Ecclesiastes 10:11

Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment; and a babbler is no better. WITHOUT ENCHANTMENT - if "enchantment" is not used. AND A BABBLER (A BABBLING CALUMNIATOR) IS NO BETTER. Therefore, as one may escape a serpent by charms (Psalms 58:4), so one may escape the sting of a calumniator by discretion (). (Holden.) Thus, "without enchantment" answers to "not whet the edge" (), both expressing, figuratively, want of judgment. Maurer translates, 'There is no gain to the enchanter from his enchantments, because the serpent bites before he uses them. It is no use to a subject, however expert with his tongue, afterward to try to appease the auger of his prince when...

11-15 There is a practice in the East, of charming serpents by music. The babbler's tongue is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison; and contradiction only makes it the more violent. We must find the way to keep him gentle. But by rash, unprincipled, or slanderous talk, he brings open or secret vengeance upon himself. Would we duly consider our own ignorance as to future events, it would cut off many idle words which we foolishly multiply. Fools toil a great deal to no purpose. They do not understand the plainest things, such as the entrance into a great city. But it is the excellency of the way to the heavenly city, that it is a high-way, in which the simplest wayfaring men shall not err, Isaiah 25:8. But sinful folly makes men miss that only way to happiness....

Verse Ecclesiastes 10:11. _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,...

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 Psalms 58:4 note....

EXPOSITION ECCLESIASTES 10:1 Section 11. _A little folly mars the effect of wisdom, _and is sure to make itself conspicuous. ECCLESIASTES 10:1 DEAD FLIES CAUSE THE OINTMENT OF THE APOTHECARY TO SEND FORTH A STINKING SAVOR. This is a metaphorical confirmation of the truth enunciated at the end of the last chapter, "One sinner destroyeth much good." It is like the apostle's warning to his converts, "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump" (1 Corinthians 5:6). The Hebrew expression is literally, "flies of death," which may mean either "dead flies," as in our version and the Vulgate (muse

SURELY THE SERPENT WILL BITE WITHOUT ENCHANTMENT,.... See Jeremiah 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 Proverbs 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. t בלא

CHAPTER 10 This chapter contains a series of proverbs, expressing the wisdom and prudence of the natural man. Here are a number of observations and all show that there is a practical value in wisdom and that it has certain advantages. These maxims are of a different kind than the proverbs in the preceding book. There we are face to face with the wisdom which is from above, here it is the wisdom of man. The name of the Lord is not mentioned once, Similar philosophic utterances can be traced in the literature of other ancient nations. They need no detailed annotations....

_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 (Exodus 7:11). So the "deaf adder that cannot be charmed" becomes the type of those whom no appeal to reason or conscience can restrain ...

SURELY, THE SERPENT WILL BITE WITHOUT ENCHANTMENT— _If the serpent biteth because he is not enchanted, then nothing remaineth to the master of enchantments._ The two proverbial similes made use of in this and the preceding verse, to shew the inconveniencies arising from an ill-judged choice of those who are intrusted with the administration of public affairs, are very fit for the purpose: but the manner in which Solomon passes from the last to the main subject, for the sake of which they had been alleged, looks very abrupt in all the versions. I think it is quite otherwise in the original, and have endeavoured so to express it; by which means we have a perfect connection between the two members of the sentence. _If the serpent biteth because_ [either through the neglect, or through the unskilfulness, of him whose business it is to prevent it] _he is not enchanted, then there is no occasi...