11If the snake bites before it is charmed, then is there no profit for the charmer’s tongue.12The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious; but a fool is swallowed by his own lips.13The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness; and the end of his talk is mischievous madness.14A fool also multiplies words. Man doesn’t know what will be; and that which will be after him, who can tell him?
15The labor of fools wearies every one of them; for he doesn’t know how to go to the city.
Colossians 4:6(v12)Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.
Luke 4:22(v12)All testified about him, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth, and they said, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”
Proverbs 15:2(vv12, 14)The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouth of fools gush out folly.
Proverbs 22:11(v12)He who loves purity of heart and speaks gracefully is the king’s friend.
Psalms 58:4-5(v11)Their poison is like the poison of a snake, like a deaf cobra that stops its ear, which doesn’t listen to the voice of charmers, no matter…
Show all 77 cross-references
Jeremiah 8:17(v11)“For, behold, I will send serpents, adders among you, which will not be charmed; and they will bite you,” says Yahweh.
Ephesians 4:29(v12)Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but only what is good for building others up as the need may be, that it may give grace to…
1 Samuel 25:10-11(v13)Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants who break away from their…
Proverbs 29:9(v13)If a wise man goes to court with a foolish man, the fool rages or scoffs, and there is no peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:22(v14)Therefore I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his works; for that is his portion: for who can bring him to…
Ecclesiastes 5:3(v14)For as a dream comes with a multitude of cares, so a fool’s speech with a multitude of words.
Ecclesiastes 6:12(v14)For who knows what is good for man in life, all the days of his vain life which he spends like a shadow? For who can tell a man what will…
Ecclesiastes 8:7(v14)For he doesn’t know that which will be; for who can tell him how it will be?
James 4:13-14(v14)Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city, and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.” Whereas you don’t…
Proverbs 10:13-14(v12)Wisdom is found on the lips of him who has discernment, but a rod is for the back of him who is void of understanding. Wise men lay up…
Proverbs 10:20-21(v12)The tongue of the righteous is like choice silver. The heart of the wicked is of little worth. The lips of the righteous feed many, but the…
Isaiah 57:1(v15)The righteous perish, and no one lays it to heart. Merciful men are taken away, and no one considers that the righteous is taken away from…
Jeremiah 50:4-5(v15)“In those days, and in that time,” says Yahweh, “the children of Israel will come, they and the children of Judah together; they will go on…
Job 4:3-4(v12)Behold, you have instructed many, you have strengthened the weak hands. Your words have supported him who was falling, You have made firm…
Job 35:16(v14)Therefore Job opens his mouth with empty talk, and he multiplies words without knowledge.”
Psalms 52:2(v11)Your tongue plots destruction, like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
Psalms 64:3(v11)who sharpen their tongue like a sword, and aim their arrows, deadly words,
Psalms 107:4(v15)They wandered in the wilderness in a desert way. They found no city to live in.
Psalms 107:7(v15)he led them also by a straight way, that they might go to a city to live in.
Proverbs 10:19(v14)In the multitude of words there is no lack of disobedience, but he who restrains his lips does wisely.
Proverbs 10:31-32(v12)The mouth of the righteous produces wisdom, but the perverse tongue will be cut off. The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but…
Proverbs 22:17-18(v12)Turn your ear, and listen to the words of the wise. Apply your heart to my teaching. For it is a pleasant thing if you keep them within…
Ecclesiastes 10:3(v15)Yes also when the fool walks by the way, his understanding fails him, and he says to everyone that he is a fool.
Isaiah 35:8-10(v15)A highway will be there, a road, and it will be called “The Holy Way”. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it will be for those who…
Judges 14:15(v13)On the seventh day, they said to Samson’s wife, “Entice your husband, that he may declare to us the riddle, lest we burn you and your…
1 Samuel 20:26-33(v13)Nevertheless Saul didn’t say anything that day, for he thought, “Something has happened to him. He is not clean. Surely he is not clean.”…
1 Samuel 22:7-8(v13)Saul said to his servants who stood around him, “Hear now, you Benjamites! Will the son of Jesse give everyone of you fields and vineyards?…
1 Samuel 22:16-18(v13)The king said, “You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you, and all your father’s house.” The king said to the guard who stood about him, “Turn,…
2 Samuel 1:16(v12)David said to him, “Your blood be on your head; for your mouth has testified against you, saying, ‘I have slain Yahweh’s anointed.’ ”
2 Samuel 19:41–20:1(v13)Behold, all the men of Israel came to the king, and said to the king, “Why have our brothers the men of Judah stolen you away, and brought…
1 Kings 20:40-42(v12)As your servant was busy here and there, he was gone.” The king of Israel said to him, “So shall your judgment be. You yourself have…
2 Kings 6:27(v13)He said, “If Yahweh doesn’t help you, where could I get help for you? From of the threshing floor, or from the wine press?”
2 Kings 6:31(v13)Then he said, “God do so to me, and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat stays on him today.”
Job 16:5(v12)but I would strengthen you with my mouth. The solace of my lips would relieve you.
Job 34:37(v14)For he adds rebellion to his sin. He claps his hands among us, and multiplies his words against God.”
Psalms 37:30(v12)The mouth of the righteous talks of wisdom. His tongue speaks justice.
Psalms 40:9-10(v12)I have proclaimed glad news of righteousness in the great assembly. Behold, I will not seal my lips, Yahweh, you know. I have not hidden…
Psalms 64:8(v12)Their own tongues shall ruin them. All who see them will shake their heads.
Psalms 71:15-18(v12)My mouth will tell about your righteousness, and of your salvation all day, though I don’t know its full measure. I will come with the…
Psalms 140:9(v12)As for the head of those who surround me, let the mischief of their own lips cover them.
Proverbs 10:8(v12)The wise in heart accept commandments, but a chattering fool will fall.
Proverbs 10:10(v12)One winking with the eye causes sorrow, but a chattering fool will fall.
Proverbs 12:13-14(v12)An evil man is trapped by sinfulness of lips, but the righteous shall come out of trouble. A man shall be satisfied with good by the fruit…
Proverbs 12:18(v12)There is one who speaks rashly like the piercing of a sword, but the tongue of the wise heals.
Proverbs 15:23(v12)Joy comes to a man with the reply of his mouth. How good is a word at the right time!
Proverbs 16:21-24(v12)The wise in heart shall be called prudent. Pleasantness of the lips promotes instruction. Understanding is a fountain of life to one who…
Proverbs 18:6-8(v12)A fool’s lips come into strife, and his mouth invites beatings. A fool’s mouth is his destruction, and his lips are a snare to his soul.…
Proverbs 18:21(v11)Death and life are in the power of the tongue; those who love it will eat its fruit.
Proverbs 19:5(v12)A false witness shall not be unpunished. He who pours out lies shall not go free.
Proverbs 25:11-12(v12)A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver. As an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise…
Proverbs 26:9(v12)Like a thorn bush that goes into the hand of a drunkard, so is a parable in the mouth of fools.
Proverbs 31:26(v12)She opens her mouth with wisdom. Kind instruction is on her tongue.
Ecclesiastes 10:10(v15)If the ax is blunt, and one doesn’t sharpen the edge, then he must use more strength; but skill brings success.
Isaiah 44:12-17(v15)The blacksmith takes an ax, works in the coals, fashions it with hammers, and works it with his strong arm. He is hungry, and his strength…
Isaiah 47:12-13(v15)“Stand now with your enchantments and with the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have labored from your youth, as if you might…
Isaiah 55:2(v15)Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which doesn’t satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat that…
Habakkuk 2:6(v15)Won’t all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, ‘Woe to him who increases that which is not…
Matthew 2:7-8(v13)Then Herod secretly called the wise men, and learned from them exactly what time the star appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem, and said,…
Matthew 2:16(v13)Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked by the wise men, was exceedingly angry, and sent out, and killed all the male children who were…
Matthew 11:28-30(v15)“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am…
Matthew 12:35(v12)The good man out of his good treasure brings out good things, and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings out evil things.
Luke 6:2(v13)But some of the Pharisees said to them, “Why do you do that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath day?”
Luke 6:11(v13)But they were filled with rage, and talked with one another about what they might do to Jesus.
Luke 11:38(v13)When the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that he had not first washed himself before dinner.
Luke 11:53-54(v13)As he said these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be terribly angry, and to draw many things out of him; lying in…
Luke 19:22(v12)“He said to him, ‘Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant! You knew that I am an exacting man, taking up that which I…
John 12:10(v13)But the chief priests conspired to put Lazarus to death also,
Acts 5:28-33(v13)saying, “Didn’t we strictly command you not to teach in this name? Behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and intend to…
Acts 6:9-11(v13)But some of those who were of the synagogue called “The Libertines”, and of the Cyrenians, of the Alexandrians, and of those of Cilicia and…
James 3:6(v11)And the tongue is a fire. The world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course…
Acts 7:54-59(v13)Now when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy…
Acts 19:24-28(v13)For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen, whom he…
77 distinct cross-references across this passage (78 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (20 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn v15The ignorance and beastliness of the wicked is such…
The ignorance and beastliness of the wicked is such that they know not common things, and yet will they discuss high matters.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv11–15Ecc 10:11 Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment;…
Ecc 10:11 Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment; and a babbler is no better.
Ver. 11. Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment.] It is for want of wisdom that the babbler, or tongue master (as the original hath it), is nothing better than the most poisonous serpent; nay, in some respects, worse; for one serpent stings not another, as backbiters do their best friends. And whereas serpents may be charmed, or their poison kept from the vitals, contra sycophantae morsum non est remedium, as the proverb hath it, there is no help to be had for the biting of a sycophant: his tongue is "full of deadly poison," saith St James. {Jas 3:8} Again, serpents usually hiss and give warning (though the Septuagint here read non in sibilo, the Vulgate, in silentio, in silence and without hissing, for without enchantment), so doth not the slanderer and detractor. He is a silent serpent, and like the dogs of Congo, which bite, but bark not. {a} And therefore, as all men hate a serpent and flee from the sight of it, so will wise men shun the society of a slanderer. And as any one abhors to be like to that old serpent the devil, so let him eschew this evil.
Read full note →
{a} Purchas’s Pilgrim.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv11–15Without enchantment; if not seasonably prevented by the art…
Without enchantment; if not seasonably prevented by the art and care of the charmer; which practice he doth not justify, but only mention by way of resemblance. See on Psa 58:5.
A babbler, Heb. a master of the tongue; which may be understood, either,
Read full note →
1. Of the detractor or slanderer, who like a serpent bites secretly; who may be so called, because he takes liberty to use his tongue as he lists, without any regard either to the offence of God, or to the injury of others; like them who said, Our lips are our own; who is lord over us? But I do not see either why this phrase should be limited to the detractor, which equally belongs to all abusers of the tongue in any other way; or how this particular vice of detraction comes to be inserted here among things of a quite differing nature. Or,
2. Of an eloquent person, who may well be called a master of the tongue, or of speech, nothing being more usual in the Hebrew, than to call a man master of that which he excels in, or hath a full and free power to use. And this clause is and may be rendered thus, And there is no excellency or profit to the master of the tongue, i.e. the most eloquent person, who doth not understand and in due time use the charmer’s art, cannot by all his eloquence afterward hinder the biting of the serpent, or mischievous effects of it; and so this agrees with the principal scope of the chapter, which is to show the necessity and usefulness of wisdom, and the mischief of folly.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn v12Solomon, having shown the benefit of wisdom, and of…
Solomon, having shown the benefit of wisdom, and of what great advantage it is to us in the management of our affairs, here shows the mischief of folly and how it exposes men, which perhaps comes in as a reflection upon those rulers who set folly in great dignity.
