Ecclesiastes 10:16-20, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Ecclesiastes 10:16-20
Rulers, Feasting, Neglect, and the Winged Report
Woe to a land whose king is a child, and a bird of the air shall carry the voice
Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning. Blessed art thou when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness. By much slothfulness the building decays.
A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes merry; but money answers all things. Curse not the king, no not in thy thought; curse not the rich in thy bedchamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice. Child here is incompetence and mis-timed feasting, not a slur on every young person. 'Money answers all things' is a hard observation about a moneyed world, not a confession that money is God. The winged report is a warning about surveillance and loose curses, not a ban on all critique of power.
How this should shape us
Judge rulers by when and why they feast, and repair the decaying house. Do not baptize money, and do not pretend private contempt is always safe or always righteous.
Teach it back
Explain Ecclesiastes 10:16-20 in your own words. Include its movement, one material uncertainty, and one harmful or reductive use the context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: The unit's irony is debated: verse 19 may endorse practical realities, parody elite logic, or bridge the sayings. The bird can depict rumor, informants, or proverbial speech travel.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact displayed Scripture wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Ecclesiastes 10:16-20, repository-pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology used for lexical, grammatical, repeated-word, and translation questions.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Eccl.xml, 10:16-20
Supports: Verse-level textual, grammatical, lexical, literary, and translation alternatives.
NET Bible Ecclesiastes PDF, printed pp. 1219, translation and notes on 10:16-20
Supports: Whole-book orientation, language and date questions, Qoheleth's voice, unit movement, irony, contradiction, enjoyment, death, judgment, and epilogue.
Weeks, 'Ecclesiastes,' Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 422-428, commentary relevant to 10:16-20
Supports: Context-sensitive hebel proposals and a political-economic reading of work, wealth, oppression, consumption, and royal power.
Biwul, 'The use of hebel in Ecclesiastes,' HTS 73.3 (2017), pp. 1-10, discussion relevant to 10:16-20
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed Scripture wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Exact location: Ecclesiastes 10:16-20, repository-pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Ecclesiastes
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology used for lexical, grammatical, repeated-word, and translation questions.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Eccl.xml, 10:16-20
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Ecclesiastes with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-level textual, grammatical, lexical, literary, and translation alternatives.
Exact location: NET Bible Ecclesiastes PDF, printed pp. 1219, translation and notes on 10:16-20
Open source ↗modern critical commentary
Ecclesiastes
Stuart Weeks
Oxford University Press, in The Oxford Bible Commentary, 2001
Supports: Whole-book orientation, language and date questions, Qoheleth's voice, unit movement, irony, contradiction, enjoyment, death, judgment, and epilogue.
Exact location: Weeks, 'Ecclesiastes,' Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 422-428, commentary relevant to 10:16-20
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access journal article
The use of hebel in Ecclesiastes: A political and economic reading
Joel K. T. Biwul
HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 73.3, article a4571, 2017
Supports: Context-sensitive hebel proposals and a political-economic reading of work, wealth, oppression, consumption, and royal power.
Exact location: Biwul, 'The use of hebel in Ecclesiastes,' HTS 73.3 (2017), pp. 1-10, discussion relevant to 10:16-20
Open source ↗