitual character or plural of intensity (referring to a single person characterized by a habitual or intense quality of foolishness). The latter is favored because the two verbs in 10:15 are both singular in form: “wearies him” (תְּיַגְּעֶנּוּ, tÿyaggÿ’ennu) and “he does [not] know” (לֹא־יָדַע, lo’-yada’); see GKC 440-41 §135.p. The article on הַכְּסִילִים is used in the generic sense.

² tn This line may be interpreted in one of three ways: (1) “the labor of fools wearies him because he did not know enough to go to a town,” referring to the labor of the peasants who had not been able to find a place in town where life was easier; (2) “the labor of the fools so wearies everyone of them (singular pronoun taken in a distributive sense) so much that he even does not know how to go to town,” that is, he does not even know how to do the easiest thing in the world; (3) “let the labor of fools so weary him that he may not even know how to go to town,” taking the verb as a jussive, describing the foolish man described in 10:12-14. See D. Barthélemy, ed., Preliminary and Interim Report on the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, 3:592–93.

³ tn Heb “he does not know to go to the city.”