Tree of Life Version
Ecclesiastes 10:15
15The mischief of fools wearies them for he doesn’t know how to go to town.
Ecclesiastes 10:15 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city.
- New International Version (NIV)The toil of fools wearies them; they do not know the way to town.
- English Standard Version (ESV)The toil of a fool wearies him, for he does not know the way to the city.
- New King James Version (NKJV)The labor of fools wearies them, For they do not even know how to go to the city!
Context of Ecclesiastes 10:15
13The words from his mouth begin as folly and end as grievous madness— 14and the fool multiplies words. No one knows what will happen, and who can tell him what will happen after him? The mischief of fools wearies them for he doesn’t know how to go to town. 16Oy to you, O land, when your king is a youth and your princes feast in the morning. 17Happy are you, O land, when your king is a son of nobles, and your princes eat at the proper time— in self-control and not in drunkenness!
Read all of Ecclesiastes 10Ecclesiastes 10:15 word by word
עֲמַ֥ל הַכְּסִילִ֖ים תְּיַגְּעֶ֑נּוּ אֲשֶׁ֥ר לֹֽא־יָדַ֖ע לָלֶ֥כֶת אֶל־עִֽיר׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Ecclesiastes 10:15
- Ecclesiastes 10:3Even as the fool walks along the way, his heart lacks sense and tells everyone what a fool he is.
- Isaiah 44:12The blacksmith takes a tool and works with it over the coals, fashioning it with hammers and working it with his strong arm. Yet when he is hungry, his strength fails. When he drinks no water, he gets tired.
- Isaiah 47:12Stand fast in your enchantments and your many sorceries, which you have toiled over since your youth. Perhaps you will succeed? Perhaps you will cause terror?
- Isaiah 55:2Why do you spend money for what is not bread? Your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in abundance.
- Isaiah 57:1The righteous one perishes, but no one takes it to heart. Godly men are taken away, but no one discerns that the righteous man is taken from evil.
- Habakkuk 2:6Will not all take up a proverb against him or a scornful riddle about him? “Oy to one expanding what isn’t his! How long? Oy to one burdening himself with heavy debts!”
- Matthew 11:28Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
- Psalms 107:4Some wandered in a desert, a wasteland. They found no way to an inhabited city.
- Isaiah 35:8A highway will be there—a roadway. It will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not travel on it. It is for the one who walks the way. Fools will not go astray.
- Jeremiah 50:4“In those days and at that time” —it is a declaration of Adonai— “the children of Israel will come, together with the children of Judah, weeping as they come, and will seek Adonai their God.
Commentaries on Ecclesiastes 10:15
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 15He 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 labor; but for want of judgment he wearies himself to no purpose.Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 15The sense is: “The fool wearies himself with ineffectual attempts, he has not sufficient knowledge for the transaction of ordinary business.”Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 11-15Verses 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…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 15People who rarely work get tired quickly when they try to do it.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1515. labour ... wearieth--(Is 55:2; Ha 2:13). knoweth not how to go to the city--proverb for ignorance of the most ordinary matters (Ec 10:3); spiritually, the heavenly city (Psa 107:7; Mt 7:13, 14). Maurer connects Ec 10:15 with the following verses. The labor (vexation) caused by the foolish (injurious princes, Ec 10:4-7) harasses him who "knows not how to go to the city," to ingratiate himself with them there. English Version is simpler.Read the comment
Topics related to Ecclesiastes 10:15
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Ecclesiastes 10
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
Tree of Life Version — © 2015 The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society
Commentaries