I. Fools talk a great deal to no purpose, and they show their folly as much by the multitude, impertinence, and mischievousness of their words, as by any thing; whereas the words of a wise man's mouth are gracious, are grace, manifest grace in his heart and minister grace to the hearers, are good, and such as become him, and do good to all about him, the lips of a fool not only expose him to reproach and make him ridiculous, but will swallow up himself and bring him to ruin, by provoking the government to take cognizance of his seditious talk and call him to an account for it. Adonijah foolishly spoke against his own life, Kg1 2:23. Many a man has been sunk by having his own tongue fall upon him, Psa 64:8. See what a fool's talk is. 1. It takes rise from his own weakness and wickedness: The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, the foolishness bound up in his heart, that is the corrupt spring out of which all these polluted streams flow, the evil treasure out of which evil things are brought. As soon as he begins to speak you may perceive his folly; at the very first he talks idly, and passionately, and like himself. 2. It rises up to fury, and tends to the hurt and injury of others: The end of his talk, the end it comes to, is madness. He will presently talk himself into an indecent heat, and break out into the wild extravagancies of a distracted man. The end he aims at is mischief; as, at first, he appeared to have little government of himself, so, at last, it appears he has a great deal of malice to his neighbours; that root of bitterness bears gall and wormwood. Note, It is not strange if those that begin foolishly end madly; for an ungoverned tongue, the more liberty is allowed, grows the more violent. 3. It is all the same over and over (Ecc 10:14): A fool also is full of words, a passionate fool especially, that runs on endlessly and never knows when to leave off. He will have the last word, though it be but the same with that which was the first. What is wanting in the weight and strength of his words he endeavours in vain to make up in the number of them; and they must be repeated, because otherwise there is nothing in them to make them regarded. Note, Many who are empty of sense are full of words; and the least solid are the most noisy. The following words may be taken either, (1.) As checking him for his vainglorious boasting in the multitude of his words, what he will do and what he will have, not considering that which every body knows that a man cannot tell what shall be in his own time, while he lives (Pro 27:1), much less can one tell what shall be after him, when he is dead and gone. Would we duly consider our own ignorance of, and uncertainty about, future events, it would cut off a great many of the idle words we foolishly multiply. Or, (2.) As mocking him for his tautologies. He is full of words, for if he do but speak the most trite and common thing, a man cannot tell what shall be, because he loves to hear himself talk, he will say it again, what shall be after him who can tell him? like Battus in Ovid:
Read full note →
- Sub illis
Montibus (inquit) erant, et erant sub montibus illis -
Under those mountains were they,
They were under those mountains, I say -
whence vain repetitions are called Battologeō, Mat 6:7.
II. Fools toil a great deal to no purpose (Ecc 10:15); The labour of the foolish, to accomplish their designs, wearies every one of them. 1. They weary themselves in that labour which is very foolish and absurd. All their labour is for the world and the body, and the meat that perishes, and in this labour they spend their strength, and exhaust their spirits, and weary themselves for very vanity, Hab 2:13; Isa 55:2. They choose that service which is perfect drudgery rather than that which is perfect liberty. 2. That labour which is necessary, and would be profitable, and might be gone through with ease, wearies them, because they go about it awkwardly and foolishly, and so make their business a toil to them, which, if they applied themselves to it prudently, would be a pleasure to them. Many complain of the labours of religion as grievous, which they would have no reason to complain of if the exercises of Christian piety were always under the direction of Christian prudence. The foolish tire themselves in endless pursuits, and never bring any thing to pass, because they know not how to go to the city, that is, because they have not capacity to apprehend the plainest thing, such as the entrance into a great city is, where one would think it were impossible for a man to miss his road. Men's imprudent management of their business robs them both of the comfort and of the benefit of it. But it is the excellency of the way to the heavenly city that it is a high-way, in which the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err (Isa 35:8); yet sinful folly makes men miss that way.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv11–15Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment,.... See Jer…
Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment,.... See Jer 8:17. Or rather, "without a whisper" (t); without hissing, or any noise, giving no warning at all: so the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "in silence"; some serpents bite, others sting, some both; see Pro 23:32; some hiss, others not, as here;
and a babbler is no better; a whisperer, a backbiter, a busy tattling body, that goes from house to house, and, in a private manner, speaks evil of civil governments, of ministers of the word, and of other persons; and; in a secret way, defames men, and detracts from their characters: such an one is like a venomous viper, a poisonous serpent or adder; and there is no more guarding against him than against such a creature that bites secretly.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv11, 12, 14, 15Without - If not prevented by the art and…
Without - If not prevented by the art and care of the charmer; which practice he does not justify, but only mentions by way of resemblance.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv11, 12, 14, 15Verse 11. The serpent will bite without enchantment] בלא…
Verse 11. The serpent will bite without enchantment] בלא לחש belo lachash, without hissing. As a snake may bite before it hiss, so also will the babbler, talkative person, or calumniator. Without directly speaking evil, he insinuates, by innuendoes, things injurious to the reputation of his neighbour. Gif the eddir bite in silence, noyhing lasse than he hath that privily backbiteth. - Old MS. Bible. "A babbler of his tongue is no better than a serpent that styngeth without hyssynge." - COVERDALE. The moral of this saying is simply this: A calumniator is as dangerous as a poisonous serpent; and from the envenomed tongue of slander and detraction no man is safe. The comparing the serpent, נחש nachash, to a babbler, has something singular in it. I have already supposed that the creature mentioned, Ge 3:1, was of the genus simia. This has been ridiculed, but not disproved.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv11–12Ecc 10:11. Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment…
Ecc 10:11. Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment — Unless it be seasonably prevented by the art and care of the charmer. This is an allusion to the general opinion, then and still prevailing in the eastern countries, that serpents might be charmed so as to be prevented from biting by certain incantations, or by singing and music. See note on Psa 58:4-5. And a babbler is no better — Hebrew, בעל הלשׁון, the master of the tongue; which may be understood either of a rash, loose talker, a mere babbler, or of a backbiter and slanderer. Each of these is in the habit of using his tongue as if he were lord of it, and often does much mischief thereby, especially the latter, who, by his malicious words, bites secretly like a serpent, and gives deadly wounds to the characters of the absent.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv11, 14, 15Rather: “If a serpent without enchantment (i. e., not…
Rather: “If a serpent without enchantment (i. e., not being enchanted) bites, then there is no advantage to the charmer”: i. e., if the charmer is unwisely slack in exercising his craft, he will be bitten like other people. See Psa 58:4 note.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn vv11, 12, 14, 15Silence. Protestants, "without enchantment, and a babbler is no…
Silence. Protestants, "without enchantment, and a babbler is no better." (Haydock) --- But he compares the detractor to a serpent, (Calmet) as he infuses the poison into all who pay attention to him. (St. Jerome; St. Bernard)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv11–15A "serpent will bite" if "enchantment" is not used;…
A "serpent will bite" if "enchantment" is not used; "and a babbling calumniator is no better." Therefore, as one may escape a serpent by charms (Psa 58:4-5), so one may escape the sting of a calumniator by discretion (Ecc 10:12), [HOLDEN]. Thus, "without enchantment" answers to "not whet the edge" (Ecc 10:10), both expressing, figuratively, want of judgment. MAURER translates, "There is no gain to the enchanter" (Margin, "master of the tongue") from his enchantments, because the serpent bites before he can use them; hence the need of continual caution. Ecc 10:8-10, caution in acting; Ecc 10:11 and following verses, caution in speaking.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv11–1511. The serpent will bite — Hebrews, If the…
11. The serpent will bite — Hebrews, If the serpent bite for lack of enchantment, the charmer has no advantage from his art. Our version strangely neglects the If. A babbler is the title (see margin) given to professors of the art of rendering serpents harmless by magic words, usually accompanied, indeed, by various manipulations. The idea is, that his art is of no use to him unless he employ it. So with the wisdom of the wise, unless used in repairing the mischief wrought by rash, rebellious movements.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv11–1511. Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment] Literally,…
11. Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment] Literally, If the serpent will bite without enchantment, i.e. in the absence of skill to charm it. It is hardly necessary to dwell at length on a topic so familiar as the serpent-charming of the East. It will be enough to say that from time immemorial in Egypt, Syria, Persia, India, there have been classes of persons who in some way or other have gained a power over many kinds of snakes, drawing them from their retreats, handling them with impunity, making them follow their footsteps like a tame dog. The power was really or ostensibly connected with certain muttered words or peculiar intonations of the voice. We find the earliest traces of it in the magicians of Pharaoh’s court (Exo_7:11). So the “deaf adder that cannot be charmed” becomes the type of those whom no appeal to reason or conscience can restrain (Psa_58:5; Jer_8:17; Sir_12:13). The proverb obviously stands in the same relation to the “breaking down of walls” in Ecc_10:8, as that of the “blunt axe” did to the “cutting down trees” of Ecc_10:9. “If a serpent meets you as you go on with your work, if the adder’s poison that is on the lips of the traitor or the slanderer (Psa_140:3; Rom_3:13) is about to do its deadly work, are you sure that you have the power to charm? If not, you are not likely to escape being bitten.” The apodosis of the sentence interprets the proverb. “If a serpent will bite in the absence of the charmer, there is no profit in a babbler (literally, a lord or master of tongue, see note on ch. Ecc_5:10), who does not know the secret of the intonation that charms it.” No floods of wind-bag eloquence will-avail in the statesman or the orator if the skill that persuades is wanting.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv11, 14, 15(11) This also is a difficult verse. Literally translated…
(11) This also is a difficult verse. Literally translated it is, If the serpent bite for lack of enchantment, there is no advantage to the master of the tongue. It seems best to follow the LXX. and other interpreters, and take the “master of the tongue” to mean the snake charmer, who possesses the “voice of the charmer” (Psa_58:5). The whisperings of the snake charmer, so often described by Eastern travellers, are referred to also in Jer_8:17, and in a passage, probably founded on the present text (Sir_12:13), “Who will pity a charmer that is bitten with a serpent?” The mention of the serpent in Ecc_10:8 seems to have suggested another illustration of the advantage of wisdom in the different effects of snake-charming, as used by the expert or the unskilful. The phrase, “master of the tongue,” seems to have been chosen in order to lead on to the following verses, which speak of the different use of the tongue by the wise man and the fool.
Enchantment.—According to the primary meaning “whispering” (2Sa_12:19; Isa_26:16).
Read full note →
No better.—No advantage to. (See Note on Ecc_1:3.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv11–15The last proverb of this little series shows the…
The last proverb of this little series shows the necessity of seizing the right opportunity. Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment. The Authorized Version is not quite correct. The particle with which the verse begins, is here conditional, and the rendering should be, If the serpent bite, etc.; the apodosis comes in the next clause. The idea is taken up from ver. 8. If one handles a serpent without due precaution or without knowing the secret of charming it, one will suffer for it. The taming and charming of poisonous snakes is still, as heretofore, practiced in Egypt and the East. What the secret of this power is has not been accurately determined; whether it belongs especially to persons of a certain idiosyncrasy, whether it is connected with certain words or intonations of the voice or musical sounds, we do not know. Of the existence of the power from remote antiquity there can be no question. Allusions to it in Scripture are common enough. (see Exo_7:11; Psa_58:5; Jer_8:17; Ecc_12:13) If a serpent before it is charmed is dangerous, what then? The Authorized Version affords no sensible apodosis: And a babbler is no better. The words rendered "babbler" (baul hallashon) are literally "master of the tongue," and by them is meant the ejpaoidov, "the serpent-charmer." The clause should run, Then there is no use in the charmer. If the man is bitten before he has time to use his charm, it is no profit to him that he has the secret, it is too late to employ it when the mischief is done. This is to shut the stable door after the steed is stolen. The maxim enforces the warning against being too late; the greatest skill is useless unless applied at the right moment. The Septuagint translates virtually as above, "If a serpent bites when not charmed (ejn ouj yiqurismw), then there is no advantage to the charmer (tw ejpadonti)." The Vulgate departs from the context, rendering, Si mordeat serpens in silentio (i.e. probably "uncharmed"), nihil eo minus habet qui occulte detrahit, "He is nothing better who slanders secretly," which St. Jerome thus explains: the serpent and the slanderer are alike, for as the serpent stealthily infuses its poison, so the secret slanderer pours his venom into another"s breast.
Vers. 11-15.
Read full note →
The obtrusiveness and the condemnation of folly.
Although some of the language employed in this passage is unquestionably obscure, the general tenor of it is clear enough. The contrast which is drawn between wisdom and folly is what we meet with, under other forms, in other portions of the book, and the exposure and censure of the thoughts and the ways of the fool are fitted to warn the young against forsaking the rough but safe paths of true wisdom.
I FOLLY IS SHOWN IN THE UNNECESSARY MULTIPLICATION OF WORDS. Fools speak when there is no occasion, when they have nothing to say, or when they have already said all that was needful.
II FOLLY REVEALS ITSELF, THOUGH WITHOUT PROVOCATION. It cannot be concealed; it is obtrusive and glaring. The fool is his own enemy: "his lips will swallow up himself.
III FOLLY IS DISPLAYED IN DOGMATIC UTTERANCES UPON MATTERS WHICH ARE BEYOND HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. There are many subjects upon which modesty and reticence are required by wisdom. Especially is this the case with regard to the future. But it is presumed in this passage that the fool will not restrain himself from pronouncing upon what is beyond human knowledge or human prescience.
