TEXT [Commentary]

  18.   The king: blessing or curse? (10:16-17)

16 What sorrow for the land ruled by a servant,[*]

the land whose leaders feast in the morning.

17 Happy is the land whose king is a noble leader

and whose leaders feast at the proper time

to gain strength for their work, not to get drunk.

NOTES

10:16 servant. The verse mourns for the land whose king is a na‘ar [TH5288, ZH5853], translated, not inappropriately, by “servant.” The Heb. word can denote either a young person or a person in a subservient position. The latter is more likely in the present context because the contrast drawn in the next verse is with a noble person. In either case, whether understood as servant, youth, or immature, the na‘ar has no business being on the throne. The situation will lead to the deterioration of the land.

COMMENTARY [Text]

These verses treat a royal theme and in that regard are similar to verse 20. Some commentators (Ogden 1987:174-175) treat 10:16-20 as a unit dealing with wisdom concerning kings, but this does not take into account that 10:18-19 has nothing to do with the king, so we will treat 10:16-20 in three separate sections.

Verses 16-17 first present a dirge over the land with a king who is immature or who is a follower rather than a leader, and they follow this with a blessing upon a land with a king who is responsible and fit for rule.

Verse 16 is an example of a theme found in many wisdom texts in antiquity. It describes a topsy-turvy world, where followers are leaders and leaders are followers. To have a land where the king is a servant means certain distress. Such a king will not be responsible, and the leaders of the country will start the day with a feast and never get to the work of administrating the country. Nothing will get done and the land will deteriorate. Similarly, Proverbs 30:21-23 includes this idea of a “slave who becomes a king” in a list of horrible situations.

In contrast, verse 17 presents a positive picture where everything is as it should be. The king comes from the nobility, not from the servant class. He eats at the right time and not to dissolution. The warning about leaders drinking too heavily reflects the advice King Lemuel received from his mother, according to Proverbs 31:4-7:

It is not for kings, O Lemuel, to guzzle wine.

Rulers should not crave alcohol.

For if they drink, they may forget the law

and not give justice to the oppressed.

Alcohol is for the dying,

and wine for those in bitter distress.

Let them drink and forget their poverty

and remember their troubles no more.