Ecclesiastes Chapter 10 verse 7 Holy Bible

ASV Ecclesiastes 10:7

I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking like servants upon the earth.
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BBE Ecclesiastes 10:7

I have seen servants on horses, and rulers walking on the earth as servants.
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DARBY Ecclesiastes 10:7

I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth.
read chapter 10 in DARBY

KJV Ecclesiastes 10:7

I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth.
read chapter 10 in KJV

WBT Ecclesiastes 10:7


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WEB Ecclesiastes 10:7

I have seen servants on horses, and princes walking like servants on the earth.
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YLT Ecclesiastes 10:7

I have seen servants on horses, And princes walking as servants on the earth.
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Ecclesiastes 10 : 7 Bible Verse Songs

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 7. - I have seen servants upon horses. A further description of the effect of the tyrant's perversion of equity. Such an allusion could not have been made in Solomon's reign, when the importation of horses was quite a new thing (1 Kings 10:28). Later, to ride upon horses was a distinction of the nobility (Jeremiah 17:25). Thus Amaziah's corpse was brought on horses to be buried in the city of David (2 Chronicles 25:28): Mordecai was honored by being taken round the city on the king's own steed (Esther 6:8, etc.). Princes walking as servants upon the earth. "Princes" (sarim); i.e. masters, lords. Some take the expressions here as figurative, equivalent to "those who are worthy to be princes," and "those who are fit only to be slaves;" but the literal is the true interpretation. Commentators quote what Justin (41:3) says of the Parthians, "Hoc denique discrimen inter serves liberos-que, quod servi pedibus, Liberi non nisi equis iuccdunt." Ginsburg notes that early travelers in the East record the fact that Europeans were not allowed by the Turks to ride upon horses, but were compelled either to use asses or walk on foot. In some places the privilege of riding upon horseback was permitted to the consuls of the great powers - an honor denied to all strangers of lower degree. Among the Greeks and Romans the possession of a horse with its war-trappings implied a certain amount of wealth and distinction. St. Gregory, treating of this passage ('Moral.,' 31:43), says, "By the name horse is understood temporal dignity, as Solomon witnesses .... For every one who sins is the servant of sin, and servants are upon horses, when sinner's are elated with the dignities of the present life. But princes walk as servants, when no honor exalts many who are full of the dignity of virtues, but when the greatest misfortune here presses them down, as though unworthy."

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(7) Considering that the importation of horses was a new thing in the reign of Solomon, we look on it as a mark of later age that a noble should think himself dishonoured by having to go on foot while his inferiors rode on horseback.