Ecclesiastes 10King James Version
Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom. A bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter. A warning not to speak against rulers even in your bedroom.
A collection of practical proverbs on folly and wisdom: dead flies ruin the perfumer's ointment, folly in a ruler overturns the social order, fools do not know how to get to the city. Proverbs on work: sharpen your blade, a babbler gets bitten, a slothful man's roof caves in. Proverbs on politics: woe to the land with a child king, do not curse the king even in your bedroom because a bird will carry the word.
Wisdom is about maintaining what is working and not destroying it through carelessness, foolish talk, or misplaced courage, because small acts of folly unravel large structures.
1: "Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour." One dead fly in the perfumer's jar. One act of folly in a wise life. The proportions are the point.
A court setting runs underneath the chapter: the king, his servants, horses, feasts, politics. The warning to not curse the king in your bedroom because a bird will tell him is either a warning about spies or a proverb about how secrets travel. In either case it reads like advice from someone who has seen what happens when candor gets a man killed.
Qoheleth, now in the voice of a traditional sage. The fool appears as a type throughout: the fool who cannot find the city, the fool whose words consume him, the fool in high office.
Chapter 10 reads differently from the rest of the book: more like Proverbs, less like a soliloquy. Scholars debate whether it is a later addition or Qoheleth in a more traditional mode. Either way it grounds the book's philosophical anguish in the practical: daily wisdom still matters even if nothing lasts.
For when you are tired of grand questions and just need to know how to function without causing damage. The chapter is a realistic assessment of how small things compound.
1Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour.
2A wise man's heart is at his right hand; but a fool's heart at his left.
3Yea also, when he that is a fool walketh by the way, his wisdom faileth him, and he saith to every one that he is a fool.
4If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place; for yielding pacifieth great offences.
5There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, as an error which proceedeth from the ruler:
6Folly is set in great dignity, and the rich sit in low place.
7I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth.
8He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.
9Whoso removeth stones shall be hurt therewith; and he that cleaveth wood shall be endangered thereby.
10If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength: but wisdom is profitable to direct.
11Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment; and a babbler is no better.
12The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious; but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself.
13The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness: and the end of his talk is mischievous madness.
14A fool also is full of words: a man cannot tell what shall be; and what shall be after him, who can tell him?
15The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city.
16Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning!
17Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!
18By much slothfulness the building decayeth; and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through.
19A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry: but money answereth all things.
20Curse not the king, no not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter.