Text -- Ecclesiastes 10:19-20 (NET)

10:19 Feasts are made for laughter, and wine makes life merry, but money is the answer for everything. 10:20 Do not curse a king even in your thoughts, and do not curse the rich while in your bedroom; for a bird might report what you are thinking, or some winged creature might repeat your words.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Ecc 10:19

¹ tn Heb “bread.” The term לֶחֶם (lekhem) is used literally of “bread” and figuratively (i.e., by metonymy) for a “feast” (BDB 536–37 s.v. לֶחֶם). BDB suggests that עֹשִׂיה לֶחֶם (’osih lekhem) in Eccl 10:19 means “make a feast” (BDB 537 s.v. לֶחֶם 1.a). This obscure line has occasioned numerous proposals: “a feast is made for laughter” (KJV, ASV, NIV); “feasts are made for laughter” (NRSV); “men feast for merrymaking” (Moffatt); “men prepare a meal for enjoyment” (NASB); “the table has its pleasures” (NEB); “they [i.e., rulers of v. 16] make a banquet for revelry” (NJPS); “people prepare a banquet for enjoyment” (MLB); “for laughter they make bread and wine, that the living may feast” (Douay); “bread is made for laughter” (RSV); “bread [and oil] call forth merriment” (NAB).

² tn The subject of the verb is not specified. When active verbs have an unspecified subject, they are often used in a passive sense: “Bread [feasts] are made….”

³ tn Heb “and wine gladdens life.”

⁴ tn Or “and [they think that] money is the answer for everything.”

NET Notes: Ecc 10:20

¹ tn Perhaps the referent is people who are in authority because of their wealth.

² tn Heb “in chambers of your bedroom.”

³ tn Heb “a bird of the air.”

⁴ tn Heb “might carry the voice.” The article is used here with the force of a possessive pronoun.

⁵ tn The Hebrew phrase בַּעַל הַכְּנָפַיִם (ba’al hakkÿnafayim, “possessor of wings”) is an idiom for a winged creature, that is, a bird (e.g., Prov 1:17; see HALOT 143 s.v. בַּעַל A.6; BDB 127 s.v. בַּעַל 5.a). The term בַּעַל (“master; possessor”) is the construct governing the attributive genitive הַכְּנָפַיִם (“wings”); see IBHS 149-51 §9.5.3b.

⁶ tn The term “your” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for smoothness.

⁷ tn Heb “tell the matter.”