Ecclesiastes Chapter Ten, On Jobs & Babbling

Ecclesiastes 10:8 He who digs a pit will fall into it, and whoever breaks through a wall will be bitten by a serpent. [9] He who quarries stones may be hurt by them, and he who splits wood may be endangered by it. [10] If the ax is dull, and one does not sharpen the edge, then he must use more strength; but wisdom brings success.

The idea in the first two verses is simply one of exposure to risk when one labors. Manual labor can harm the body, either through wear and tear or accident, or carelessness. The adages, “nothing ventured, nothing gained,” or “no risk, no reward,” seem apropos here. The preacher merely reminds his readership that there is risk involved in one’s effort; but also that there will never be results unless effort is applied.

Verse 10 covers another modern saying, “work smart, not hard.” The implication is that one may work hard with little forethought, or one may consider what needs to be done and plan accordingly to achieve the best results with less effort. The NASB renders the latter portion of the verse, “Wisdom has the advantage of giving success,” which is closer to the literal rendering in the Hebrew. Note the preacher doesn’t eschew the notion of working hard; he simply asserts that the application of wisdom will make one’s work truly successful, or more successful, than mere strength could achieve. 

One may also take away the Biblical principle that action also has an attendant consequence. When you choose to act, be it for good or ill, there is a possible–and sometimes certain–outcome to one’s choice. Recently, I was burned on my arm while at work; a job hazard when baking bread that simply comes with what I do for a living. If one chooses to avoid action through vacillation or cowardice, etc., consequences come nonetheless. That consequence would be that nothing will change or improve in our lives. We are built to work. Adam was put in the garden to tend it BEFORE the Fall. Sin didn’t create work; sin just made work less enjoyable and fruitful, Genesis 3:17-19. 

Ecclesiastes 10:11 A serpent may bite when it is not charmed; the babbler is no different. 

There appears to be a manuscript disagreement with verse 11. The Septuagint renders the verse, “If a serpent bite when there is no charmer’s whisper, then there is no advantage to the charmer.” The NASB follows the Septuagint, stating, “If the serpent bites before being charmed, there is no profit for the charmer.” This would be the difference between the Textus Receptus, or the received text, the Majority Text, and the critical text. The NKJV follows the Textus Receptus, while the NASB follows the Nestle-Aland or critical text. There is also the Majority Text: all of these being collections of manuscripts from various sources of diverse ages and reputability.

While I am not interested in delving into a critical analysis of the manuscript sources utilized for the numerous translations of the Bible, I have read from several reputable authors, such as Randall Price’s excellent, “Searching for the Original Bible,” who go to great lengths to demonstrate that all manuscript sources are between 96%-98% in agreement, with minor, non-doctrinal translational amendations accounting for the majority of the supposed differences. I can personally voice for the extensive similarity in translations. I utilize the NKJV, KJV, NASB, NIV, ESV, RSV, HCSB, Tanakh, Septaugint, and the DSS in my studies. The level of disagreement is very paltry comparatively.

Having that out of the way, the context of the verse remains largely unchanged. The addition that is found in the NKJV and KJV (taken from the Textus Receptus) speaks of the babbler as well. The babbler is likened to the serpent in question. The serpent is dangerous unless it is properly charmed; this suggests someone skilled and capable at charming a serpent. The same may be said for the babbler. What is a babbler? The word babble, of course, means to talk rapidly and continuously in a foolish, excited, or incomprehensible way. The word’s etymology is Biblical. Returning to the city and Tower of Babel, we learn that God came down to confuse the intention of united mankind, who until that point in human history spoke one language, Genesis 11:1. God, who had commanded mankind to spread out and fill the earth, fulfilled His command by confusing the people’s language and making it impossible to effectively communicate with one another, Genesis 11:7, 9. It seems that the tower was named in retrospect of the event and was called Babel, because of what the Lord had done.

And what did He do? He confused the language of men, and created nationalities in one moment. It was meant to occur naturally, but man’s defiance and effort to have one government, one people, and one religion (involving astrology), with one leader to rule them, caused a sudden and horrific division. Its healing is seen in part during the Day of Pentecost, when the apostles could speak with the tongues of 17 various national representatives in Jerusalem at that time, Acts 2:8-11. It will be completely healed during the thousand year reign of Christ our Lord, Zephaniah 3:9.

The babbler strikes me as someone akin to Talkative from the Pilgrim’s Progress, by John Bunyan. Talkative was fine speaking of things holy and profane, mundane or exciting. He just liked to talk, and talk was all he did. He was a social chameleon par excellence, and could integrate into any conversation, no matter how blessed or foul the water. Christian called out Talkative’s bluff, who had enamored the less spiritually mature Faithful, by challenging him to demonstrate conviction for his beliefs instead of offering mere lip service. While this episode might not exactly match the notion of charming the babbler, it did subdue him enough to stifle his constant flow of words. Conversation is well and good, but words convey meaning, and when someone talks for the sole purpose of talking, then the only meaning being conveyed is that they desire to vomit words at whoever will listen. 

Words should coincide with the thoughts and actions–i.e., one’s entire lifestyle–of the speaker. Babbling is what one gets when there is no foundation to build steadfast belief upon. Paul likens this to childishness, writing, “that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,” Ephesians 4:14. We are to be grounded in our understanding, and not flitting from topic to topic with the carefree fancy of a gullible child. Perhaps the surest way to charm the babbler is to challenge their core beliefs, or lack thereof, and compel them to reflect on what they believe and why. A change in one’s worldview certainly will direct the course of our conversation, because we will want to talk about certain things more, and abstain from discussing other things, which we no longer feel should be the subject of our conversation.