Ecclesiastes 10:15

“The labour of the foolish wearieth everyone of them, etc.] 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…”

“labour . . . wearieth-- (Isa 55:2; Hab 2:13). knoweth not how to go to the city--proverb for ignorance of the most ordinary matters (Ecc 10:3); spiritually, the heavenly city (Psa 107:7; Mat 7:13-14). MAURER connects Ecc 10:15 with the following verses. The labor (vexation) caused by the foolish (injurious princes, Ecc 10:4-7) harasses him who "knows not how to go to the city," to ingratiate himself with them there. English Version is simpler.”

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

“Wearieth - Fools discover their folly by their wearisome and fruitless endeavours after things which are too high for them. Because - He is ignorant of those things which are most easy, as of the way to the great city whither he is going. Ecclesiastes 10:16”

“10:15-20 The audience for this speech might have been an assembly of government workers. How should one rule when power and wealth invite a lack of accountability? 10:15 Fools are so unaccustomed to work that when they actually try to work, they become exhausted.”

“labour: Ecc 10:3, Ecc 10:10; Isa 44:12-17, Isa 47:12, Isa 47:13, Isa 55:2, Isa 57:1; Hab 2:6; Mat 11:28-30 because: Psa 107:4, Psa 107:7; Isa 35:8-10; Jer 50:4, Jer 50:5 Ecclesiastes 10:16”

“"The labour of the foolish wearieth him who knoweth not how to go to the city." If we do not seek to explain: labour such as fools have wearies him (the fool), then we have here such a synallage numeri as at Isa 2:8; Hos 4:8, for from the plur. a transition is made to the distributive or individualizing sing. A greater anomaly is the treatment of the noun עמל as fem. (greater even than the same of the noun pithgam, Ecc 8:11, which admitted of attractional explanation, and, besides, in a foreign word was not strange). Kimchi, Michlol 10a, supposes that עמל is thought of in the sense of עמל יגיעת; impossible, for one does not use such an expression. Hitzig, and with him Hengst., sees the…”