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No One Knows What Evil Will Come

16 Woe to you, O land, whose king is a youth,[a]
    and whose princes feast in the morning!
17 Happy are you, O land, whose king is of noble birth,
    and whose princes dine at the right time—
    for vigor[b] and not in drinking bouts.
18 Because of laziness, the rafters sag;
    when hands are slack, the house leaks.

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Footnotes

  1. 10:16 A youth: thus too young and inexperienced to govern effectively. Feast in the morning: either concluding a whole night of revelry or beginning a new round of merrymaking.
  2. 10:17 For vigor: or, “with self-control, restraint.”

16 Woe to the land whose king was a servant[a](A)
    and whose princes feast in the morning.
17 Blessed is the land whose king is of noble birth
    and whose princes eat at a proper time—
    for strength and not for drunkenness.(B)

18 Through laziness, the rafters sag;
    because of idle hands, the house leaks.(C)

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Footnotes

  1. Ecclesiastes 10:16 Or king is a child