IV FOLLY IS WEARISOME TO THOSE WHO WITNESS THE WORKS AND WHO LISTEN TO THE WORDS BY WHICH IT REVEALS ITSELF.
V FOLLY IS MANIFESTED IN INCOMPETENCY FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, The fool "knoweth not how to go to the city," i.e. how to transact public business, and to give advice regarding civic action.
VI FOLLY IS SURE TO ISSUE IN MISCHIEF AND DISASTER. It is sometimes represented that fools can do no harm; that real mischief is wrought by malice, by criminal designs and actions. But a careful inquiry into the facts would show that very much of the evil that afflicts society is brought to pass by mere folly. The Hebrews and the Greeks were agreed in representing wisdom as a cardinal virtue. It is men"s duty to cultivate wisdom. If they neglect to do so, it matters not that they have no criminal intentions; the absence of wisdom must needs lead to conduct which will involve themselves and others in much suffering, and even in terrible calamities. T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary1892 · Public DomainOn v11Ecc_10:11. A babbler is no better.] Lit., “The master…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Ecc_10:11. A babbler is no better.] Lit., “The master of the tongue.” One who is of ready utterance, capable of producing great effects by the power of speech, yet lacking energy and promptness in action.
Read full note →
Ecc_10:12. Gracious.] His words have the power of winning favour. They have a calm and grateful influence. All his actions are suitable and well-timed, not like those of the unwary serpent-charmer.
Ecc_10:14. A fool also is full of words.] Not only given to endless talk, but even boldly announcing his plans and purposes, as if he could certainly reckon upon the future. The latter part of the verse condemns the folly of such presumption.
Ecc_10:15. Wearieth every one of them.] Though full of words, they are indolent, and soon grow weary in any useful toil. He knoweth not how to go to the city.] He cannot make sure that he shall carry out even so ordinary a purpose and action. Probably St. James (chap. Ecc_4:13) refers to this passage when censuring the boldness which presumes upon a future which no man can certainly know or command.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Ecc_10:11-15
THE VANITY OF SPEECH
Human wisdom has been shown to be, in some cases, unavailing, through the sudden advantage that may be gained by folly. So many are the instances of apparent failure that a reflecting mind, in certain sad moods of thought, may be tempted to imagine that this landed possession is but another of the many vanities of human life. In particular, speech itself, which professes to manifest the inmost glory of wisdom, may be regarded as, after all, but a splendid vanity.
I. The Essential Value of Speech must be Admitted. There are many instances in which the wisest speech seems to fail. This faculty, however, must be regarded as, in itself, a good gift.
1. Speech rightly employed wins favour. (Ecc_10:12.) By the graciousness of speech, a wise man wins his way to favour, and conquers the minds and hearts of others. The gift of graceful speech is a splendid talent, though it may be degraded to serve the worst purposes. Hence the tongue is called “an ornament of iniquity.” (Jas_3:6.) It is capable of presenting error with seductive charms, and making the worst appear the better reason. Still, the gift of speech may be employed to enhance the attractions of wisdom, and graciously subdue men’s hearts to the love of her.
2. Speech rightly employed is powerful. (Ecc_10:11.) The enchanter has the power of controlling the serpent so that it forgets to sting. While the strange spell lasts, the venomous reptile is rendered harmless. The tongue, in like manner, can perform the office of a magician, and so persuade and charm men as to calm their most boisterous passions and render them harmless and obedient to the charmer’s will. In some critical juncture, the speech of a wise man may bring relief to a nation’s perplexity, and save it from ruin. The uttered word of man has proved mightier than the sword. It is the most powerful and lasting of all influences. Good and wise words are seeds, most tenacious of vitality, reproducing themselves from age to age in noble and heroic deeds. Speech, inasmuch as it is the vehicle of mind, must have the chief place among the instruments which man uses for carrying on his work in the world. But in some of those sad moods of reflection, into which the mind will sometimes fall, there is much to tempt a man to account even this brilliant gift a vanity.
II. Even in the Hands of the Wise, this Gift requires the Greatest Dexterity. On the supposition that wise men were always wise, we might well suppose that their speech would, at all times, be seasonable and full of grace. But the actual state, even of the best, falls below this ideal. The wisest and the meekest man on earth is in danger of speaking unadvisedly with his lips. The most devoted saint must take heed that he sin not with his tongue. Hence he who can so control his speech as not to offend at all has well nigh reached perfection. In order to manage the gift of speech rightly, it is necessary that we have something more than an ample store of wisdom’s gatherings and the faculty of graceful utterance.
1. There must be vigilance. The wisest man may fail through want of vigilance in certain crises of danger, and thus bring himself under the charge and the penalties of folly. The charmer possesses the art of rendering the serpent harmless, but if he stumbles upon it unawares, he shall be bitten like an ordinary man. So if the wise man is unwatchful, or does not speak at the right time; if he misses his opportunity or is wanting in discretion, notwithstanding his ability to represent the wealth of thought and feeling in words of power, he too must smart, as the veriest fool, under the grief and penalties of failure. There are certain junctures in human affairs which may nonplus unwatchful Wisdom
2. There must be prompt action. The richest gifts of wisdom must be accompanied by practical ability; or they may fail of success. A wise man may lack the power of grappling with emergencies, and may become so stunned by some sudden perplexity as to be totally unfit for the proper action of the time. There are so many sudden and unexpected changes in the course of human affairs, that unless the wise man, though gifted with the most persuasive speech, has the ability promptly to adapt himself to the occasion, he may be vanquished as though he were not wise.
III. This Gift is often the Instrument and Revealer of Folly. (Ecc_10:13-15.) The mind and heart—the nature of the man within—may be regarded as the fountain of speech. As that fountain is sweet or bitter, troubled or clear, live-giving or pestilential, so are the streams which flow from it. Speech is the instrument by which the mind conveys and distributes its wisdom or folly. Hence the fool soon reveals himself; for when he ventures to speak, his folly is sure of instant recognition. Some of the characteristics of the speech of such are noted here.
1. It shows no tendency towards improvement. (Ecc_10:13.) The speech of the fool does not follow the method of creation, where confusion and disorder improved into harmony and beauty. It shows no tendency to assume a higher state, no power to work itself clear. The disorder which marked his first utterance becomes more observable as he proceeds, so that by the time he has made an end of speaking he has outraged reason itself. He grows loquacious. There is scarcely any pause in his insipid and tiresome twaddle. (Ecc_10:14.) He does but win fresh titles of folly every time he speaks, and his last utterance is the most extravagant of all.
2. The effects of it are destructive. Foolish speech, though incapable of deceiving those who have discernment, is likely to affect others injuriously, and to grow into a source of mischief. (Ecc_10:13.) It is a stream which, gathering foulness as it proceeds, poisons the air. There is a kind of moral contagion in the words of a fool; and considering how many minds are predisposed to it, the mischief is immense. But the fool’s speech is more especially destructive to himself. (Ecc_10:12.) He may be said to commit moral suicide—himself the gulf which swallows up his reputation.
3. It is concerned with subjects in which a discreet silence should be observed. (Ecc_10:14-15.) The fool is apt to talk confidently about the future, as if he could command it and make it sure. He rushes boldly into matters concerning which he knows least. This has a most injurious effect upon himself. It consumes his energies in useless toil. (Ecc_10:15.) Such a confident way of dealing with future things shows an unwarrantable presumption. No man can know those things which are hidden in the dark recesses of futurity, where they lie open to the eye of God alone. To speak of the future as if we could command it, and know what lies hid in it, is manifest presumption. Even the most common facts and events of the future are so concealed from man that he cannot, in the conduct of his affairs, reckon upon them. He may purpose such an ordinary act as that of going to the city at such and such a time, but he cannot be sure that he shall accomplish this. (Ecc_10:15.) In the front of this awful fact of human ignorance, all daring presumption in speech and conduct must be contemptible and vain. It is an abuse of the divine gift of language when it is thus made the instrument of arrogance and folly, and the multitude of such abuses in the world may cause even a wise man, in some gloomy season of the soul, to reckon this boasted faculty with the sum total of human vanity.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Ecc_10:11. In the East, there have always been persons who, by means of music and legerdemain, exert great influence over some species of serpents, so that whilst under their spell the deadly cobra may be handled, as if he were utterly harmless. But if the charmer tread on the snake unawares, or be bitten when off his guard, he will be poisoned like another man. And to certain minds there has been given an ascendancy over other minds, like the influence of the serpent charmer. Sagacious and eloquent, they are able to soothe the fury of fierce tempers, and mould rancorous natures to their will. Like David’s transforming harp, as the strain advances, it looks as if a new possession had entered the exercised frame, and a seraph smiled out at those windows where a demon was frowning before. But alas for the harper, if Saul should snatch the javelin before David has time to touch the strings! Alas for the wise charmer, and also for the good cause, if the tyrant’s passion towers up, or the decree of the despot goes forth before a friendly counsellor has time to interfere [Dr. J. Hamilton].
“The master of the tongue”—the man of ready and wise speech—may fail in matters of ordinary life through want of the power of quickly adapting himself to the occasion. To ensure success in a world like this, where so many hidden dangers lie ready to spring upon us, we must have tact as well as talent.
While under the power of the eloquent tongue, fierce natures may be wielded at will; but when the charm is dissolved their virulence returns.
He who gives to his tongue an unrestrained license, and is guided in the use of it neither by principle nor by prudence, is a man that requires to be managed with peculiar caution. Contradiction and violence may only irritate, and make the venom of his tongue the more virulent and deadly. He must be charmed [Wardlaw].
Ecc_10:12. “The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious.”
1. They win the favour of the hearers. It is pleasant to listen to them—to be near the fountains of Wisdom
2. They minister good to the hearers. They convey those treasures of the mind and heart which are the impulse of all goodness in life, and the most enduring possession of man.
The words of wise men have a gentle, yet all-prevailing force. In morals, this is a pleasing constraint, a drawing of the affections. It corresponds to attraction in the physical universe.
The gracious words of Christ, who was incarnate wisdom, are still powerful in drawing the nations to Himself.
The fool is the sepulchre of his own reputation; for as long as he was silent, you were willing to give him credit for the usual share of intelligence, but no sooner does he blurt out some astounding blunder—no sooner does he begin to prattle forth his egotism and vanity, than your respect is exchanged for contempt or compassion [Dr. J. Hamilton].
As the Psalmist says when speaking of such men as he, “They make their own tongue to fall upon themselves” (Psa_64:8). It was the folly of Herod that made him utter the rash promise, which stained his soul with the crime of murder. It was the folly of another Herod that prompted the profane and self-glorying oration, which drew down upon him the vengeance of the Almighty [Buchanan].
Ecc_10:13. The speech of the fool shows no tendency towards improvement as he proceeds. It is sure to degenerate into unmeaning rant, and to arouse passions which are hurtful to himself and to others.
There is a ridiculous disproportion between the passionate language of a fool and the insignificant causes which excite it.
There is as much difference between the chastised fervour of the wise man’s words, and the impudent rage of fools, as there is between the warmth and glow of health and the burning of a fever.
We have here the serpent, the babbler spoken of in Ecc_10:11, wreathed into a circle, his two ends, head and tail, meeting together. And as at the one end he is a serpent having his sting in his head, so at the other end he is a scorpion having his sting in his tail [Jermin].
Ecc_10:14. A fool vainly imagines that mere words are knowledge and wisdom. Hence he easily lends himself to a flattering delusion to conceal the poverty of his mind.
Wisdom is content with few words. The most important truths have been condensed into the smallest compass. The precious things of the mind are thus rendered portable.
He is like the empty drum that sounds at the lightest touch. His self-conceit persuades him that he is competent to decide, off-hand, matters on which deeper, more thoughtful, more conscientious minds are slow to say anything at all. “A man cannot tell what shall be; and what shall be after him, who can tell him?” These are difficulties which wiser men feel and acknowledge.… The wise man waits for more light. The ease is not ripe for judgment—he can as yet neither approve nor disapprove; he can neither acquit nor condemn; and accordingly he refrains his lips. Not so the fool. He is the first, the longest, and the loudest in every discussion [Buchanan].
Fools are always most confident concerning the unknown and inscrutable.
That balanced condition of the mind, in which it is content to remain released from belief, is so uncommon that we have no word in our language to represent it. Every ignorant and foolish man has a stiff opinion upon those subjects in which his knowledge is least.
