(15.) =The toil= (_i.e._ ‘anxious care,’ which is the meaning of this word) =of the foolish ones wearies him= (another distributive plural; the result of these various fools’ labour is weariness to each of them. It is also to be noticed that the verb is feminine, and yet עמל is usually masculine. Several nouns are, Stuart observes, masculine or feminine _ad libitum scriptoris_. There is however, we suspect, a perceptible difference in the meaning in these cases. The stricter agreement denotes closer union between the verb and its nominative; and if this be so, the idea of the passage may be rendered by ‘the toil of the fools is self-weariness’), =which= (full relative, equivalent therefore to ‘because’ he does) =not know= (or is instructed) =to= (in order to) =go towards= (אל, LXX. εἰς) =a city= (not _the_ city, as is usually rendered.) The obvious meaning would surely be, that the fool had lost his way, and hence as he is going wrong he has simply his trouble for his pains. 16 ¶ Woe to thee, O land, │ Ah! woe to thee, O country, when thy king _is_ a child, │ whose king is a child, and thy and thy princes eat in the │ princes eat in the morning. morning! │ (16.) =Woe to thee, land, whose king= is =a lad, and thy princes in the morning eat= (_i.e._ ‘feast,’ the morning being the proper time for work, and not for feasting. Compare Isaiah v. 11). 17 ¶ Blessed =art= thou, │ Blessed art thou, O country, O land, when thy king _is_ │ whose king is the son of the son of nobles, and thy │ nobles, and thy princes eat in princes eat in due season, │ due season, for strength and for strength, and not for │ not for drunkenness. drunkenness! │ (17.) =Blessings on thee, land, whose king= is =a son of nobles= (ἐλευθέρου, LXX.), =and thy princes in season eat, and not in drunkenness= (but the LXX. render καὶ οὐκ αἰσχυνθήσονται――‘and shall not be ashamed’――reading the בשתי as though the ב were radical, and deriving the word from בוש, ‘to be ashamed.’ Thus is probably preserved an intentional equivoke.) 18 ¶ By much slothfulness │ When they are idle, there the building decayeth; and │ is a slender support, and through idleness of the hands │ when both hands hang down, the house droppeth through. │ the roof-tree will weep. (18.) =By idlenesses= (Proverbs xix. 15 only; but עצל, ‘the sluggard,’ occurs continually in Proverbs, and once as a verb, Judges xviii. 9. The word is pointed as a dual, but the meaning ‘idlenesses’ suits the context) =decayeth= (מכך, occurs Kal, Psalms cvi. 43, niphal here, and hiphil Job xxiv. 24, _all_) =the beam= (הַמְּקָרֶה here only, but the word differs only in pointing from הַמִקְרֶה――the hap, and the equivoke could hardly be unintentional), =and in lowness of hands drops= (occurs Job xvi. 20, Psalms cxix. 28; but notice the readings of the LXX., which are peculiar) =the house.=