What Does Ecclesiastes 7:5 Mean in the King James?
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools.
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 same Hebrew verb frames both hearings: wisdom and folly can reach the same ear, but what you receive shapes where your attention settles.
THE MEANING
You encounter correction that may sting and voices that entertain. This verse says the wise person’s rebuke is better for your hearing than a fool’s song, because correction can expose what needs to change while entertainment can leave folly undisturbed. What you listen to shapes what your attention takes seriously.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the most pleasant voice is the most helpful one: a song can entertain while leaving folly intact, whereas rebuke can expose what needs correction.
THE ROOT
לִשְׁמֹעַ
lishmoaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear, listen, heed.
The same root appears in both halves of the verse: to hear the wise person’s rebuke and to be someone hearing the fool’s song. Hebrew holds listening and heeding close together, so the contrast turns on what kind of voice receives your attention.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: Hear in a way that can include a response.
שְׁמַע
It shows that hearing can be more than sound reaching the ear; it can mean receiving what is heard.
shemuʿah: Something heard and passed on as a report.
שְׁמוּעָה
It shows the same root can describe both the act of hearing and what arrives through hearing.
THE PATTERN
Wisdom receives correction even when it stings, while pleasing voices can leave folly undisturbed.
Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;THE THREAD
The ear that heareth the reproof of life abideth among the wise.The Hebrew uses the same root שמע (shamaʿ, hear) for the ear receiving life-giving reproof. It makes Ecclesiastes’ comparison concrete: hearing correction keeps you among the wise.
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