Ecc_10:15. Folly makes a man both a weariness to himself and to his neighbours. They grow impatient of his blunders and busy zeal of fruitless labour.
The fool is most confident in that wherein he ought to show the greatest modesty and reserve. He speaks of the accomplishment of his plans for the future with the same assurance as if he had read them distinctly in the Book of Fate.
The fool he has in view is a culpable fool—is one whose folly has much more of the moral than of the intellectual, in the defect which it indicates and implies. He is one whose heart is much further wrong than his head. The tongue of a mere imbecile cannot bite like a serpent.… In the highest and truest sense of the word, all wicked men are fools. There is a city—a mighty city—a glorious city—to which not one of them knows how to go; and that is the New Jerusalem, the city of the living God [Buchanan].
Fools (in the moral signification of the term), when they stand before some great conviction, waken up to the discovery that what they thought was knowledge was only words, resting upon no realities. They learn, like Job, the language of penitence and submission (Job_42:5-6).
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren1905 · Public DomainOn v15
Ecclesiastes
THE WAY TO THE CITY
Read full note →
Ecc 10:15.
On the surface this seems to be merely a piece of homely, practical sagacity, conjoined with one of the bitter things which Ecclesiastes is fond of saying about those whom he calls ‘fools.’ It seems to repeat, under another metaphor, the same idea which has been presented in a previous verse, where we read: ‘If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength; but wisdom is profitable to direct.’ That is to say, skill is better than strength; brain saves muscle; better sharpen your axe than put yourself into a perspiration, hitting fierce blows with a blunt one. The prerogative of wisdom is to guide brute force. And so in my text the same general idea comes under another figure. Immense effort may end in nothing but tired feet if the traveller does not know his road. A man lost in the woods may run till he drops, and find himself at night in the place from which he started in the morning. The path must be known, and the aim clear, if any good is to come of effort.
That phrase, ‘how to go to the city,’ seems to be a kind of proverbial comparison for anything that is very plain and conspicuous, just as our forefathers used to say about any obvious truth, that it was ‘as plain as the road to London town.’ The road to the capital is sure to be a well-marked one, and he must be a fool indeed who cannot see that. So our text, though on the surface, as I say, is simply a sarcasm and a piece of homely, practical sagacity, yet, like almost all the sayings in this Book of Ecclesiastes, it has a deeper meaning than appears on the surface; and may be applied in higher and more important directions. It carries with it large truths, and enshrines in a vivid metaphor bitter experiences which, I suppose, we can all confirm.
I. We consider, first, the toil that tires.
‘The labour wearies every one of them.’ The word translated ‘labour’ seems to carry with it both the idea of effort and of trouble. Or to recur to a familiar distinction in modern English, the word really covers both the ground of work and of worry. And it is a sad and solemn thought that a word with that double element in it should be the one which is most truly applicable to the efforts of a large majority of men. I suppose there never was a time in the world’s history when life went so fast as it does in these great centres of civilisation and commerce in which you and I live. And it is awful to have to think that the great mass of it all ends in nothing else but tired limbs and exhaustion. That is a truth to be verified by experience, and I am bold to believe that every man and woman in this chapel now can say more or less distinctly ‘Amen!’ to the assertion that every life, except a distinctly and supremely religious one, is worry and work without adequate satisfying result, and with no lasting issue but exhaustion.
Let us begin at the bottom. For instance, take a man who has avowedly flung aside the restraints of right and wrong and conscience, and does things habitually that he knows to be wrong. Every sin is a blunder as well as a crime. No man who aims at an end through the smoke of hell gets the end that he aims at. Or if he does, he gets something that takes all the gilt off the gingerbread, and all the sweetness out of the success. They put a very evil-tasting ingredient into spirits of wine to prevent its being drunk. The cup that sin reaches to a man, though the wine moveth itself aright and is very pleasant to look at before being tasted, cheats with methylated spirits. Men and women take more pains and trouble to damn themselves than ever they do to have their souls saved. The end of all work, which begins with tossing conscience on one side, is simply this-’The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them.’
Take a step higher-a respectable, well-to-do Manchester man, successful in business. He has made it his aim to build up a large concern, and has succeeded. He has a fine house, carriages, greenhouses; he has ‘J.P.’ to his name; he stands high in credit and on Change. His name is one that gives respectability to anything that it is connected with. Has he ‘come to the city’? Has he got what he thought he would get when he began his career? He has succeeded in his immediate and smaller purpose; has that immediate and smaller purpose succeeded in bringing him what he thought it would bring him? Or has he fallen a victim to those-
‘juggling fiends . . .
That palter with us in a double sense;
That keep the word of promise to the ear,
And break it to the hope?’
They tell us that if you put down in one column the value of the ore that has been extracted from all the Australian gold-mines, and in another the amount that it has cost to get it, the latter sum will exceed the former. There are plenty of people in Manchester who have put more down into the pit from which they dig their wealth than ever they will get out of it. And their labour, too, leaves a very dark and empty aching centre in their lives, ‘and wearieth every one of them.’ And so I might go the whole round. We students, so long as our pursuit of knowledge has not in it as supreme, directing motive, and ultimate aim and issue, the glory and the service of God, come under the lash of the same condemnation as those grosser and lower forms of life of which I have been speaking. But wherever we look, if there be not in the heart and in the life a supreme regard to God and a communion with Him, then this characteristic is common to all the courses, that, whilst they may each meet some immediate and partial necessity of our natures, none of them is adequate for the whole circumference of a man’s being, nor any of them able, during the whole duration of that being, to be his satisfaction and his rest. Therefore, I say, all toil, however successful to the view of a shorter range of vision, and however noble-excluding the noblest of all-all toil that ends only in securing that which perishes with the using, or that which we leave behind us here when we pass hence, is condemned for folly and labour that wearies the men who are fools enough to surrender themselves to it.
I need not remind you of the wonderful variety of metaphor under which that threadbare thought, which yet it is so hard for us to believe and make operative in our lives, is represented to us in Scripture. Just let me recall one or two of them in the briefest way. ‘Why do ye spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which profiteth not?’ ‘They have hewn for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.’ ‘Their webs shall not become garments.’ That may want a word of explanation. The metaphor is this. You are all like spiders spinning carefully and diligently your web. There is not substance enough in it to make a coat out of. You will never cover yourselves with the product of your own brains or your own efforts. There is no clothing in the spider’s webs of a godless life.
Ah! brother, all these earthly aims which some of my friends listening to me now have for the sole aims of their lives, are as foolish and as inadequate to accomplish that which is sought for by them, as it would be to seek to quench raging thirst by lifting to the lips a golden cup that is empty. Some of us have a whole sideboard full of such, and vary our pursuits according to inclination and task. Some of us have only one such, but they are all empty, and the lip is parched after the cup has been lifted to it as it was before.
II. And so, consider now, secondly, the foolish ignorance that makes the toil tiresome.
The metaphor of my text says that the reason why the ‘fool’ is so wearied after the day’s march is that he does not in the morning settle where he is going, and how he is to get there; and so, having started to go nowhither, he has got where he started for. He ‘does not know how to go to the city’-which, being translated into plain and unmetaphorical English, is just this, that many men wreck their lives for want of a clear sight of their true aim, and of the way to secure it.
There is nothing more tragical than the absence, in the great bulk of men, of anything like deliberate, definite views as to their aim in life, and the course to be taken to secure it. There are two things obviously necessary for success in any enterprise. One is, that there shall be the most definite and clear conception of what is aimed at; and the other, that there shall be a wisely considered plan to get at it. Unless there be these, if you go at random, running a little way for a moment in this direction, and then heading about and going in the other, you cannot expect to get to the goal.
Now, what I want to ask some of my friends here is, Did you ever give ten deliberate minutes to try to face for yourselves, and put into plain words, what you are living for, and how you mean to secure it? Of course I know that you have given thought and planning in plenty to the nearer aims, without which material life cannot be lived at all. I do not suppose that anybody here is chargeable with not having thought enough about how to get on in business, or in their chosen walk of life. It is not that kind of aim which I mean at all; but it is a point beyond it that I want to press upon you. You are like men who would carefully victual a ship and take the best information for their guide as to what course to lie, and had never thought what they were going to do when they got to the port. So you say, ‘I am going to be such-and-such a thing.’ Well, what then? ‘Well, I am going to lay myself out for success.’ Be it commercial, be it intellectual, be it social, be it in the sphere of the affections, or whatever it may be. Well, what then? ‘Well, then I am going to advance in material prosperity, I hope, or in wisdom, or to be surrounded by loving faces of children and those that are dear to me.’ What then? ‘Then I am going to die.’ What then?
It is not till you get to that last question, and have faced it and answered it, that you can be said to have taken the whole sweep of the circumstances into view, and regulated your course according to the dictates of common sense and right reason. And a terribly large number of us live with careful adaptation of means to ends in regard of all the smaller and more immediately to be realised aims of life, but have never faced the larger question which reduces all these smaller aims to insignificance. The simple child’s interrogation which in the well-known ballad ripped the tinsel off the skeleton, and showed war in its hideousness, strips many of your lives of all pretence to be reasonable. ‘What good came of it at the last?’ Can you answer the question that the infant lips asked, and say, ‘This good will come of it at last. That I shall have God for my own, and Jesus Christ in my heart’?
Brother! if I could only get you to this point, that you would take half an hour now to think over what you ought to be, and to ask yourself whether your aims in life correspond to what your aims should be, I should have done more than I am afraid I shall do with some of you. The naturalist can tell when he picks up a skeleton something of the habits and the element of the creature to which it belonged. If it has a hollow sternum he knows it is meant to fly. On your nature is impressed unmistakably that your destiny is not to creep, but to soar. Not in vain does the Westminster Catechism lay the foundation of everything in this, the prime question for all men, ‘What is the chief end of man?’ Ask that, and do not rest till you have answered it.
Then there is another idea connected with this ignorance of my text-viz. that it is the result of folly. Now the words ‘folly’ and ‘foolish’ and ‘foolishness,’ and their opposites, ‘wisdom’ and ‘wise,’ in this Book of Ecclesiastes, as in the Book of Proverbs, do not mean merely dull stupidity intellectually, which is a thing for which a man is to be pitied rather than to be blamed, but they always carry besides the idea of intellectual defect, also the idea of moral obliquity. ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’; and, conversely, the absence of that fear is the foundation of that which this writer stigmatises as ‘folly’ He is not merely sneering at men with small brains and little judgments. There may be plenty of us who are so, and yet are wise unto salvation and possessed of a far higher wisdom than that of this world. But he tells us that so strangely intertwined are the intellectual and moral parts of our nature, that wheresoever there is the obscuration of the latter there is sure to be the perversion of the former, and the man knows not ‘how to go to the city’ because he is ‘foolish.’
That is to say, you go wrong in your judgment about your conduct because you have gone wrong morally. And your blunders about life, and your ignorance of its true end and aim, and your mistakes as to how to secure happiness and blessedness, are your own faults, and are owing to the aversion of your nature from that which is highest and noblest, even God and His service. Therefore you are not only to be pitied because you are out of the road, but to be blamed because you have darkened the eyes of your mind by loving the darkness rather than the light. And you ‘do not know how to go to the city,’ because you do not want to go to the city, and would rather huddle here in the wilderness, and live upon its poor supplies, than pass within the golden gates. My brethren! the folly which blinds a man to his true aim and mission in life is a folly which has in it the darker aspect of sin, and is punishable as such.
III. Lastly, note the plain path which the foolish miss.
He ‘does not know how to go to the city.’ What on earth will he be able to see if he cannot see that broad highway, beaten and white, stretching straight before him, over hill and dale, and going right to the gates? A man must be a fool who cannot find the way to London.
The principles of moral conduct are trite and obvious. It is plain that it is better to be good than bad. It is better to be unselfish than selfish. It is better not to live for things that perish, seeing that we are going to last for ever. It is better not to make the flesh our master here, seeing that the spirit will have to live without the flesh some day. It is better to get into training for the world to coma, seeing that we are all drifting thither. All these things are plain and obvious.
Man’s destiny for God is unmistakable. ‘Whose image and superscription hath it?’ said Christ about the coin. ‘Caesar’s!’ ‘Then give it to Caesar.’ Whose image and superscription hath my heart, this restless heart of mine, this spirit that wanders on through space and time, homeless and comfortless, until it can grasp the Eternal? Who are you meant for? God! And every fibre of your nature has a voice to say so to you if you listen to it. So, then, a godless life such as some of you, my hearers, are contentedly living, ignores facts that are most patent to every man’s experience. And while before you, huge ‘as a mountain, open, palpable,’ are the commonplaces and undeniable verities which declare that every man who is not a God-fearing man is a fool, you admit them all, and, bowing your heads in reverence, let them all go over you and produce no effect.
