No Surprise Translation

Woe to you, O land, whose king is a lad and whose princes feast in the morning. Blessed are you, O land, whose king is of nobility and whose princes eat at the appropriate time—for strength and not for drunkenness.  Ecclesiastes 10:16-17  NASB

Lad/nobility – The genre of wisdom literature in Scripture often includes observations that startle us because they describe contrasts we would not expect.  Yeshua follows the same formula, teaching heavenly insights with words that shock readers out of their religious complacency.  For example, “Lucky those destitute in spirit, because of them the Kingdom of heaven is” (translated according the my reading of the Greek text – see my book, The Lucky Life).  Hard contrasts, things that don’t seem to fit together, are used to wake us up. 

But translators seem to have a penchant for removing these spiritual cattle prods.  They prefer religious tautologies, phrases that basically repeat themselves with no sharp edges.  This verse from Ecclesiastes is an example of reducing the impact to nothing more than cultural expectations.

The Hebrew word translated “lad” is na’ar, a word that means “boy, youth, or servant.”  The emphasis on this verse is on immaturity.  It usually refers to a child between birth and puberty.  Such a person as king creates havoc because his decisions are often led by passions, childish whims and inexperience.  We have no problem seeing how a land governed by this king would be in mourning.

The NASB and others translate the contrasting word, horim, as “nobility.”  But we would expect “nobility,” especially since horim is used of elders who exercise governance over the city.  horim is often synonymous with sarim, the word for “princes,” and since that word also appears in this verse, it seems unlikely that horim merely repeats what sarim would imply.  Furthermore, if all that this verse says is that the land is happy when someone from nobility rules, we have plenty of biblical counter-examples.  Coming from nobility guarantees nothing in terms of justice and righteousness.  The translation “nobility” provides no unexpected contrast.

Now consider an alternative translation.  Rabbinic thought (and the RSV) translate this word as “free man,” not “nobility.”  That surprises us.  We don’t think of “immature youth” and “free man” as contrasts, but perhaps we should.  Immaturity is a sign of being ruled by my desires, my feelings and my impulses.  Kings like this are a disaster.  But a free man, according to Scripture, is a man who understands he is servant of the greater King and free because he practices Torah.  He is free from impulses, temporary passions and youthful lusts because his life is governed by God’s rules of engagement.  A king like this is trustworthy, merciful and kind. 

Now we see a contrast that electrifies our thought.  It’s not nobility that we seek in our leaders.  It’s freedom from anomos, that is, “lawlessness.”  We want a king who follows God’s instructions, who acts as God’s regent.  Anything less spells calamity.  Translations that remove the barbs, softening the blows in order to provide “common sense” statements, miss God’s exclamation points.  As Oswald Chambers so eloquently put it, “If all that Jesus said is just common sense, what was the point of saying it?”

Topical Index:  king, free man, lad, na’ar, horim, leader, Ecclesiastes 10:16-17