King James Bible
Yea also, when he that is a fool walketh by the way, his wisdom faileth him, and he saith to every one that he is a fool.

American Standard Version
Yea also, when the fool walketh by the way, his understanding faileth him, and he saith to every one that he is a fool.

Young's Literal Translation
And also, when he that is a fool Is walking in the way, his heart is lacking, And he hath said to every one, 'He is a fool.'

Ecclesiastes 10:3 Additional Translations
Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

This proverb forms, along with the preceding, a tetrastich, for it is divided into two parts by vav. The Kerı̂ has removed the art. in כש and שה, Ecclesiastes 6:10, as incompatible with the ש. The order of the words vegam-baderek keshehsachal holek is inverted for vegam keshehsachal baderek holek, cf. Ecclesiastes 3:13, and also rav shěyihyn, Ecclesiastes 6:3; so far as this signifies, "supposing that they are many." Plainly the author intends to give prominence to "on the way;" and why, but because the fool, the inclination of whose heart, according to 2b, always goes to the left, is now placed in view as he presents himself in his public manner of life. Instead of לב־הוּא חסר we have here the verbal clause חסר לבּו, which is not, after Ecclesiastes 6:2, to be translated: corde suo caret (Herzf., Ginsb.), contrary to the suff. and also the order of the words, but, after Ecclesiastes 9:8 : cor ejus deficit, i.e., his understanding is at fault; for לב, here and at Ecclesiastes 10:2, is thus used in a double sense, as the Greek νοῦς and the Lat. mens can also be used: there it means pure, formal, intellectual soul-life; here, pregnantly (Psychol. p. 249), as at Ecclesiastes 7:7, cf. Hosea 4:11, the understanding or the knowledge and will of what is right. The fool takes no step without showing that his understanding is not there, - that, so to speak, he does not take it along with him, but has left it at home. He even carries his folly about publicly, and prides himself in it as if it were wisdom: he says to all that he is a fool, se esse stultum (thus, correctly, most Jewish and Christian interpreters, e.g., Rashi and Rambach). The expression follows the scheme of Psalm 9:21: May the heathen know mortales se esse (vid., l.c.). Otherwise Luther, with Symm. and Jerome: "he takes every man as a fool;" but this thought has no support in the connection, and would undoubtedly be expressed by המּה סכלים. Still differently Knobel and Ewald: he says to all, "it is foolish;" Hitzig, on the contrary, justly remarks that סכל is not used of actions and things; this also is true of כּסיל, against himself, Ecclesiastes 5:2, where he translates qol kesil by "foolish discourses."

Ecclesiastes 10:3 Parallel Commentaries
Demonstrates Faileth Fails Fool Foolish Heart Lacking Road Sense Shows Stupid Understanding Walketh Walking Walks Way WisdomDemonstrates Faileth Fails Fool Foolish Heart Lacking Road Sense Shows Stupid Understanding Walketh Walking Walks Way WisdomThe ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

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