The road is clearer than ever since Jesus Christ came. He has shown us the city, for He has brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel. He has shown us the road, for His life is the pattern of all that men ought to aim at and to be. The motto of the eternal Son of God, if I may venture upon such a metaphor, is like the motto of the heir-apparent of the English throne, ‘I serve.’ Lo! ‘I come to do Thy will’-and that is the only word which will make a human life peaceful and strong and beautiful. In the presence of His radiant and solitary perfection, men no longer need to wonder, What is the ideal to which conduct and character should be conformed? And Jesus Christ has come to make it possible to go to the city, by that cross on which He bore the burden of all sin, and takes away the sin of the world, and by that Spirit of life which He will impart to our weakness, and which makes our sluggish feet run in the way of His commandments, and not be weary, and walk and not faint.
Take that dear Lord for your revelation of duty, for your Pattern of conduct, for the forgiveness of your sins, for the Inspirer with power to do His will, and then you will see stretching before you, high up above the surrounding desert, so that no lion nor ravenous beast shall go up there, the highway on which the ransomed of the Lord shall walk, ‘and the wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err therein.’ ‘Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may enter in through the gates into the City.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann1924 · Public DomainOn v11In the Midst of Foolish Talking and Slothfulness
In the Midst of Foolish Talking and Slothfulness
v. 11. Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment, that is, unless it is kept under enchantment by music or the sound of the voice properly modulated; and a babbler is no better. As one may escape the sting of the serpent by the application of charms, so he may avoid the harm of defamation by wise discretion.
Read full note →
v. 12. The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious, full of pleasant graciousness and therefore always most welcome; but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself, he will injure himself by his foolish talk, Pro 10:8; Pro 14:21; Pro 14:32; Pro 15:2.
v. 13. The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, as soon as he opens his mouth, it is with silly twaddle; and the end of his talk is mischievous madness, it works injury not only to himself, but mischief also to others.
v. 14. A fool also is full of words, he is talkative with empty loquacity; a man cannot tell what shall be; and what shall be after him, who can tell him? And yet a fool will usually have most to say about future events, of what he intends to do and accomplish.
v. 15. The labor of the foolish wearleth every one of them, the slightest exertion is too much for his lazy bones, because he knoweth not how to go to the city; he does not know the road straight ahead of him, he is ignorant of the simplest matters of every-day life.
v. 16. Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, lacking mature judgment and discretion, a thoughtless fool, and thy princes eat in the morning, in excessive gluttony and feasting at the time when they should be dispensing justice.
v. 17. Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, not so much by birth, as by wisdom and virtue, and thy princes eat in due season, at the proper time and in the proper way, for strength and not for drunkenness, in intemperate feasting, whereby the mind is blunted and the body corrupted.
v. 18. By much slothfulness, due to the owner’s idleness, the building decayeth, no repairs being made, and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through, the roof leaking and the rain penetrating to the interior of the house.
v. 19. A feast is made for laughter, for foolish rioting, and wine maketh merry, the foolish rulers engaged therein neglecting the building of the government; but money answereth all things, that is, the reveling rulers believe that money will buy anything and cover up the criminality of their behavior.
v. 20. Curse not the king, no, not in thy thought, in the innermost consciousness, the danger being that this state of mind will be revealed, and curse not the rich in thy bed-chamber, in the foolish hope that it will not become known; for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter, that is, the betrayal will be brought about in ways which are almost past understanding, whence it follows that strict prudence must govern the conduct of him who is truly wise. The believer who observes the Eighth Commandment will guard against every form of evil, even in thoughts, not for fear of earthly punishment, but for love of God.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv12, 13, 15The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious
The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious
Here the wise man's speech is represented by his "mouth." AT: "The things that a wise man says are gracious" (See: Metonymy)
Read full note →
the lips of a fool consume him
Here the fool's speech is represented by his "lips." This speaks of the fool destroying himself by his speech as if it were eating him. AT: "The things that a foolish man says destroy him" (See: Metonymy and Metaphor)
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv11, 12, 14, 1510:11 One purpose of charming a snake is to…
10:11 One purpose of charming a snake is to keep it from biting, but a snake charmer risks being bitten before it is charmed. Some occupations are so hazardous that the wise do not engage in them at all.
GEBible — Godless Engineer's Bible App
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v15 The ignorance and beastliness of the wicked is such…
The ignorance and beastliness of the wicked is such that they know not common things, and yet will they discuss high matters.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv11–15 Ecc 10:11 Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment;…
Ecc 10:11 Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment; and a babbler is no better.
Ver. 11. Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment.] It is for want of wisdom that the babbler, or tongue master (as the original hath it), is nothing better than the most poisonous serpent; nay, in some respects, worse; for one serpent stings not another, as backbiters do their best friends. And whereas serpents may be charmed, or their poison kept from the vitals, contra sycophantae morsum non est remedium, as the proverb hath it, there is no help to be had for the biting of a sycophant: his tongue is "full of deadly poison," saith St James. {Jas 3:8} Again, serpents usually hiss and give warning (though the Septuagint here read non in sibilo, the Vulgate, in silentio, in silence and without hissing, for without enchantment), so doth not the slanderer and detractor. He is a silent serpent, and like the dogs of Congo, which bite, but bark not. {a} And therefore, as all men hate a serpent and flee from the sight of it, so will wise men shun the society of a slanderer. And as any one abhors to be like to that old serpent the devil, so let him eschew this evil.
Read full note →
{a} Purchas’s Pilgrim.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv11–15 Without enchantment; if not seasonably prevented by the art…
Without enchantment; if not seasonably prevented by the art and care of the charmer; which practice he doth not justify, but only mention by way of resemblance. See on Psa 58:5.
A babbler, Heb. a master of the tongue; which may be understood, either,
Read full note →
1. Of the detractor or slanderer, who like a serpent bites secretly; who may be so called, because he takes liberty to use his tongue as he lists, without any regard either to the offence of God, or to the injury of others; like them who said, Our lips are our own; who is lord over us? But I do not see either why this phrase should be limited to the detractor, which equally belongs to all abusers of the tongue in any other way; or how this particular vice of detraction comes to be inserted here among things of a quite differing nature. Or,
2. Of an eloquent person, who may well be called a master of the tongue, or of speech, nothing being more usual in the Hebrew, than to call a man master of that which he excels in, or hath a full and free power to use. And this clause is and may be rendered thus, And there is no excellency or profit to the master of the tongue, i.e. the most eloquent person, who doth not understand and in due time use the charmer’s art, cannot by all his eloquence afterward hinder the biting of the serpent, or mischievous effects of it; and so this agrees with the principal scope of the chapter, which is to show the necessity and usefulness of wisdom, and the mischief of folly.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v12 Solomon, having shown the benefit of wisdom, and of…
Solomon, having shown the benefit of wisdom, and of what great advantage it is to us in the management of our affairs, here shows the mischief of folly and how it exposes men, which perhaps comes in as a reflection upon those rulers who set folly in great dignity.
I. Fools talk a great deal to no purpose, and they show their folly as much by the multitude, impertinence, and mischievousness of their words, as by any thing; whereas the words of a wise man's mouth are gracious, are grace, manifest grace in his heart and minister grace to the hearers, are good, and such as become him, and do good to all about him, the lips of a fool not only expose him to reproach and make him ridiculous, but will swallow up himself and bring him to ruin, by provoking the government to take cognizance of his seditious talk and call him to an account for it. Adonijah foolishly spoke against his own life, Kg1 2:23. Many a man has been sunk by having his own tongue fall upon him, Psa 64:8. See what a fool's talk is. 1. It takes rise from his own weakness and wickedness: The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, the foolishness bound up in his heart, that is the corrupt spring out of which all these polluted streams flow, the evil treasure out of which evil things are brought. As soon as he begins to speak you may perceive his folly; at the very first he talks idly, and passionately, and like himself. 2. It rises up to fury, and tends to the hurt and injury of others: The end of his talk, the end it comes to, is madness. He will presently talk himself into an indecent heat, and break out into the wild extravagancies of a distracted man. The end he aims at is mischief; as, at first, he appeared to have little government of himself, so, at last, it appears he has a great deal of malice to his neighbours; that root of bitterness bears gall and wormwood. Note, It is not strange if those that begin foolishly end madly; for an ungoverned tongue, the more liberty is allowed, grows the more violent. 3. It is all the same over and over (Ecc 10:14): A fool also is full of words, a passionate fool especially, that runs on endlessly and never knows when to leave off. He will have the last word, though it be but the same with that which was the first. What is wanting in the weight and strength of his words he endeavours in vain to make up in the number of them; and they must be repeated, because otherwise there is nothing in them to make them regarded. Note, Many who are empty of sense are full of words; and the least solid are the most noisy. The following words may be taken either, (1.) As checking him for his vainglorious boasting in the multitude of his words, what he will do and what he will have, not considering that which every body knows that a man cannot tell what shall be in his own time, while he lives (Pro 27:1), much less can one tell what shall be after him, when he is dead and gone. Would we duly consider our own ignorance of, and uncertainty about, future events, it would cut off a great many of the idle words we foolishly multiply. Or, (2.) As mocking him for his tautologies. He is full of words, for if he do but speak the most trite and common thing, a man cannot tell what shall be, because he loves to hear himself talk, he will say it again, what shall be after him who can tell him? like Battus in Ovid:
Read full note →
- Sub illis
Montibus (inquit) erant, et erant sub montibus illis -
Under those mountains were they,
They were under those mountains, I say -
whence vain repetitions are called Battologeō, Mat 6:7.
II. Fools toil a great deal to no purpose (Ecc 10:15); The labour of the foolish, to accomplish their designs, wearies every one of them. 1. They weary themselves in that labour which is very foolish and absurd. All their labour is for the world and the body, and the meat that perishes, and in this labour they spend their strength, and exhaust their spirits, and weary themselves for very vanity, Hab 2:13; Isa 55:2. They choose that service which is perfect drudgery rather than that which is perfect liberty. 2. That labour which is necessary, and would be profitable, and might be gone through with ease, wearies them, because they go about it awkwardly and foolishly, and so make their business a toil to them, which, if they applied themselves to it prudently, would be a pleasure to them. Many complain of the labours of religion as grievous, which they would have no reason to complain of if the exercises of Christian piety were always under the direction of Christian prudence. The foolish tire themselves in endless pursuits, and never bring any thing to pass, because they know not how to go to the city, that is, because they have not capacity to apprehend the plainest thing, such as the entrance into a great city is, where one would think it were impossible for a man to miss his road. Men's imprudent management of their business robs them both of the comfort and of the benefit of it. But it is the excellency of the way to the heavenly city that it is a high-way, in which the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err (Isa 35:8); yet sinful folly makes men miss that way.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv11–15 Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment,.... See Jer…
Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment,.... See Jer 8:17. Or rather, "without a whisper" (t); without hissing, or any noise, giving no warning at all: so the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "in silence"; some serpents bite, others sting, some both; see Pro 23:32; some hiss, others not, as here;
and a babbler is no better; a whisperer, a backbiter, a busy tattling body, that goes from house to house, and, in a private manner, speaks evil of civil governments, of ministers of the word, and of other persons; and; in a secret way, defames men, and detracts from their characters: such an one is like a venomous viper, a poisonous serpent or adder; and there is no more guarding against him than against such a creature that bites secretly.
