Ecclesiastes 10:4
New International Version
If a ruler’s anger rises against you, do not leave your post; calmness can lay great offenses to rest.

New Living Translation
If your boss is angry at you, don’t quit! A quiet spirit can overcome even great mistakes.

English Standard Version
If the anger of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your place, for calmness will lay great offenses to rest.

Berean Standard Bible
If the ruler’s temper flares against you, do not abandon your post, for calmness lays great offenses to rest.

King James Bible
If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place; for yielding pacifieth great offences.

New King James Version
If the spirit of the ruler rises against you, Do not leave your post; For conciliation pacifies great offenses.

New American Standard Bible
If the ruler’s temper rises against you, do not abandon your place, because composure puts great offenses to rest.

NASB 1995
If the ruler’s temper rises against you, do not abandon your position, because composure allays great offenses.

NASB 1977
If the ruler’s temper rises against you, do not abandon your position, because composure allays great offenses.

Legacy Standard Bible
If the ruler’s temper rises against you, do not abandon your position, because calmness causes great offenses to be abandoned.

Amplified Bible
If the temper of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your post [showing resistance], because composure and calmness prevent great offenses.

Christian Standard Bible
If the ruler’s anger rises against you, don’t leave your post, for calmness puts great offenses to rest.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
If the ruler’s anger rises against you, don’t leave your place, for calmness puts great offenses to rest.

American Standard Version
If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place; for gentleness allayeth great offences.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
If the spirit of a prince rises against you, do not leave your place, because healing dissolves many sins

Brenton Septuagint Translation
If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place; for soothing will put an end to great offences.

Contemporary English Version
Don't give up your job when your boss gets angry. If you stay calm, you'll be forgiven.

Douay-Rheims Bible
If the spirit of him that hath power, ascend upon thee, leave not thy place: because care will make the greatest sins to cease.

English Revised Version
If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place; for yielding allayeth great offences.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
If a ruler becomes angry with you, don't resign your position. If you remain calm, you can make up for serious offenses.

Good News Translation
If your ruler becomes angry with you, do not hand in your resignation; serious wrongs may be pardoned if you keep calm.

International Standard Version
If your overseer gets angry at you, don't resign, because calmness pacifies great offenses.

JPS Tanakh 1917
If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, Leave not thy place; For gentleness allayeth great offences.

Literal Standard Version
If the spirit of the ruler goes up against you, do not leave your place, | For yielding quiets great sinners.

Majority Standard Bible
If the ruler’s temper flares against you, do not abandon your post, for calmness lays great offenses to rest.

New American Bible
Should the anger of a ruler burst upon you, do not yield your place; for calmness abates great offenses.

NET Bible
If the anger of the ruler flares up against you, do not resign from your position, for a calm response can undo great offenses.

New Revised Standard Version
If the anger of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your post, for calmness will undo great offenses.

New Heart English Bible
If the spirit of the ruler rises up against you, do not leave your place; for gentleness lays great offenses to rest.

Webster's Bible Translation
If the spirit of the ruler riseth against thee, leave not thy place; for yielding pacifieth great offenses.

World English Bible
If the spirit of the ruler rises up against you, don’t leave your place; for gentleness lays great offenses to rest.

Young's Literal Translation
If the spirit of the ruler go up against thee, Thy place leave not, For yielding quieteth great sinners.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Wisdom and Folly
3Even as the fool walks along the road, his sense is lacking, and he shows everyone that he is a fool. 4If the ruler’s temper flares against you, do not abandon your post, for calmness lays great offenses to rest. 5There is an evil I have seen under the sun—an error that proceeds from the ruler:…

Cross References
1 Samuel 25:24
She fell at his feet and said, "My lord, may the blame be on me alone, but please let your servant speak to you; hear the words of your servant.

Proverbs 15:18
A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger calms dispute.

Proverbs 25:15
Through patience a ruler can be persuaded, and a gentle tongue can break a bone.

Ecclesiastes 8:3
Do not hasten to leave his presence, and do not persist in a bad cause, for he will do whatever he pleases.

Ecclesiastes 10:5
There is an evil I have seen under the sun--an error that proceeds from the ruler:


Treasury of Scripture

If the spirit of the ruler rise up against you, leave not your place; for yielding pacifies great offenses.

leave

Ecclesiastes 8:3
Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil thing; for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him.

for

1 Samuel 25:24
And fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be: and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience, and hear the words of thine handmaid.

Proverbs 25:15
By long forbearing is a prince persuaded, and a soft tongue breaketh the bone.

Jump to Previous
Abandon Amends Deference Errors Gentleness Great Keeps Leave Offences Offenses Overlooked Pacifieth Position Post Quiet Quietness Rest Rise Rises Riseth Ruler Ruler's Sins Spirit Temper Wrath Yielding
Jump to Next
Abandon Amends Deference Errors Gentleness Great Keeps Leave Offences Offenses Overlooked Pacifieth Position Post Quiet Quietness Rest Rise Rises Riseth Ruler Ruler's Sins Spirit Temper Wrath Yielding
Ecclesiastes 10
1. observations of wisdom and folly
7. death in life
9. and the day of judgment in the days of youth, are to be thought on














(4) We return now to the thought of Ecclesiastes 8:3. For "spirit" in the sense of "anger," see Judges 8:3.

