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Ecclesiastes 10 · a question people ask

"I have seen servants on horses, and princes walking like servants on the earth" (10:7). Is the Preacher saying people should keep to their rank?

In the text

He says what he has seen and what he calls it. It is "an evil which I have seen under the sun" (10:5), and he says where it comes from: "the sort of error which proceeds from the ruler" (10:5). Then he names it: "Folly is set in great dignity, and the rich sit in a low place" (10:6), and the servants and princes of 10:7. The verses give no rule about who should ride or walk, and they name no ruler, land or time. These notes apply 10:5-7 to no ruler, government or group of people today.

The verses

“There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, the sort of error which proceeds from the ruler. Folly is set in great dignity, and the rich sit in a low place. I have seen servants on horses, and princes walking like servants on the earth.”
Ecclesiastes 10:5-7 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Ecclesiastes 10

Ecclesiastes 10: A little folly

In 10:10 the WEB's skill is chokhmah, wisdom, and behind brings success is yitron, the gain the book asked about in 1:3. The chapter's "who can tell him?" (10:14) and its bird that "may tell the matter" (10:20) share one Hebrew verb, and its Woe (10:16) is a word the Hebrew Bible has only twice.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions