Ecclesiastes 10:15

The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city. THE LABOUR OF THE FOOLISH WEARIETH. They have no capacity for spiritual things; and merely earthly aims are wearying vanity (; ). KNOWETH NOT HOW TO GO TO THE CITY. Proverb for ignorance of the most ordinary matters (); spiritually, the heavenly city (; Matthew 7:13)....

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 15. _HE KNOWETH NOT HOW TO GO TO THE CITY._] I suppose this to be a proverb: "He knows nothing; he does not know his way to the next village." He may labour; but for want of _judgment_ he wearies himself to no purpose....

The sense is: “The fool wearies himself with ineffectual attempts, he has not sufficient knowledge for the transaction of ordinary business.”...

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

THE LABOUR OF THE FOOLISH WEARIETH EVERYONE OF THEM,.... The labour of fools, both in speaking and doing, weary those who have any concern with them, and themselves likewise, since all their labour is vain and fruitless; BECAUSE HE KNOWETH NOT HOW TO GO TO THE CITY; to any city, the road to which is usually broad, and plain and easy to be found, and yet cannot be found by the foolish man; showing, that he that talks of abstruse things, things too high and wonderful for him, which he affects to know, must needs be a stranger to them, since things the most easy to be understood he is ignorant of, and wearies himself to find; or he does not know how to behave himself in a city, among citizens, in a civil and polite manner. The Targum is, "he learns not to go to the city, where wise men dwell, to learn instruction from it.'' Some interpret it of the city of Jerusalem, where were the templ...

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....

LABOUR. toil. FOOLISH. Hebrew. _kesil,_ as in Ecclesiastes 10:2 and Ecclesiastes 10:12. not _sakal,_ as in verses: Ecclesiastes 10:3; Ecclesiastes 10:6; Ecclesiastes 10:13; Ecclesiastes 3:14....

_The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them_ The word for "labour" as in chap. Ecclesiastes 1:3; Genesis 41:52; Job 3:3, as with our word "travail," carries with it the connotation of trouble as well as toil. He labours to no result, for he is destitute of common sense. Not to know "the way to the city" is clearly a proverbial phrase for the _crassa ignorantia_of the most patent facts of experience that lie within all men's experience. If a man fails to see that, how will he fare in the difficulties which lead him as into the "bye-ways" of life? We are reminded of the saying, attributed, if I remember rightly, to the Emperor Akbar that "None but a fool is lost on a straight road," or of Shakespeare's "The -why" is