5 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, An outrage which only a ruler can commit:
6 A great fool is lifted to high place, While the noble sit degraded:
7 I have seen servants upon horses, And masters walking like servants on the ground.
VER. 7.: To ride upon a horse is still a mark of distinction in many Eastern States. In Turkish cities, till of late, no Christian was permitted to ride any nobler beast than an ass or a mule: so neither were the Jews, in the Middle Ages, in any Christian city.
8 Yet he that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; And whoso breaketh down a wall a serpent shall bite him;
9 He who pulleth down stones shall be hurt therewith; And whoso cleaveth logs shall be cut.
10 If the axe be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, He must put on more strength; But wisdom should teach him to sharpen it.
VER. 10.: Ginsburg renders this difficult and much-disputed passage thus: "If the axe be blunt, and he do not sharpen it beforehand, he shall only increase the army; the advantage of repairing hath wisdom," and explains it as meaning: "If any insulted subject lift a blunt axe against the trunk of despotism, he will only make the tyrant increase his army, and thereby augment his own sufferings; but it is the prerogative of wisdom to repair the mischief which such precipitate folly occasions." I have offered what seems a simpler explanation in the comment on this passage, and have tried to give a simpler, yet not less accurate, rendering in the text. But there are almost as many readings of this difficult verse as there are critics; and it is impossible to do more than make a hesitating choice among them.
11 If the serpent bite because it is not charmed, There is no advantage to the charmer.
VER. 11.: _The charmer._ Literally, "the master of the tongue." The allusion of the phrase is of course to the subtle cantillations by which the charmer drew, or was thought to draw, serpents from their "lurk," and to render them harmless.
12 The words of the wise man's mouth win him grace; But the lips of a fool swallow him up,
13 For the words of his mouth are folly at the beginning, And end in malignant madness.
14 The fool is full of words, Though no man knoweth what shall be, Either here or hereafter: And who can tell him?
15 The work of a fool wearieth him, For he cannot even find his way to the city.
VER. 15.: _He cannot even find his way to the city_; a proverbial saying. It denotes the fool who has not wit enough even to keep a high road, to walk in the beaten path which leads to a capital city. The thought was evidently familiar to Jewish literature; for Isaiah (xxxv. 8) speaks of the way of holiness as a highway in which "wayfaring men, _though fools_, shall not err."
16 Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, And thy princes feast in the morning!
17 Happy art thou, O land, when thy king is noble, And thy princes eat at due hours, For strength and not for revelry!
18 Through slothful hands the roof falleth in, And through lazy hands the house lets in the rain.
VERS. 18, 19.: _And money pays for all; i.e._ the money of the people. The slothful prodigal rulers, under whose mal-administration the whole fabric of the State was fast falling into decay, extorted the means for their profligate revelry from their toil-worn and oppressed subjects. It is significant of the caution induced by the extreme tyranny of the time, that the whole description of its political condition is conveyed in proverbs more enigmatical than usual, and capable of being interpreted in more senses than one.