What Does Ecclesiastes 10:15 Mean in the King James?
The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Effort without knowing the way does not reach the city; it becomes weariness.
THE MEANING
When you spend yourself without knowing where to go, effort becomes its own exhaustion. Even movement toward an ordinary destination depends on knowing the way. The verse shows direction as part of wisdom, not an extra added after the work begins.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that working harder always brings you closer to what you need; labor can increase while the way remains unknown.
THE ROOT
יָדַע
yadaʿ
GROWS FROM
ידע
To know or perceive through encounter.
“knoweth” in this verse is yadaʿ. The fool’s lack is more than missing a fact: he does not perceive how to reach the city. The root brings knowing and the way forward together, showing why effort alone cannot supply direction.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: Knowledge or understanding.
דַּעַת
This noun from the same root shows that the missing knowledge is what would make the next step intelligible.
maddaʿ: Knowledge or understanding.
מַדָּע
This branch keeps the verse’s problem in view: exertion cannot replace knowing what one is doing.
לָלֶכֶת
lalekhet
GROWS FROM
הלך
To go or walk along a way.
“to go” in this verse is lalekhet. The verse speaks of going to a real destination, the city. The movement is not the problem by itself; the fool does not know how to direct it there.
ALSO GROWS
halakh: To go or walk.
הָלַךְ
The verb’s basic sense keeps the verse grounded in movement toward a destination.
halikhah: Going, walking, or a journey.
הֲלִיכָה
This branch makes the journey itself visible: movement takes a direction, and direction depends on knowing the way.
תְּיַגְּעֶנּוּ
teyaggeʿennu
GROWS FROM
יגע
To toil or grow weary.
“wearieth” in this verse is teyaggeʿennu. The root holds toil and weariness together, so the labor’s immediate result is depletion. Beside the failure to know the way, that weariness reveals that energy alone is not arrival.
ALSO GROWS
yagaʿ: To toil or grow weary.
יָגַע
This verb shares the root of the verse’s weariness and joins exertion to its cost.
yegiaʿ: Labor or toil.
יְגִיעַ
This noun shows the same root extending from the act of striving to the labor itself.
yageaʿ: Weary or exhausted.
יָגֵעַ
This adjective names the depleted state that the fool’s labor produces.
THE PATTERN
Effort becomes fruitless when movement outruns knowledge of the way.
Also, that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good; and he that hasteth with his feet sinneth.O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?THE THREAD
The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.Both verses use ידע (yadaʿ, know or perceive): here, the fool does not know how to go to the city; there, people do not know what makes them stumble. The shared root reveals how not knowing the way can also hide what is happening along it.
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