Rise up.--Psalm 78:21; 2Samuel 11:20.

Yielding.--Literally, healing. (See Proverbs 15:4.) . . .

Verses 4-7. - Section 12. Illustration of the conduct of wisdom under capricious rulers, or when fools are exalted to high stations. Verse 4. - If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee. "Spirit" (ruach) is here equivalent to "anger," as Judges 8:3; Proverbs 29:11. The idea seems to be that a statesman or councilor gives wise advice to a monarch, which the latter takes in bad part, and shows strong resentment against the person who offered it. Now, when a man knows himself to be in the right, and yet finds his counsel rejected, perhaps with scorn and reproach added, he is naturally prone to feel sore, and to show by some overt act his sense of the ill treatment which he has received. But what says wisdom? Leave not thy place (makom); i.e. position, pest, office. Do not hastily resign the situation at court to which you have been appointed. Some, not so suitably, take the expression, "leave thy place," figuratively, as equivalent to "give way to anger, renounce the temper which becomes you, lose your self-possession." But Wright, from the analogous use of matstsale and maamad in Isaiah 22:19, confirms the interpretation which we have adopted. Compare the advice in Ecclesiastes 8:3, where, however, the idea is rather of open rebellion than of a resentment which shows itself by withdrawal. Origen ('De Princip.,' 3:2) explained "the spirit of the ruler" to be the evil spirit; and Gregory, commenting on this passage, writes ('Moral.,' 3:43), "As though he had said in plain words, 'If thou perceivest the spirit of the tempter to prevail against thee in aught, quit not the lowliness of penitence;' and that it was the abasement of penitence that he called 'our place,' he shows by the words that follow, 'for healing [Vulgate] pacifieth great offences.' For what else is the humility of mourning, save the remedy of sin?" (Oxford transl.). For yielding pacifieth great offenses. Marpe, "yielding," is rendered "healing" by the versions. Thus ἴαμα (Septuagint); euratio (Vulgate). But this translation is not so suitable as that of Symmachus, σωφροσύνη, "moderation." The word is used in the sense of" gentleness," "meekness," in Proverbs 14:30; Proverbs 15:4; and the gnome expresses the truth that a calm, conciliating spirit, not prone to take offence, but patient under trying circumstances, obviates great sins. The sins are those of the subject. This quiet resignation saves him from conspiracy, rebellion, treason, etc., into which his untempered resentment might hurry him. We may compare Proverbs 15:1 and Proverbs 25:15; and Horace, 'Cam.,' 3. 3, "Justum et tenacem propositi virum," etc.

"The man whose soul is firm and strong,
Bows not to any tyrant's frown,
And on the rabble's clamorous throng
In proud disdain looks coldly down."


(Stanley.) They who regard the "offenses" as those of the ruler explain them to mean oppression and injustice; but it seems plain from the run of the sentence that the minister, not the monarch, is primarily in the mind of the writer, though, of course, it is quite true that the submission of the former might save the ruler from the commission of some wrong.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
If
אִם־ (’im-)
Conjunction
Strong's 518: Lo!, whether?, if, although, Oh that!, when, not

the ruler’s
הַמּוֹשֵׁל֙ (ham·mō·wō·šêl)
Article | Verb - Qal - Participle - masculine singular
Strong's 4910: To rule, have dominion, reign

temper
ר֤וּחַ (rū·aḥ)
Noun - common singular construct
Strong's 7307: Wind, breath, exhalation, life, anger, unsubstantiality, a region of the sky, spirit

flares
תַּעֲלֶ֣ה (ta·‘ă·leh)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person feminine singular
Strong's 5927: To ascend, in, actively

against you,
עָלֶ֔יךָ (‘ā·le·ḵā)
Preposition | second person masculine singular
Strong's 5921: Above, over, upon, against

do not
אַל־ (’al-)
Adverb
Strong's 408: Not

abandon
תַּנַּ֑ח (tan·naḥ)
Verb - Hifil - Imperfect Jussive - second person masculine singular
Strong's 3240: Bestow, cast down, lay down, up, leave off, let alone remain, pacify, place,

your post,
מְקוֹמְךָ֖ (mə·qō·wm·ḵā)
Noun - masculine singular construct | second person masculine singular
Strong's 4725: A standing, a spot, a condition

for
כִּ֣י (kî)
Conjunction
Strong's 3588: A relative conjunction

calmness
מַרְפֵּ֔א (mar·pê)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 4832: Curative, a medicine, a cure, deliverance, placidity

{lays} great
גְּדוֹלִֽים׃ (gə·ḏō·w·lîm)
Adjective - masculine plural
Strong's 1419: Great, older, insolent

offenses
חֲטָאִ֥ים (ḥă·ṭā·’îm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 2399: A crime, its penalty

to rest.
יַנִּ֖יחַ (yan·nî·aḥ)
Verb - Hifil - Imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 3240: Bestow, cast down, lay down, up, leave off, let alone remain, pacify, place,


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OT Poetry: Ecclesiastes 10:4 If the spirit of the ruler rises (Ecclesiast. Ec Ecc Eccles.)
Ecclesiastes 10:3
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