Ecclesiastes 10:16

Woe to thee, O land, when thy king [is] a child,.... Not so much in age; though it is sometimes an unhappiness to a nation to be governed by a minor, especially if the young king has not good tutors,

Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning! King is a child - given to pleasures; behaves with childish levity.

A child; either, 1. In age. Or, 2. (which is more agreeable to the following clause) In childish qualities, as ignorance, inexperience, injudiciousness, rashness, frowardness, fickleness, or wilfulness, and the like, in which sense this word is used, , compared with ,12 . Thy princes eat; give up themselves to eating and drinking excessively and intemperately, as it is explained in the next verse. In the morning; the fittest time for God’ s service, and for the despatch of weighty affairs, and for sitting in judgment, . Which circumstance is added as a plain evidence of men that wholly devote themselves to vanity and luxury; which must needs occasion gross neglect of the great concerns of the kingdom, the oppression of the people to support such extravagancies, and a woeful and general corruption of the people by their example, and otherwise; which makes him say, Woe to that people!

Ecclesiastes 10:16 Woe to thee, O land, when thy king [is] a child, and thy princes eat in the morning!Ver. 16. Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child,] s.c., In understanding, though not in years, such as was Shechem, and Rehoboam. Solomon was a child king; so was Josiah, Uzziah, our Edward VI; and yet it was well with the land in their days. “ Hic regum decus et iuvenum flos, spesque honorum, Deliciae saecli, et gloria gentis erat. ” As Cardan sings of King Edward in his epitaph, As he was the highest, so I verily believe he was the holiest in the whole kingdom, saith Mr Ridley, martyr. And whilst things were carried on by himself, in his health time, all went very well here; and si per leges fas illi fuisset omnia proprio nutu et voluntate regere, if by the laws of the land he might have done all himself without officers, all should have been far better done, saith Mr Cartwright upon this text. By "child" is here therefore meant a weak or wicked king, that lets loose the golden reins of government, is carried by his passions, lieth heavy upon his subjects. See Isaiah 3:6, compared with Ecclesiastes 10:13. Such princes are threatened as a plague to a people, and they prove no less. This childhood of theirs is the maturity of their subjects’ misery; the land itself is woe, and woe itself the land, as one expositor observed from the word, àé, here used, which signifieth both woe and land. See Job 34:30. And the princes eat in the morning.] As children use to call for food as soon as they have rubbed sleep out of their eyes. If the king is a child, the state officers will be loose and luxurious; yea, like morning wolves, will devour the prey, and "nourish themselves as in a day of slaughter." The morning is a time to seek God, and search for wisdom, to sit in counsel, and despatch business, as was the manner of Moses, and of the ancient Romans. Scipio Africanus was wont before day to go iuto the capitol, in cellam Iovis into Jupiter’ s chapel, and there to stay a great while quasi consultans de republica cum Iove , saith Gellius, as if he were consulting with Jupiter, concerning the public welfare; whence his deeds were pleraque admiranda admirable for the most part, saith that heathen author. Acts and Mon Lib. vii. cap. 1.

(16) Woe.—See Note on Ecclesiastes 4:10. A child.—The Hebrew word has a wide range, being constantly translated lad or young man, and applied, for instance, to Solomon (1 Chronicles 29:1), to Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 13:7), and according to a usage common to many languages (e.g., the Latin puer), it often means a servant (2 Samuel 16:1, &c). Some take it in that sense here, contrasting it with the nobly-born king of the next verse. But comp. Isaiah 3:12. In the morning.—Isaiah 5:11; Acts 2:15.

Verse 16. Wo to thee, O land, when thy king is a child] Minorities are, in general, very prejudicial to a state. Regents either disagree, and foment civil wars; or oppress the people. Various discordant interests are raised up in a state during a minority; and the young king, having been under the tutelage of interested men, acts partially and injuriously to the interests of the people when he comes to the throne; and this produces popular discontent, and a troubled reign. Thy princes eat in the morning!] They do nothing in order; turn night into day, and day into night; sleep when they should wake, and wake when they should sleep; attending more to chamberings and banquetings, than to the concerns of the state.

Foolish rulers, by their weakness, self-indulgence and sloth, bring decay upon the state: nobleness and temperance insure prosperity: yet the subject must not rebel in word or thought against his king.

16. Woe to thee, O land — Having shown the true policy of the subject under an unwise ruler, Koheleth rebukes the bad rulers for their folly, artfully couching his reproof in an address to the