Read full note →
(t) "absque susurro", Pagniuus; "absque sibilo", Tigurine version.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv11, 12, 14, 15 Without - If not prevented by the art and…
Without - If not prevented by the art and care of the charmer; which practice he does not justify, but only mentions by way of resemblance.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv11, 12, 14, 15 Verse 11. The serpent will bite without enchantment] בלא…
Verse 11. The serpent will bite without enchantment] בלא לחש belo lachash, without hissing. As a snake may bite before it hiss, so also will the babbler, talkative person, or calumniator. Without directly speaking evil, he insinuates, by innuendoes, things injurious to the reputation of his neighbour. Gif the eddir bite in silence, noyhing lasse than he hath that privily backbiteth. - Old MS. Bible. "A babbler of his tongue is no better than a serpent that styngeth without hyssynge." - COVERDALE. The moral of this saying is simply this: A calumniator is as dangerous as a poisonous serpent; and from the envenomed tongue of slander and detraction no man is safe. The comparing the serpent, נחש nachash, to a babbler, has something singular in it. I have already supposed that the creature mentioned, Ge 3:1, was of the genus simia. This has been ridiculed, but not disproved.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv11–12 Ecc 10:11. Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment…
Ecc 10:11. Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment — Unless it be seasonably prevented by the art and care of the charmer. This is an allusion to the general opinion, then and still prevailing in the eastern countries, that serpents might be charmed so as to be prevented from biting by certain incantations, or by singing and music. See note on Psa 58:4-5. And a babbler is no better — Hebrew, בעל הלשׁון, the master of the tongue; which may be understood either of a rash, loose talker, a mere babbler, or of a backbiter and slanderer. Each of these is in the habit of using his tongue as if he were lord of it, and often does much mischief thereby, especially the latter, who, by his malicious words, bites secretly like a serpent, and gives deadly wounds to the characters of the absent.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv11, 14, 15 Rather: “If a serpent without enchantment (i. e., not…
Rather: “If a serpent without enchantment (i. e., not being enchanted) bites, then there is no advantage to the charmer”: i. e., if the charmer is unwisely slack in exercising his craft, he will be bitten like other people. See Psa 58:4 note.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv11, 12, 14, 15 Silence. Protestants, "without enchantment, and a babbler is no…
Silence. Protestants, "without enchantment, and a babbler is no better." (Haydock) --- But he compares the detractor to a serpent, (Calmet) as he infuses the poison into all who pay attention to him. (St. Jerome; St. Bernard)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv11–15 A "serpent will bite" if "enchantment" is not used;…
A "serpent will bite" if "enchantment" is not used; "and a babbling calumniator is no better." Therefore, as one may escape a serpent by charms (Psa 58:4-5), so one may escape the sting of a calumniator by discretion (Ecc 10:12), [HOLDEN]. Thus, "without enchantment" answers to "not whet the edge" (Ecc 10:10), both expressing, figuratively, want of judgment. MAURER translates, "There is no gain to the enchanter" (Margin, "master of the tongue") from his enchantments, because the serpent bites before he can use them; hence the need of continual caution. Ecc 10:8-10, caution in acting; Ecc 10:11 and following verses, caution in speaking.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv11–15 11. The serpent will bite — Hebrews, If the…
11. The serpent will bite — Hebrews, If the serpent bite for lack of enchantment, the charmer has no advantage from his art. Our version strangely neglects the If. A babbler is the title (see margin) given to professors of the art of rendering serpents harmless by magic words, usually accompanied, indeed, by various manipulations. The idea is, that his art is of no use to him unless he employ it. So with the wisdom of the wise, unless used in repairing the mischief wrought by rash, rebellious movements.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv11–15 11. Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment] Literally,…
11. Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment] Literally, If the serpent will bite without enchantment, i.e. in the absence of skill to charm it. It is hardly necessary to dwell at length on a topic so familiar as the serpent-charming of the East. It will be enough to say that from time immemorial in Egypt, Syria, Persia, India, there have been classes of persons who in some way or other have gained a power over many kinds of snakes, drawing them from their retreats, handling them with impunity, making them follow their footsteps like a tame dog. The power was really or ostensibly connected with certain muttered words or peculiar intonations of the voice. We find the earliest traces of it in the magicians of Pharaoh’s court (Exo_7:11). So the “deaf adder that cannot be charmed” becomes the type of those whom no appeal to reason or conscience can restrain (Psa_58:5; Jer_8:17; Sir_12:13). The proverb obviously stands in the same relation to the “breaking down of walls” in Ecc_10:8, as that of the “blunt axe” did to the “cutting down trees” of Ecc_10:9. “If a serpent meets you as you go on with your work, if the adder’s poison that is on the lips of the traitor or the slanderer (Psa_140:3; Rom_3:13) is about to do its deadly work, are you sure that you have the power to charm? If not, you are not likely to escape being bitten.” The apodosis of the sentence interprets the proverb. “If a serpent will bite in the absence of the charmer, there is no profit in a babbler (literally, a lord or master of tongue, see note on ch. Ecc_5:10), who does not know the secret of the intonation that charms it.” No floods of wind-bag eloquence will-avail in the statesman or the orator if the skill that persuades is wanting.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv11, 14, 15 (11) This also is a difficult verse. Literally translated…
(11) This also is a difficult verse. Literally translated it is, If the serpent bite for lack of enchantment, there is no advantage to the master of the tongue. It seems best to follow the LXX. and other interpreters, and take the “master of the tongue” to mean the snake charmer, who possesses the “voice of the charmer” (Psa_58:5). The whisperings of the snake charmer, so often described by Eastern travellers, are referred to also in Jer_8:17, and in a passage, probably founded on the present text (Sir_12:13), “Who will pity a charmer that is bitten with a serpent?” The mention of the serpent in Ecc_10:8 seems to have suggested another illustration of the advantage of wisdom in the different effects of snake-charming, as used by the expert or the unskilful. The phrase, “master of the tongue,” seems to have been chosen in order to lead on to the following verses, which speak of the different use of the tongue by the wise man and the fool.
Enchantment.—According to the primary meaning “whispering” (2Sa_12:19; Isa_26:16).
Read full note →
No better.—No advantage to. (See Note on Ecc_1:3.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv11–15 The last proverb of this little series shows the…
The last proverb of this little series shows the necessity of seizing the right opportunity. Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment. The Authorized Version is not quite correct. The particle with which the verse begins, is here conditional, and the rendering should be, If the serpent bite, etc.; the apodosis comes in the next clause. The idea is taken up from ver. 8. If one handles a serpent without due precaution or without knowing the secret of charming it, one will suffer for it. The taming and charming of poisonous snakes is still, as heretofore, practiced in Egypt and the East. What the secret of this power is has not been accurately determined; whether it belongs especially to persons of a certain idiosyncrasy, whether it is connected with certain words or intonations of the voice or musical sounds, we do not know. Of the existence of the power from remote antiquity there can be no question. Allusions to it in Scripture are common enough. (see Exo_7:11; Psa_58:5; Jer_8:17; Ecc_12:13) If a serpent before it is charmed is dangerous, what then? The Authorized Version affords no sensible apodosis: And a babbler is no better. The words rendered "babbler" (baul hallashon) are literally "master of the tongue," and by them is meant the ejpaoidov, "the serpent-charmer." The clause should run, Then there is no use in the charmer. If the man is bitten before he has time to use his charm, it is no profit to him that he has the secret, it is too late to employ it when the mischief is done. This is to shut the stable door after the steed is stolen. The maxim enforces the warning against being too late; the greatest skill is useless unless applied at the right moment. The Septuagint translates virtually as above, "If a serpent bites when not charmed (ejn ouj yiqurismw), then there is no advantage to the charmer (tw ejpadonti)." The Vulgate departs from the context, rendering, Si mordeat serpens in silentio (i.e. probably "uncharmed"), nihil eo minus habet qui occulte detrahit, "He is nothing better who slanders secretly," which St. Jerome thus explains: the serpent and the slanderer are alike, for as the serpent stealthily infuses its poison, so the secret slanderer pours his venom into another"s breast.
Vers. 11-15.
Read full note →
The obtrusiveness and the condemnation of folly.
Although some of the language employed in this passage is unquestionably obscure, the general tenor of it is clear enough. The contrast which is drawn between wisdom and folly is what we meet with, under other forms, in other portions of the book, and the exposure and censure of the thoughts and the ways of the fool are fitted to warn the young against forsaking the rough but safe paths of true wisdom.
I FOLLY IS SHOWN IN THE UNNECESSARY MULTIPLICATION OF WORDS. Fools speak when there is no occasion, when they have nothing to say, or when they have already said all that was needful.
II FOLLY REVEALS ITSELF, THOUGH WITHOUT PROVOCATION. It cannot be concealed; it is obtrusive and glaring. The fool is his own enemy: "his lips will swallow up himself.
III FOLLY IS DISPLAYED IN DOGMATIC UTTERANCES UPON MATTERS WHICH ARE BEYOND HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. There are many subjects upon which modesty and reticence are required by wisdom. Especially is this the case with regard to the future. But it is presumed in this passage that the fool will not restrain himself from pronouncing upon what is beyond human knowledge or human prescience.
IV FOLLY IS WEARISOME TO THOSE WHO WITNESS THE WORKS AND WHO LISTEN TO THE WORDS BY WHICH IT REVEALS ITSELF.
V FOLLY IS MANIFESTED IN INCOMPETENCY FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, The fool "knoweth not how to go to the city," i.e. how to transact public business, and to give advice regarding civic action.
VI FOLLY IS SURE TO ISSUE IN MISCHIEF AND DISASTER. It is sometimes represented that fools can do no harm; that real mischief is wrought by malice, by criminal designs and actions. But a careful inquiry into the facts would show that very much of the evil that afflicts society is brought to pass by mere folly. The Hebrews and the Greeks were agreed in representing wisdom as a cardinal virtue. It is men"s duty to cultivate wisdom. If they neglect to do so, it matters not that they have no criminal intentions; the absence of wisdom must needs lead to conduct which will involve themselves and others in much suffering, and even in terrible calamities. T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v11 Ecc_10:11. A babbler is no better.] Lit., “The master…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Ecc_10:11. A babbler is no better.] Lit., “The master of the tongue.” One who is of ready utterance, capable of producing great effects by the power of speech, yet lacking energy and promptness in action.
Read full note →
Ecc_10:12. Gracious.] His words have the power of winning favour. They have a calm and grateful influence. All his actions are suitable and well-timed, not like those of the unwary serpent-charmer.
Ecc_10:14. A fool also is full of words.] Not only given to endless talk, but even boldly announcing his plans and purposes, as if he could certainly reckon upon the future. The latter part of the verse condemns the folly of such presumption.
Ecc_10:15. Wearieth every one of them.] Though full of words, they are indolent, and soon grow weary in any useful toil. He knoweth not how to go to the city.] He cannot make sure that he shall carry out even so ordinary a purpose and action. Probably St. James (chap. Ecc_4:13) refers to this passage when censuring the boldness which presumes upon a future which no man can certainly know or command.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Ecc_10:11-15
THE VANITY OF SPEECH
Human wisdom has been shown to be, in some cases, unavailing, through the sudden advantage that may be gained by folly. So many are the instances of apparent failure that a reflecting mind, in certain sad moods of thought, may be tempted to imagine that this landed possession is but another of the many vanities of human life. In particular, speech itself, which professes to manifest the inmost glory of wisdom, may be regarded as, after all, but a splendid vanity.
I. The Essential Value of Speech must be Admitted. There are many instances in which the wisest speech seems to fail. This faculty, however, must be regarded as, in itself, a good gift.
1. Speech rightly employed wins favour. (Ecc_10:12.) By the graciousness of speech, a wise man wins his way to favour, and conquers the minds and hearts of others. The gift of graceful speech is a splendid talent, though it may be degraded to serve the worst purposes. Hence the tongue is called “an ornament of iniquity.” (Jas_3:6.) It is capable of presenting error with seductive charms, and making the worst appear the better reason. Still, the gift of speech may be employed to enhance the attractions of wisdom, and graciously subdue men’s hearts to the love of her.
2. Speech rightly employed is powerful. (Ecc_10:11.) The enchanter has the power of controlling the serpent so that it forgets to sting. While the strange spell lasts, the venomous reptile is rendered harmless. The tongue, in like manner, can perform the office of a magician, and so persuade and charm men as to calm their most boisterous passions and render them harmless and obedient to the charmer’s will. In some critical juncture, the speech of a wise man may bring relief to a nation’s perplexity, and save it from ruin. The uttered word of man has proved mightier than the sword. It is the most powerful and lasting of all influences. Good and wise words are seeds, most tenacious of vitality, reproducing themselves from age to age in noble and heroic deeds. Speech, inasmuch as it is the vehicle of mind, must have the chief place among the instruments which man uses for carrying on his work in the world. But in some of those sad moods of reflection, into which the mind will sometimes fall, there is much to tempt a man to account even this brilliant gift a vanity.
II. Even in the Hands of the Wise, this Gift requires the Greatest Dexterity. On the supposition that wise men were always wise, we might well suppose that their speech would, at all times, be seasonable and full of grace. But the actual state, even of the best, falls below this ideal. The wisest and the meekest man on earth is in danger of speaking unadvisedly with his lips. The most devoted saint must take heed that he sin not with his tongue. Hence he who can so control his speech as not to offend at all has well nigh reached perfection. In order to manage the gift of speech rightly, it is necessary that we have something more than an ample store of wisdom’s gatherings and the faculty of graceful utterance.
