Ecclesiastes 10:18

By much slothfulness the building decayeth,.... Or, "by slothfulnesses" (g), The word is in the dual number, and so may signify the slothfulness of the hands, as Aben Ezra, of both hands, and of both

By much slothfulness the building decayeth; and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through. By much slothfulness - Hebrew, dual: By double slothfulness: or, sloth with both hands.

That house which is neglected by its owner, and not repaired, must needs come to ruin; whereby he intimates that the sloth and carelessness of princes in the management of public affairs, which is a usual attendant upon that luxury of which he hath now discoursed, is most destructive, both to themselves and to their people.

Ecclesiastes 10:18 By much slothfulness the building decayeth; and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through.Ver. 18. By much slothfulness the building decayeth.] So doth the commonwealth not sheltered with good government; for, as the householder is in his house, so is the magistrate in the city, and the king in his dominions. In his palace he may see a pattern of his kingdom, a draught of his city. Especially if it be, as George Prince of Anhalt’ s was, ecclesia, academia, curia, a church, a university, and a court. For the better despatch of civil businesses, there was daily praying, reading, writing, yea, and preaching too, as Melanchthon and Scultetus report. Here was no place for sloth and sluggishness within this most pious prince’ s territories. His house was built of cedar beams, of living stones; his polity a theocracy, as Josephus saith of the Jewish Government; and of his people it might be said, as Polydor Virgil saith of the English, Regnum Anglicae regnum Dei. Oh, the blessednesses of such a country! And through idleness of the hands the house droppeth, &c.] Stillicldia praecedunt ruinam, de poenas gravissimas, leviores, saith Jerome. If course be not timely taken, the house will run to ruiu for want of people or reparation; so will that person that takes not warning by lighter punishments. Surely, as one cloud follows another, till the sun disperseth them, so do judgments - greater succeed lesser, till men, meeting God by repentance, disarm his wrath. Melch. Adam in Vit. Melanch.

(18) Droppeth—i.e., lets the rain drop through.

Verse 18. By much slothfulness] This is remarkably the case in some countries. Houses are not repaired till they almost fall about the ears of the inhabitants. We have an adage that applies to all such cases: "A stitch in time saves nine."

18. By much slothfulness the building decayeth] The maxim, though generalised in form, and applicable to every form of the evil which it condemns, may fairly be contemplated, in relation to its context, as having a political bearing. There, laissez-faire, the policy of indolent procrastination, may be as fatal to the good government and prosperity of a state as the most reckless profligacy. The figure is singularly apt. The fabric of a state, like that of the house (Amos 9:11), needs from time to time to be surveyed and repaired. “Time,” as Bacon has said, “alters all things” (houses of both kinds included) “for the worse.” “The timber framework of the house decays.” The decay may be hidden at first (this seems the point implied in the relation of the two parts of the proverb) but the latent cause soon shews itself in a very patent effect, “The house lets in the rain,” there is the “continual dropping,” the “drip, drip, drip,” which, to the householder seeking comfort, is the type of all extremest discomfort (Proverbs 19:13). Delitzsch quotes a curious Arab proverb that “there are three things that make a house intolerable, rain leaking through the roof, an ill-tempered wife, and the cimex lectularius.” So is it with the state. The timbers are the fundamental laws or principles by which its fabric is supported. Corruption or discord (the “beginning of strife” which is “as when one letteth out of water,” Proverbs 17:14) is the visible token that these are worm-eaten and decayed through long neglect.

18. The condition of the state in the hands of such rulers as are mentioned Ecclesiastes 10:16 is compared to that of a neglected building.