What Does Ecclesiastes 10:5 Mean?
There is a harm I have seen under the sun, like a staggering that goes out from the face of the ruler.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, as an error which proceedeth from the ruler:THE KEY
A ruler’s inadvertence does not stay small: what goes out from authority becomes an evil under the sun.
THE MEANING
The verse places a ruler’s error beside the evil visible in the world, showing how a misstep at the seat of authority can become a public wrong. The word for error carries the shade of inadvertence: even a lapse can travel outward when it comes from someone who rules.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a ruler’s mistake is only a private lapse dissolves here; an error from authority can reach far beyond its source.
THE ROOT
שְׁגָגָה
shegagah
GROWS FROM
שגג
to err or act inadvertently
“staggering” in this verse is shegagah. The verse calls the evil a שְׁגָגָה (shegagah), a lapse or inadvertent error. The same root that names an individual’s misstep here describes one issuing from a ruler, where its reach can become public.
ALSO GROWS
shagag: to err or act inadvertently
שָׁגַג
This is the verb behind the noun in the verse, showing the action carried by the word “error.”
shogeg: one who errs inadvertently
שֹׁגֵג
This form carries the same root into the person making the misstep; here, the source is a ruler.
יוֹצֵאָה
yotze’ah
GROWS FROM
יצא
to go out or emerge
“goes out from the face of” in this verse is yotze’ah. The Hebrew pictures the error going out from before the ruler. This movement makes its source and direction visible: what arises at the center of authority passes outward into the world under the sun.
ALSO GROWS
yatsa: to go out, emerge, or depart
יָצָא
This verb expresses the outward movement of the error in the verse.
yetzi’ah: an exit or going out
יְצִיאָה
This noun carries the same root into the act of going out, echoing the error’s movement from the ruler into public life.
THE PATTERN
When those who lead lose their way, their misdirection reaches the people who follow them.
When the aligned are many, the people rejoice; but when the restless rule, the people groan.For the straighteners of this people make them wander, and those led by them are swallowed up.And he spoke a parable to them. Can the blind lead the blind along the way? Will they not both fall into the pit?THE THREAD
Speak to the children of Israel, saying, If a living soul misses the mark through straying from any of the commandments of the LORD, concerning the things which ought not to be done, and does against one of them;The Hebrew behind “through ignorance” is בִּשְׁגָגָה (bishgagah), from the same root שגג as the “error” in Ecclesiastes. Leviticus uses it for an inadvertent misstep by a person; Ecclesiastes shows the same kind of error coming from a ruler, where authority gives it wider reach.
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