1. There must be vigilance. The wisest man may fail through want of vigilance in certain crises of danger, and thus bring himself under the charge and the penalties of folly. The charmer possesses the art of rendering the serpent harmless, but if he stumbles upon it unawares, he shall be bitten like an ordinary man. So if the wise man is unwatchful, or does not speak at the right time; if he misses his opportunity or is wanting in discretion, notwithstanding his ability to represent the wealth of thought and feeling in words of power, he too must smart, as the veriest fool, under the grief and penalties of failure. There are certain junctures in human affairs which may nonplus unwatchful Wisdom
2. There must be prompt action. The richest gifts of wisdom must be accompanied by practical ability; or they may fail of success. A wise man may lack the power of grappling with emergencies, and may become so stunned by some sudden perplexity as to be totally unfit for the proper action of the time. There are so many sudden and unexpected changes in the course of human affairs, that unless the wise man, though gifted with the most persuasive speech, has the ability promptly to adapt himself to the occasion, he may be vanquished as though he were not wise.
III. This Gift is often the Instrument and Revealer of Folly. (Ecc_10:13-15.) The mind and heart—the nature of the man within—may be regarded as the fountain of speech. As that fountain is sweet or bitter, troubled or clear, live-giving or pestilential, so are the streams which flow from it. Speech is the instrument by which the mind conveys and distributes its wisdom or folly. Hence the fool soon reveals himself; for when he ventures to speak, his folly is sure of instant recognition. Some of the characteristics of the speech of such are noted here.
1. It shows no tendency towards improvement. (Ecc_10:13.) The speech of the fool does not follow the method of creation, where confusion and disorder improved into harmony and beauty. It shows no tendency to assume a higher state, no power to work itself clear. The disorder which marked his first utterance becomes more observable as he proceeds, so that by the time he has made an end of speaking he has outraged reason itself. He grows loquacious. There is scarcely any pause in his insipid and tiresome twaddle. (Ecc_10:14.) He does but win fresh titles of folly every time he speaks, and his last utterance is the most extravagant of all.
2. The effects of it are destructive. Foolish speech, though incapable of deceiving those who have discernment, is likely to affect others injuriously, and to grow into a source of mischief. (Ecc_10:13.) It is a stream which, gathering foulness as it proceeds, poisons the air. There is a kind of moral contagion in the words of a fool; and considering how many minds are predisposed to it, the mischief is immense. But the fool’s speech is more especially destructive to himself. (Ecc_10:12.) He may be said to commit moral suicide—himself the gulf which swallows up his reputation.
3. It is concerned with subjects in which a discreet silence should be observed. (Ecc_10:14-15.) The fool is apt to talk confidently about the future, as if he could command it and make it sure. He rushes boldly into matters concerning which he knows least. This has a most injurious effect upon himself. It consumes his energies in useless toil. (Ecc_10:15.) Such a confident way of dealing with future things shows an unwarrantable presumption. No man can know those things which are hidden in the dark recesses of futurity, where they lie open to the eye of God alone. To speak of the future as if we could command it, and know what lies hid in it, is manifest presumption. Even the most common facts and events of the future are so concealed from man that he cannot, in the conduct of his affairs, reckon upon them. He may purpose such an ordinary act as that of going to the city at such and such a time, but he cannot be sure that he shall accomplish this. (Ecc_10:15.) In the front of this awful fact of human ignorance, all daring presumption in speech and conduct must be contemptible and vain. It is an abuse of the divine gift of language when it is thus made the instrument of arrogance and folly, and the multitude of such abuses in the world may cause even a wise man, in some gloomy season of the soul, to reckon this boasted faculty with the sum total of human vanity.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Ecc_10:11. In the East, there have always been persons who, by means of music and legerdemain, exert great influence over some species of serpents, so that whilst under their spell the deadly cobra may be handled, as if he were utterly harmless. But if the charmer tread on the snake unawares, or be bitten when off his guard, he will be poisoned like another man. And to certain minds there has been given an ascendancy over other minds, like the influence of the serpent charmer. Sagacious and eloquent, they are able to soothe the fury of fierce tempers, and mould rancorous natures to their will. Like David’s transforming harp, as the strain advances, it looks as if a new possession had entered the exercised frame, and a seraph smiled out at those windows where a demon was frowning before. But alas for the harper, if Saul should snatch the javelin before David has time to touch the strings! Alas for the wise charmer, and also for the good cause, if the tyrant’s passion towers up, or the decree of the despot goes forth before a friendly counsellor has time to interfere [Dr. J. Hamilton].
“The master of the tongue”—the man of ready and wise speech—may fail in matters of ordinary life through want of the power of quickly adapting himself to the occasion. To ensure success in a world like this, where so many hidden dangers lie ready to spring upon us, we must have tact as well as talent.
While under the power of the eloquent tongue, fierce natures may be wielded at will; but when the charm is dissolved their virulence returns.
He who gives to his tongue an unrestrained license, and is guided in the use of it neither by principle nor by prudence, is a man that requires to be managed with peculiar caution. Contradiction and violence may only irritate, and make the venom of his tongue the more virulent and deadly. He must be charmed [Wardlaw].
Ecc_10:12. “The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious.”
1. They win the favour of the hearers. It is pleasant to listen to them—to be near the fountains of Wisdom
2. They minister good to the hearers. They convey those treasures of the mind and heart which are the impulse of all goodness in life, and the most enduring possession of man.
The words of wise men have a gentle, yet all-prevailing force. In morals, this is a pleasing constraint, a drawing of the affections. It corresponds to attraction in the physical universe.
The gracious words of Christ, who was incarnate wisdom, are still powerful in drawing the nations to Himself.
The fool is the sepulchre of his own reputation; for as long as he was silent, you were willing to give him credit for the usual share of intelligence, but no sooner does he blurt out some astounding blunder—no sooner does he begin to prattle forth his egotism and vanity, than your respect is exchanged for contempt or compassion [Dr. J. Hamilton].
As the Psalmist says when speaking of such men as he, “They make their own tongue to fall upon themselves” (Psa_64:8). It was the folly of Herod that made him utter the rash promise, which stained his soul with the crime of murder. It was the folly of another Herod that prompted the profane and self-glorying oration, which drew down upon him the vengeance of the Almighty [Buchanan].
Ecc_10:13. The speech of the fool shows no tendency towards improvement as he proceeds. It is sure to degenerate into unmeaning rant, and to arouse passions which are hurtful to himself and to others.
There is a ridiculous disproportion between the passionate language of a fool and the insignificant causes which excite it.
There is as much difference between the chastised fervour of the wise man’s words, and the impudent rage of fools, as there is between the warmth and glow of health and the burning of a fever.
We have here the serpent, the babbler spoken of in Ecc_10:11, wreathed into a circle, his two ends, head and tail, meeting together. And as at the one end he is a serpent having his sting in his head, so at the other end he is a scorpion having his sting in his tail [Jermin].
Ecc_10:14. A fool vainly imagines that mere words are knowledge and wisdom. Hence he easily lends himself to a flattering delusion to conceal the poverty of his mind.
Wisdom is content with few words. The most important truths have been condensed into the smallest compass. The precious things of the mind are thus rendered portable.
He is like the empty drum that sounds at the lightest touch. His self-conceit persuades him that he is competent to decide, off-hand, matters on which deeper, more thoughtful, more conscientious minds are slow to say anything at all. “A man cannot tell what shall be; and what shall be after him, who can tell him?” These are difficulties which wiser men feel and acknowledge.… The wise man waits for more light. The ease is not ripe for judgment—he can as yet neither approve nor disapprove; he can neither acquit nor condemn; and accordingly he refrains his lips. Not so the fool. He is the first, the longest, and the loudest in every discussion [Buchanan].
Fools are always most confident concerning the unknown and inscrutable.
That balanced condition of the mind, in which it is content to remain released from belief, is so uncommon that we have no word in our language to represent it. Every ignorant and foolish man has a stiff opinion upon those subjects in which his knowledge is least.
Ecc_10:15. Folly makes a man both a weariness to himself and to his neighbours. They grow impatient of his blunders and busy zeal of fruitless labour.
The fool is most confident in that wherein he ought to show the greatest modesty and reserve. He speaks of the accomplishment of his plans for the future with the same assurance as if he had read them distinctly in the Book of Fate.
The fool he has in view is a culpable fool—is one whose folly has much more of the moral than of the intellectual, in the defect which it indicates and implies. He is one whose heart is much further wrong than his head. The tongue of a mere imbecile cannot bite like a serpent.… In the highest and truest sense of the word, all wicked men are fools. There is a city—a mighty city—a glorious city—to which not one of them knows how to go; and that is the New Jerusalem, the city of the living God [Buchanan].
Fools (in the moral signification of the term), when they stand before some great conviction, waken up to the discovery that what they thought was knowledge was only words, resting upon no realities. They learn, like Job, the language of penitence and submission (Job_42:5-6).
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v15
Ecclesiastes
THE WAY TO THE CITY
Read full note →
Ecc 10:15.
On the surface this seems to be merely a piece of homely, practical sagacity, conjoined with one of the bitter things which Ecclesiastes is fond of saying about those whom he calls ‘fools.’ It seems to repeat, under another metaphor, the same idea which has been presented in a previous verse, where we read: ‘If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength; but wisdom is profitable to direct.’ That is to say, skill is better than strength; brain saves muscle; better sharpen your axe than put yourself into a perspiration, hitting fierce blows with a blunt one. The prerogative of wisdom is to guide brute force. And so in my text the same general idea comes under another figure. Immense effort may end in nothing but tired feet if the traveller does not know his road. A man lost in the woods may run till he drops, and find himself at night in the place from which he started in the morning. The path must be known, and the aim clear, if any good is to come of effort.
That phrase, ‘how to go to the city,’ seems to be a kind of proverbial comparison for anything that is very plain and conspicuous, just as our forefathers used to say about any obvious truth, that it was ‘as plain as the road to London town.’ The road to the capital is sure to be a well-marked one, and he must be a fool indeed who cannot see that. So our text, though on the surface, as I say, is simply a sarcasm and a piece of homely, practical sagacity, yet, like almost all the sayings in this Book of Ecclesiastes, it has a deeper meaning than appears on the surface; and may be applied in higher and more important directions. It carries with it large truths, and enshrines in a vivid metaphor bitter experiences which, I suppose, we can all confirm.
I. We consider, first, the toil that tires.
‘The labour wearies every one of them.’ The word translated ‘labour’ seems to carry with it both the idea of effort and of trouble. Or to recur to a familiar distinction in modern English, the word really covers both the ground of work and of worry. And it is a sad and solemn thought that a word with that double element in it should be the one which is most truly applicable to the efforts of a large majority of men. I suppose there never was a time in the world’s history when life went so fast as it does in these great centres of civilisation and commerce in which you and I live. And it is awful to have to think that the great mass of it all ends in nothing else but tired limbs and exhaustion. That is a truth to be verified by experience, and I am bold to believe that every man and woman in this chapel now can say more or less distinctly ‘Amen!’ to the assertion that every life, except a distinctly and supremely religious one, is worry and work without adequate satisfying result, and with no lasting issue but exhaustion.
Let us begin at the bottom. For instance, take a man who has avowedly flung aside the restraints of right and wrong and conscience, and does things habitually that he knows to be wrong. Every sin is a blunder as well as a crime. No man who aims at an end through the smoke of hell gets the end that he aims at. Or if he does, he gets something that takes all the gilt off the gingerbread, and all the sweetness out of the success. They put a very evil-tasting ingredient into spirits of wine to prevent its being drunk. The cup that sin reaches to a man, though the wine moveth itself aright and is very pleasant to look at before being tasted, cheats with methylated spirits. Men and women take more pains and trouble to damn themselves than ever they do to have their souls saved. The end of all work, which begins with tossing conscience on one side, is simply this-’The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them.’
Take a step higher-a respectable, well-to-do Manchester man, successful in business. He has made it his aim to build up a large concern, and has succeeded. He has a fine house, carriages, greenhouses; he has ‘J.P.’ to his name; he stands high in credit and on Change. His name is one that gives respectability to anything that it is connected with. Has he ‘come to the city’? Has he got what he thought he would get when he began his career? He has succeeded in his immediate and smaller purpose; has that immediate and smaller purpose succeeded in bringing him what he thought it would bring him? Or has he fallen a victim to those-
‘juggling fiends . . .
