Ecclesiastes 10:7

I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth. SERVANTS UPON HORSES - the world turned upside down. the worthless exalted to dignity (; and vice SERVANTS UPON HORSES - the world turned upside down. the worthless exalted to dignity (; and vice versa): David fleeing on foot from Jerusalem when Absalom rebelled (')....

4-10 Solomon appears to caution men not to seek redress in a hasty manner, nor to yield to pride and revenge. Do not, in a passion, quit thy post of duty; wait awhile, and thou wilt find that yielding pacifies great offences. Men are not preferred according to their merit. And those are often most forward to offer help, who are least aware of the difficulties, or the consequences. The same remark is applied to the church, or the body of Christ, that all the members should have the same care one for another....

The “evil” of Ecclesiastes 10:5 is here specified as that caprice of a king by which an unworthy favorite of low origin is promoted to successive dignities, while a noble person is degraded or neglected....

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

I HAVE SEEN SERVANTS UPON HORSES,.... Which being scarce in Judea, were only rode upon by princes and great personages, or such as were in affluent circumstances; and therefore it was an unusual and disagreeable sight to see servants upon them, which was a token of their being advanced upon the ruin and destruction of their masters; a reigning servant is not only uncomely, but one of the things by which the earth is disquieted, and it cannot bear, Proverbs 30:21; the Parthians and Persians distinguished their nobles and the vulgar, freemen and servants, by this; the servants went on foot, and the freemen rode on horses r; AND PRINCES WALKING AS SERVANTS UPON THE EARTH; degraded from their honour; banished from their thrones and palaces, or obliged to leave them, and reduced to the lowest state and condition: so David, when his son rebelled against him, and he was forc

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....

HORSES. No evidence of. late origin of this book, for we read of them in 1 Kings 4:26 1 Kings 4:28. 1 Kings 10:26; 1 Kings 10:28. 1Ki 22:4. 2 Kings 9:33; 2 Kings 14:20. If not in common use, it was because of the Law (Deuteronomy 17:16); and because of Solomon's disobedience (1 Kings 10:28

_I have seen servants upon horses_ The general fact of the previous verse is reproduced with more dramatic vividness. To ride upon horses was with the Parthians a special distinction of the nobly born (Justin xli. 3). So Mordecai rides on horseback through the city as one whom the king delighted to honour (Esther 5:8-9). So the _Hippeis_in the polity of Solon, and the _Equites_in that of Servius Tullius, took their place as representing the element of aristocratic wealth. So Aristotle notes that the keeping a horse (ἱπποτροφία) was the special distinction of the rich, and therefore that all cities which aimed at military strength were essentially aristocratic (_Pol._iv. 23, vi. 7). So in the earlier days of European intercourse with Turkey, Europeans generally were only allowed to ride on asses or mules, a special exception being made for the consuls of the great powers (Maundre

I HAVE SEEN SERVANTS UPON HORSES, &C.— From the fifth to this verse we have the _third instance._ Princes, whose character depends upon the behaviour of those whom they employ, as much as upon their own, are apt to commit great mistakes in the choice of their ministers, when they are not determined in that choice by the known, or at least rationally presumed abilities of those whom they raise to dignities and power. This was not an uncommon case in the eastern absolute monarchies, where the bare caprice of the monarch was sufficient to raise from the dust, and to set over provinces, a man of neither words nor experience, and to lay those aside, who, from their birth, education, and circumstances, had opportunities to acquire such wisdom as is requisite to discharge properly so important a trust. See Zechariah 9:9....