Ecclesiastes 10:17
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
Blessed are you, O land, when your king is the son of nobles, and your princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!
American King James Version (AKJV)
Blessed are you, O land, when your king is the son of nobles, and your princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!
American Standard Version (ASV)
Happy art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!
Basic English Translation (BBE)
Happy is the land whose ruler is of noble birth, and whose chiefs take food at the right time, for strength and not for feasting.
Webster's Revision
Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!
World English Bible
Happy are you, land, when your king is the son of nobles, and your princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!
English Revised Version (ERV)
Happy art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!
Definitions for Ecclesiastes 10:17
Clarke's Ecclesiastes 10:17 Bible Commentary
When thy king is the son of nobles - uiov eleuyerwn, the son of freemen; persons well acquainted with the principles of civil liberty, and who rule according to them - Septuagint. Such a one as comes to the throne in a legitimate way, from an ancient regal family, whose right to the throne is incontestable. It requires such a long time to establish a regal right, that the state is in continual danger from pretenders and usurpers, where the king is not the son of nobles.
And thy princes eat in due season - All persons in places of trust for the public weal, from the king to the lowest public functionary, should know, that the public are exceedingly scandalized at repeated accounts of entertainments, where irregularity prevails, much money is expended, and no good done. These things are drawn into precedent, and quoted to countenance debauch in the inferior classes. The natural division of the day for necessary repasts is, Breakfast, eight, or half after; Dinner, one, or half after; Supper, eight, or half after. And these, or even earliers hours were formerly observed in these countries. Then we had scarcely any such thing as gout, and no nervous disorders.
In ancient nations the custom was to eat but once, and then about mid-day.
Barnes's Ecclesiastes 10:17 Bible Commentary
Son of nobles - i. e., of a noble disposition.
Wesley's Ecclesiastes 10:17 Bible Commentary
10:17 Nobles - Not so much by birth, as by their noble dispositions.