That palter with us in a double sense;
That keep the word of promise to the ear,
And break it to the hope?’
They tell us that if you put down in one column the value of the ore that has been extracted from all the Australian gold-mines, and in another the amount that it has cost to get it, the latter sum will exceed the former. There are plenty of people in Manchester who have put more down into the pit from which they dig their wealth than ever they will get out of it. And their labour, too, leaves a very dark and empty aching centre in their lives, ‘and wearieth every one of them.’ And so I might go the whole round. We students, so long as our pursuit of knowledge has not in it as supreme, directing motive, and ultimate aim and issue, the glory and the service of God, come under the lash of the same condemnation as those grosser and lower forms of life of which I have been speaking. But wherever we look, if there be not in the heart and in the life a supreme regard to God and a communion with Him, then this characteristic is common to all the courses, that, whilst they may each meet some immediate and partial necessity of our natures, none of them is adequate for the whole circumference of a man’s being, nor any of them able, during the whole duration of that being, to be his satisfaction and his rest. Therefore, I say, all toil, however successful to the view of a shorter range of vision, and however noble-excluding the noblest of all-all toil that ends only in securing that which perishes with the using, or that which we leave behind us here when we pass hence, is condemned for folly and labour that wearies the men who are fools enough to surrender themselves to it.
I need not remind you of the wonderful variety of metaphor under which that threadbare thought, which yet it is so hard for us to believe and make operative in our lives, is represented to us in Scripture. Just let me recall one or two of them in the briefest way. ‘Why do ye spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which profiteth not?’ ‘They have hewn for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.’ ‘Their webs shall not become garments.’ That may want a word of explanation. The metaphor is this. You are all like spiders spinning carefully and diligently your web. There is not substance enough in it to make a coat out of. You will never cover yourselves with the product of your own brains or your own efforts. There is no clothing in the spider’s webs of a godless life.
Ah! brother, all these earthly aims which some of my friends listening to me now have for the sole aims of their lives, are as foolish and as inadequate to accomplish that which is sought for by them, as it would be to seek to quench raging thirst by lifting to the lips a golden cup that is empty. Some of us have a whole sideboard full of such, and vary our pursuits according to inclination and task. Some of us have only one such, but they are all empty, and the lip is parched after the cup has been lifted to it as it was before.
II. And so, consider now, secondly, the foolish ignorance that makes the toil tiresome.
The metaphor of my text says that the reason why the ‘fool’ is so wearied after the day’s march is that he does not in the morning settle where he is going, and how he is to get there; and so, having started to go nowhither, he has got where he started for. He ‘does not know how to go to the city’-which, being translated into plain and unmetaphorical English, is just this, that many men wreck their lives for want of a clear sight of their true aim, and of the way to secure it.
There is nothing more tragical than the absence, in the great bulk of men, of anything like deliberate, definite views as to their aim in life, and the course to be taken to secure it. There are two things obviously necessary for success in any enterprise. One is, that there shall be the most definite and clear conception of what is aimed at; and the other, that there shall be a wisely considered plan to get at it. Unless there be these, if you go at random, running a little way for a moment in this direction, and then heading about and going in the other, you cannot expect to get to the goal.
Now, what I want to ask some of my friends here is, Did you ever give ten deliberate minutes to try to face for yourselves, and put into plain words, what you are living for, and how you mean to secure it? Of course I know that you have given thought and planning in plenty to the nearer aims, without which material life cannot be lived at all. I do not suppose that anybody here is chargeable with not having thought enough about how to get on in business, or in their chosen walk of life. It is not that kind of aim which I mean at all; but it is a point beyond it that I want to press upon you. You are like men who would carefully victual a ship and take the best information for their guide as to what course to lie, and had never thought what they were going to do when they got to the port. So you say, ‘I am going to be such-and-such a thing.’ Well, what then? ‘Well, I am going to lay myself out for success.’ Be it commercial, be it intellectual, be it social, be it in the sphere of the affections, or whatever it may be. Well, what then? ‘Well, then I am going to advance in material prosperity, I hope, or in wisdom, or to be surrounded by loving faces of children and those that are dear to me.’ What then? ‘Then I am going to die.’ What then?
It is not till you get to that last question, and have faced it and answered it, that you can be said to have taken the whole sweep of the circumstances into view, and regulated your course according to the dictates of common sense and right reason. And a terribly large number of us live with careful adaptation of means to ends in regard of all the smaller and more immediately to be realised aims of life, but have never faced the larger question which reduces all these smaller aims to insignificance. The simple child’s interrogation which in the well-known ballad ripped the tinsel off the skeleton, and showed war in its hideousness, strips many of your lives of all pretence to be reasonable. ‘What good came of it at the last?’ Can you answer the question that the infant lips asked, and say, ‘This good will come of it at last. That I shall have God for my own, and Jesus Christ in my heart’?
Brother! if I could only get you to this point, that you would take half an hour now to think over what you ought to be, and to ask yourself whether your aims in life correspond to what your aims should be, I should have done more than I am afraid I shall do with some of you. The naturalist can tell when he picks up a skeleton something of the habits and the element of the creature to which it belonged. If it has a hollow sternum he knows it is meant to fly. On your nature is impressed unmistakably that your destiny is not to creep, but to soar. Not in vain does the Westminster Catechism lay the foundation of everything in this, the prime question for all men, ‘What is the chief end of man?’ Ask that, and do not rest till you have answered it.
Then there is another idea connected with this ignorance of my text-viz. that it is the result of folly. Now the words ‘folly’ and ‘foolish’ and ‘foolishness,’ and their opposites, ‘wisdom’ and ‘wise,’ in this Book of Ecclesiastes, as in the Book of Proverbs, do not mean merely dull stupidity intellectually, which is a thing for which a man is to be pitied rather than to be blamed, but they always carry besides the idea of intellectual defect, also the idea of moral obliquity. ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’; and, conversely, the absence of that fear is the foundation of that which this writer stigmatises as ‘folly’ He is not merely sneering at men with small brains and little judgments. There may be plenty of us who are so, and yet are wise unto salvation and possessed of a far higher wisdom than that of this world. But he tells us that so strangely intertwined are the intellectual and moral parts of our nature, that wheresoever there is the obscuration of the latter there is sure to be the perversion of the former, and the man knows not ‘how to go to the city’ because he is ‘foolish.’
That is to say, you go wrong in your judgment about your conduct because you have gone wrong morally. And your blunders about life, and your ignorance of its true end and aim, and your mistakes as to how to secure happiness and blessedness, are your own faults, and are owing to the aversion of your nature from that which is highest and noblest, even God and His service. Therefore you are not only to be pitied because you are out of the road, but to be blamed because you have darkened the eyes of your mind by loving the darkness rather than the light. And you ‘do not know how to go to the city,’ because you do not want to go to the city, and would rather huddle here in the wilderness, and live upon its poor supplies, than pass within the golden gates. My brethren! the folly which blinds a man to his true aim and mission in life is a folly which has in it the darker aspect of sin, and is punishable as such.
III. Lastly, note the plain path which the foolish miss.
He ‘does not know how to go to the city.’ What on earth will he be able to see if he cannot see that broad highway, beaten and white, stretching straight before him, over hill and dale, and going right to the gates? A man must be a fool who cannot find the way to London.
The principles of moral conduct are trite and obvious. It is plain that it is better to be good than bad. It is better to be unselfish than selfish. It is better not to live for things that perish, seeing that we are going to last for ever. It is better not to make the flesh our master here, seeing that the spirit will have to live without the flesh some day. It is better to get into training for the world to coma, seeing that we are all drifting thither. All these things are plain and obvious.
Man’s destiny for God is unmistakable. ‘Whose image and superscription hath it?’ said Christ about the coin. ‘Caesar’s!’ ‘Then give it to Caesar.’ Whose image and superscription hath my heart, this restless heart of mine, this spirit that wanders on through space and time, homeless and comfortless, until it can grasp the Eternal? Who are you meant for? God! And every fibre of your nature has a voice to say so to you if you listen to it. So, then, a godless life such as some of you, my hearers, are contentedly living, ignores facts that are most patent to every man’s experience. And while before you, huge ‘as a mountain, open, palpable,’ are the commonplaces and undeniable verities which declare that every man who is not a God-fearing man is a fool, you admit them all, and, bowing your heads in reverence, let them all go over you and produce no effect.
The road is clearer than ever since Jesus Christ came. He has shown us the city, for He has brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel. He has shown us the road, for His life is the pattern of all that men ought to aim at and to be. The motto of the eternal Son of God, if I may venture upon such a metaphor, is like the motto of the heir-apparent of the English throne, ‘I serve.’ Lo! ‘I come to do Thy will’-and that is the only word which will make a human life peaceful and strong and beautiful. In the presence of His radiant and solitary perfection, men no longer need to wonder, What is the ideal to which conduct and character should be conformed? And Jesus Christ has come to make it possible to go to the city, by that cross on which He bore the burden of all sin, and takes away the sin of the world, and by that Spirit of life which He will impart to our weakness, and which makes our sluggish feet run in the way of His commandments, and not be weary, and walk and not faint.
Take that dear Lord for your revelation of duty, for your Pattern of conduct, for the forgiveness of your sins, for the Inspirer with power to do His will, and then you will see stretching before you, high up above the surrounding desert, so that no lion nor ravenous beast shall go up there, the highway on which the ransomed of the Lord shall walk, ‘and the wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err therein.’ ‘Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may enter in through the gates into the City.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v11 In the Midst of Foolish Talking and Slothfulness
In the Midst of Foolish Talking and Slothfulness
v. 11. Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment, that is, unless it is kept under enchantment by music or the sound of the voice properly modulated; and a babbler is no better. As one may escape the sting of the serpent by the application of charms, so he may avoid the harm of defamation by wise discretion.
Read full note →
v. 12. The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious, full of pleasant graciousness and therefore always most welcome; but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself, he will injure himself by his foolish talk, Pro 10:8; Pro 14:21; Pro 14:32; Pro 15:2.
v. 13. The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, as soon as he opens his mouth, it is with silly twaddle; and the end of his talk is mischievous madness, it works injury not only to himself, but mischief also to others.
v. 14. A fool also is full of words, he is talkative with empty loquacity; a man cannot tell what shall be; and what shall be after him, who can tell him? And yet a fool will usually have most to say about future events, of what he intends to do and accomplish.
v. 15. The labor of the foolish wearleth every one of them, the slightest exertion is too much for his lazy bones, because he knoweth not how to go to the city; he does not know the road straight ahead of him, he is ignorant of the simplest matters of every-day life.
v. 16. Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, lacking mature judgment and discretion, a thoughtless fool, and thy princes eat in the morning, in excessive gluttony and feasting at the time when they should be dispensing justice.
v. 17. Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, not so much by birth, as by wisdom and virtue, and thy princes eat in due season, at the proper time and in the proper way, for strength and not for drunkenness, in intemperate feasting, whereby the mind is blunted and the body corrupted.
v. 18. By much slothfulness, due to the owner’s idleness, the building decayeth, no repairs being made, and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through, the roof leaking and the rain penetrating to the interior of the house.
v. 19. A feast is made for laughter, for foolish rioting, and wine maketh merry, the foolish rulers engaged therein neglecting the building of the government; but money answereth all things, that is, the reveling rulers believe that money will buy anything and cover up the criminality of their behavior.
v. 20. Curse not the king, no, not in thy thought, in the innermost consciousness, the danger being that this state of mind will be revealed, and curse not the rich in thy bed-chamber, in the foolish hope that it will not become known; for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter, that is, the betrayal will be brought about in ways which are almost past understanding, whence it follows that strict prudence must govern the conduct of him who is truly wise. The believer who observes the Eighth Commandment will guard against every form of evil, even in thoughts, not for fear of earthly punishment, but for love of God.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv12, 13, 15 The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious
The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious
Here the wise man's speech is represented by his "mouth." AT: "The things that a wise man says are gracious" (See: Metonymy)
Read full note →
the lips of a fool consume him
Here the fool's speech is represented by his "lips." This speaks of the fool destroying himself by his speech as if it were eating him. AT: "The things that a foolish man says destroy him" (See: Metonymy and Metaphor)
translationWords
word
grace
fool
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv11, 12, 14, 15 10:11 One purpose of charming a snake is to…
10:11 One purpose of charming a snake is to keep it from biting, but a snake charmer risks being bitten before it is charmed. Some occupations are so hazardous that the wise do not engage in them at all.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.