What Does Ecclesiastes 10:18 Mean in the King James?
By much slothfulness the building decayeth; and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through.
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
The verse makes neglect physical: the hands hang low, the roof sinks, and the house begins to leak.
THE MEANING
Where care has gone slack, decline starts quietly: as a sag before a collapse and a drip before a flood. Neglect does not preserve a structure in place; it leaves it exposed to gradual loss.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that leaving something alone keeps it unchanged: an unattended structure is already moving toward damage.
THE ROOT
שִׁפְלוּת
shiflut
GROWS FROM
שפל
Shaphal means to be low or brought down.
The word rendered “idleness” carries the sense of lowness. The hands hang low as the roof sinks, making neglect visible as a downward movement through the whole house.
ALSO GROWS
shaphal: Low or brought low.
שָׁפָל
This is the root’s basic sense, echoed in the house’s sagging.
hishpil: To lower or bring down.
הִשְׁפִּיל
It makes the verse’s downward motion explicit: slack hands accompany a structure being brought low.
עֲצַלְתַּיִם
ʿatsaltayim
GROWS FROM
עצל
ʿAtsal means to be sluggish or lazy.
“slothfulness” in this verse is ʿatsaltayim. The same root describes the “slothful” field-owner in Proverbs 24:30; the next verse shows the wall broken down. The word links a settled condition of neglect with the damage it leaves behind.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāṣēl: A sluggish or lazy person.
עָצֵל
This is the same root used for the slothful person whose neglected field appears in Proverbs.
ʿaṣlāh: Sloth or indolence.
עַצְלָה
This related form names the condition itself, matching the verse’s focus on neglect as an ongoing state.
יִדְלֹף
yidloph
GROWS FROM
דלף
Dalaph means to drip or leak.
“droppeth through” in this verse is yidloph. The verse ends with damage made small and continuous: water drips through the house. The leak is the visible result of a structure left to deteriorate.
ALSO GROWS
dalaph: To drip or leak.
דָּלַף
This is the verb’s basic action, describing what the house does.
deleph: A drip or leak.
דֶּלֶף
The related noun turns the action into a continuing condition, like the damage accumulating in the house.
THE PATTERN
A structure’s condition follows the attention given by the hands that build and maintain it.
Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down.According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.THE THREAD
I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding;“Slothful” here shares the root עָצֵל (ʿāṣēl, sluggish or lazy) with Ecclesiastes’ “slothfulness.” The next verse shows the field overgrown and its stone wall broken, turning the shared root into a visible picture of neglect.
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