Ecclesiastes 10:9

The one who quarries stones may be injured by them, and he who splits logs endangers himself.

BSB

Parallel translations

4 additional translations

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KJV

Whoso removeth stones shall be hurt therewith; and he that cleaveth wood shall be endangered thereby.

ASV

Whoso heweth out stones shall be hurt therewith; and he that cleaveth wood is endangered thereby.

YLT

Whoso is removing stones is grieved by them, Whoso is cleaving trees endangered by them.

DBT

Whoso removeth stones is hurt therewith; he that cleaveth wood is endangered thereby.

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On this verse

"He who moves about stones will be hurt by them; he who splits logs will be endangered by them. "In Zechariah sacred stones are moved about the earth. [Cfr. Zach. 9, 16.] For they do not stay firm in their place, but revolve, and always inclining to other places, they hasten to move away. The Saviour also teaches about these living stones in the city of the Apocalypse [Cfr. Apoc.

Jerome· Commentary on Ecclesiastes, 420patristic

Related commentary

Whoso removeth stones shall be hurt therewith,....

John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)reformed

Whoso removeth stones - This verse teaches care and caution. Whoever pulls down an old building is likely to be hurt by the stones; and in cleaving wood many accidents occur for want of sufficient caution.

Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832evangelical

Cuts out from the quarry [MAURER]. endangered--by the splinters, or by the head of the hatchet, flying back on himself. Pithy aphorisms are common in the East. The sense is: Violations of true wisdom recoil on the perpetrators.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871reformed

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Word doors

Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.

About this book

King Solomon in Old Age — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain

Ecclesiastes — Qohelet the Preacher — ''vanity of vanities, all is vanity.'' The book's relentless examination of life under the sun, resolving not in despair but in ''fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.''

Canon: Old Testament
Author: Solomon, king in Jerusalem (per 1:1, 1:12; the site's position) — writing under the Hebrew title *Qoheleth*, ''the Assembler/Preacher.''
Date: Solomon's reign, c. 940s–931 BC — the site's position. (A minority of modern scholars propose a later, Persian-period date on linguistic grounds.)

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