Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Ecclesiastes 10:15 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 15. 15The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse says fools' labor wearies them because they do not know the way to the city.
Read It With
- Ecclesiastes 10:12-15
Read Ecclesiastes 10:15 with 10:12-15. This verse says fools' labor wearies them because they do not know the way to the city. The full unit establishes this movement: Wise speech can carry grace, while foolish speech consumes the speaker, escalates from folly to harmful madness, multiplies claims about an unknowable future, and leaves the fool too disoriented for ordinary life.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The section applies timing and skill to language: speech also needs restraint, direction, and admission of uncertainty. Within that movement, this verse says fools' labor wearies them because they do not know the way to the city.
Follow the Context
- Wise words are gracious.
- A fool's lips consume the speaker.
- Speech begins with folly and ends in harmful madness.
- The fool multiplies words despite ignorance of the future.
- No human can tell what comes after.
- Foolish labor wearies because even the road to the city is unknown.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“knoweth not how to go to the city”
In plain language: An image of missing basic orientation despite exhausting activity.
says fools' labor wearies them because they do not know the way to the city. Effort without basic orientation can exhaust rather than advance a task.
Why it matters: The wording carries interpretive or ethical risk requiring the complete unit and stated limits.
How certain? probableWhat This Verse Is Not Saying
The verse does not mock cognitive disability, illiteracy, rural people, migrants, or someone lost in an unfamiliar place.
It does not imply every exhausted worker is foolish.
What Remains True
Effort without basic orientation can exhaust rather than advance a task.
How It Can Shape Life
- Clarify destination, prerequisites, and route before adding labor.
Teach It Back
Explain Ecclesiastes 10:15's precise role in Ecclesiastes 10:12-15. Include the complete movement, one material uncertainty, and one conclusion the verse does not authorize.
Your explanation stays in this browser. It is not sent or saved.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Ecclesiastes 10:12-15 — Gracious Words and Escalating FollySources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
Knowing the city-road may be a proverb for elementary competence, not a literal navigation exam.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
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 10:12-15, 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, 10:12-15
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. 1218-1219, translation and notes on 10:12-15
Open source ↗