Woe to you, O land whose king is a youth, and whose princes feast in the morning.
Parallel translations
- WEB Woe to you, land, when your king is a child, and your princes eat in the morning!
- KJV Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning!
- NKJV Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child, And your princes feast in the morning!
- NASB Woe to you, land whose king is a boy, and whose princes feast in the morning.
- NLT What sorrow for the land ruled by a servant, the land whose leaders feast in the morning.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Woe to the land whose king is immature and whose princes feast in the morning. Self-indulgent, unfit leadership brings ruin to a people.
Overview
Qoheleth pronounces woe on a nation governed by childish rulers given to early revelry instead of duty. Such leadership signals disorder and coming trouble. It contrasts with the next verse and underscores Scripture's concern for righteous, disciplined leadership, ultimately fulfilled in the perfect King, Christ (Isaiah 3:4-5; Proverbs 31:4-5).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Isa 3:12Youths oppress My people, and women rule over them. O My people, your guides mislead you; they turn you from your paths.
- Isa 5:11–12Woe to those who rise early in the morning in pursuit of strong drink, who linger into the evening, to be inflamed by wine.
- Isa 3:4–5“I will make mere lads their leaders, and children will rule over them.”
- Prov 20:1–2Wine is a mocker, strong drink is a brawler, and whoever is led astray by them is not wise.
- Jer 21:12O house of David, this is what the LORD says: ‘Administer justice every morning, and rescue the victim of robbery from the hand of his oppressor, or My wrath will go forth like fire and burn with no one to extinguish it because of their evil deeds.
- 2 Chr 13:7Then worthless and wicked men gathered around him to resist Rehoboam son of Solomon when he was young, inexperienced, and unable to resist them.
- 2 Chr 36:9Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months and ten days. And he did evil in the sight of the LORD.
- 2 Chr 36:2Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months.
- Isa 28:7–8These also stagger from wine and stumble from strong drink: Priests and prophets reel from strong drink and are befuddled by wine. They stumble because of strong drink, muddled in their visions and stumbling in their judgments.
- 2 Chr 36:5Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. And he did evil in the sight of the LORD his God.
- Hos 7:5–7The princes are inflamed with wine on the day of our king; so he joins hands with those who mock him.
- 2 Chr 36:11Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years.
- 2 Chr 33:1–20Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years.
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Christ at the center
The search that finds everything 'under the sun' to be vapor exposes the emptiness of life without God and drives us to the one who alone gives meaning, the resurrection that makes our labor not in vain.
How Ecclesiastes 10:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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