Pengkhotbah 10:2-7
Konteks10:2 A wise person’s good sense protects him, 1
but a fool’s lack of sense leaves him vulnerable. 2
10:3 Even when a fool walks along the road he lacks sense, 3
and shows 4 everyone what a fool he is. 5
10:4 If the anger 6 of the ruler flares up 7 against you, do not resign 8 from your position, 9
for a calm 10 response 11 can undo 12 great offenses.
10:5 I have seen another 13 misfortune 14 on the earth: 15
It is an error a ruler makes. 16
10:6 Fools 17 are placed in many positions of authority, 18
while wealthy men sit in lowly positions.
10:7 I have seen slaves 19 on horseback
and princes walking on foot 20 like slaves.
Pengkhotbah 10:12-15
Konteks10:12 The words of a wise person 21 win him 22 favor, 23
but the words 24 of a fool are self-destructive. 25
10:13 At the beginning his words 26 are foolish
and at the end 27 his talk 28 is wicked madness, 29
10:14 yet a fool keeps on babbling. 30
No one knows what will happen;
who can tell him what will happen in the future? 31
10:15 The toil of a stupid fool 32 wears him out, 33
because he does not even know the way to the city. 34
[10:2] 1 tn Heb “a wise man’s heart is at his right hand.” The phrase “right hand” is a Hebrew idiom for the place of protection (e.g., Pss 16:8; 110:5; 121:5). In ancient warfare, the shield of the warrior on one’s right-hand side protected one’s right hand. Qoheleth’s point is that wisdom provides protection (e.g., Eccl 7:12).
[10:2] 2 tn Heb “and the heart of a fool is at his left hand.” The fool lacks the protection of wisdom which is at the right-hand side of the wise man (see note on “right hand” in the previous line). The wise man’s heart (i.e., good sense) protects him, but the fool is always getting into trouble.
[10:3] 3 tn Heb “he lacks his heart.”
[10:3] 4 tn Heb “he tells everyone.”
[10:3] 5 sn A fool’s lack of wisdom is obvious to everyone, even when he is engaged in the simple, ordinary actions of life.
[10:4] 8 tn Heb “Do not leave.”
[10:4] 9 tn Heb “your place.” The term מָקוֹם (maqom, “place”) denotes a position, post or office (1 Kgs 20:24; Eccl 8:3; 10:4; BDB 879 s.v. מָקוֹם 1.c).
[10:4] 10 tn The noun II מַרְפֵּא (marpe’, “calmness”) is used in reference to keeping one’s composure with a peaceful heart (Prov 14:30) and responding to criticism with a gentle tongue (Prov 15:4); cf. HALOT 637 s.v. II מַרְפֵּא. It is used in reference to keeping one’s composure in an emotionally charged situation (BDB 951 s.v. מַרְפֵּא 2). The term “calmness” is used here as a metonymy of association, meaning “calm response.”
[10:4] 11 tn The term “response” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarification (see preceding note on the word “calm”).
[10:4] 12 tn The verbal root נוח means “to leave behind; to leave untouched” (HALOT 680 s.v. I נוח 2) in general, and in this passage, “to undo” or “to allay” offenses (HALOT 680 s.v. I נוח 3; BDB 629 s.v. נוּחַ 5) or “to avoid” offenses (BDB 629 נוּחַ 5). The point is either that (1) a composed response can calm or appease the anger of the ruler, or (2) a calm heart will help one avoid great sins that would offend the king. The root נוח (“to rest”) is repeated, creating a wordplay: “Do not leave” (אַל־תַּנַּח, ’al-tannakh) and “to avoid; to allay” (יַנִּיחַ, yanniakh). Rather than resigning (i.e., leaving), composure can appease a king (i.e., cause the anger of the king to leave).
[10:5] 13 tn The term “another” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation to indicate that this is not the first “misfortune” described by the Teacher. See 5:13, 16; 6:1-2.
[10:5] 15 tn Heb “under the sun.”
[10:5] 16 tn Heb “like an error that comes forth from the presence of a ruler.”
[10:6] 18 tn Heb “high places.”
[10:7] 19 tn Or “servants,” so KJV, ASV, NCV, NLT (also in the following line).
[10:7] 20 tn Heb “upon the earth.”
[10:12] 21 tn Heb “of a wise man’s mouth.”
[10:12] 22 tn The phrase “win him” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
[10:12] 23 tn Or “are gracious.” The antithetical parallelism suggests that חֵן (khen) does not denote “gracious character” but “[gain] favor” (e.g., Gen 39:21; Exod 3:21; 11:3; 12:36; Prov 3:4, 34; 13:15; 22:1; 28:23; Eccl 9:11); cf. HALOT 332 s.v. חֵן 2; BDB 336 s.v. חֵן 2. The LXX, on the other hand, rendered חֶן with χάρις (caris, “gracious”). The English versions are divided: “are gracious” (KJV, YLT, ASV, NASB, NIV) and “win him favor” (NEB, RSV, NRSV, NAB, MLB, NJPS, Moffatt).
[10:12] 25 tn Heb “consume him”; or “engulf him.” The verb I בלע (“to swallow”) creates a striking wordplay on the homonymic root II בלע (“to speak eloquently”; HALOT 134-35 s.v בלע). Rather than speaking eloquently (II בלע, “to speak eloquently”), the fool utters words that are self-destructive (I בלע, “to swallow, engulf”).
[10:13] 26 tn Heb “the words of his mouth.”
[10:13] 27 sn The terms “beginning” and “end” form a merism, a figure of speech in which two opposites are contrasted to indicate totality (e.g., Deut 6:7; Ps 139:8; Eccl 3:2-8). The words of a fool are madness from “start to finish.”
[10:13] 28 tn Heb “his mouth.”
[10:13] 29 tn Heb “madness of evil.”
[10:14] 30 tn Heb “and the fool multiplies words.” This line is best taken as the third line of a tricola encompassing 10:13-14a (NASB, NRSV, NJPS, Moffatt) rather than the first line of a tricola encompassing 10:14 (KJV, NEB, RSV, NAB, ASV, NIV). Several versions capture the sense of this line well: “a fool prates on and on” (Moffatt) and “Yet the fool talks and talks!” (NJPS).
[10:14] 31 tn Heb “after him”; or “after he [dies].”
[10:15] 32 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.
[10:15] 33 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.
