Ecclesiastes 10
10
1Dead flies can make a whole bottle of perfume stink, and a little stupidity can cancel out the greatest wisdom.
2It is natural for the wise to do the right thing and for fools to do the wrong thing. 3Their stupidity will be evident even to strangers they meet along the way; they let everyone know that they are fools.
4If your ruler becomes angry with you, do not hand in your resignation; serious wrongs may be pardoned if you keep calm.#10.4 keep calm; or submit to him.
5Here is an injustice I have seen in the world — an injustice caused by rulers. 6Stupid people are given positions of authority while the rich are ignored. 7I have seen slaves on horseback while noblemen go on foot like slaves.
8 #
Ps 7.15; Prov 26.27 If you dig a pit, you fall in it; if you break through a wall, a snake bites you. 9If you work in a stone quarry, you get hurt by stones. If you split wood, you get hurt doing it. 10If your axe is blunt and you don't sharpen it, you have to work harder to use it. It is more sensible to plan ahead. 11Knowing how to charm a snake is of no use if you let the snake bite first. 12What the wise say brings them honour, but fools are destroyed by their own words. 13They start out with silly talk and end up with pure madness. 14A fool talks on and on.
No one knows what is going to happen next, and no one can tell us what will happen after we die.
15Only someone too stupid to find his way home would wear himself out with work.
16A country is in trouble when its king is a youth and its leaders feast all night long. 17But a country is fortunate to have a king who makes his own decisions and leaders who eat at the proper time, who control themselves and don't get drunk.
18When someone is too lazy to repair his roof, it will leak, and the house will fall in.
19Feasting makes you happy and wine cheers you up, but you can't have either without money.
20Don't criticize the king, even silently, and don't criticize the rich, even in the privacy of your bedroom. A bird might carry the message and tell them what you said.
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Ecclesiastes 10: GNBDC
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Good News Bible. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.
Ecclesiastes 10
10
1Dead flies cause a perfumer's perfume To send forth a stink; The precious by reason of wisdom — By reason of honour — a little folly!
2The heart of the wise [is] at his right hand, And the heart of a fool at his left.
3And also, when he that is a fool Is walking in the way, his heart is lacking, And he hath said to every one, ‘He [is] a fool.’
4If the spirit of the ruler go up against thee, Thy place leave not, For yielding quieteth great sinners.
5There is an evil I have seen under the sun, As an error that goeth out from the ruler,
6He hath set the fool in many high places, And the rich in a low place do sit.
7I have seen servants on horses, And princes walking as servants on the earth.
8Whoso is digging a pit falleth into it, And whoso is breaking a hedge, a serpent biteth him.
9Whoso is removing stones is grieved by them, Whoso is cleaving trees endangered by them.
10If the iron hath been blunt, And he the face hath not sharpened, Then doth he increase strength, And wisdom [is] advantageous to make right.
11If the serpent biteth without enchantment, Then there is no advantage to a master of the tongue.
12Words of the mouth of the wise [are] gracious, And the lips of a fool swallow him up.
13The beginning of the words of his mouth [is] folly, And the latter end of his mouth [Is] mischievous madness.
14And the fool multiplieth words: ‘Man knoweth not that which is, And that which is after him, who doth declare to him?’
15The labour of the foolish wearieth him, In that he hath not known to go unto the city.
16Woe to thee, O land, when thy king [is] a youth, And thy princes do eat in the morning.
17Happy art thou, O land, When thy king [is] a son of freemen, And thy princes do eat in due season, For might, and not for drunkenness.
18By slothfulness is the wall brought low, And by idleness of the hands doth the house drop.
19For mirth they are making a feast, And wine maketh life joyful, And the silver answereth with all.
20Even in thy mind a king revile not, And in the inner parts of thy bed-chamber Revile not the rich: For a fowl of the heavens causeth the voice to go, And a possessor of wings declareth the word.
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