Ecclesiastes 10:7
New International Version
I have seen slaves on horseback, while princes go on foot like slaves.

New Living Translation
I have even seen servants riding horseback like princes—and princes walking like servants!

English Standard Version
I have seen slaves on horses, and princes walking on the ground like slaves.

Berean Standard Bible
I have seen slaves on horseback, while princes go on foot like slaves.

King James Bible
I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth.

New King James Version
I have seen servants on horses, While princes walk on the ground like servants.

New American Standard Bible
I have seen slaves riding on horses and princes walking like slaves on the land.

NASB 1995
I have seen slaves riding on horses and princes walking like slaves on the land.

NASB 1977
I have seen slaves riding on horses and princes walking like slaves on the land.

Legacy Standard Bible
I have seen slaves riding on horses and princes walking like slaves on the land.

Amplified Bible
I have seen slaves riding on horses and princes walking like slaves on the ground.

Christian Standard Bible
I have seen slaves on horses, but princes walking on the ground like slaves.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
I have seen slaves on horses, but princes walking on the ground like slaves.

American Standard Version
I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking like servants upon the earth.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
I have seen Servants upon horses and Rulers walking like Servants upon the Earth

Brenton Septuagint Translation
I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants on the earth.

Contemporary English Version
they let slaves ride on horses, but force slave owners to walk.

Douay-Rheims Bible
I have seen servants upon horses: and princes walking on the ground as servants.

English Revised Version
I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
I have seen slaves sitting on horses and influential people going on foot like slaves.

Good News Translation
I have seen slaves on horseback while noblemen go on foot like slaves.

International Standard Version
And I have observed servants riding on horses, while princes walk on the ground like servants.

JPS Tanakh 1917
I have seen servants upon horses, And princes walking as servants upon the earth.

Literal Standard Version
I have seen servants on horses, | And princes walking as servants on the earth.

Majority Standard Bible
I have seen slaves on horseback, while princes go on foot like slaves.

New American Bible
I have seen slaves on horseback, while princes went on foot like slaves.

NET Bible
I have seen slaves on horseback and princes walking on foot like slaves.

New Revised Standard Version
I have seen slaves on horseback, and princes walking on foot like slaves.

New Heart English Bible
I have seen servants on horses, and princes walking like servants on the earth.

Webster's Bible Translation
I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth.

World English Bible
I have seen servants on horses, and princes walking like servants on the earth.

Young's Literal Translation
I have seen servants on horses, And princes walking as servants on the earth.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Wisdom and Folly
6Folly is appointed to great heights, but the rich sit in lowly positions. 7I have seen slaves on horseback, while princes go on foot like slaves. 8He who digs a pit may fall into it, and he who breaches a wall may be bitten by a snake.…

Cross References
Esther 6:8
have them bring a royal robe that the king himself has worn and a horse on which the king himself has ridden--one with a royal crest placed on its head.

Proverbs 19:10
Luxury is unseemly for a fool--how much worse for a slave to rule over princes!

Proverbs 30:22
a servant who becomes king, a fool who is filled with food,


Treasury of Scripture

I have seen servants on horses, and princes walking as servants on the earth.

Proverbs 19:10
Delight is not seemly for a fool; much less for a servant to have rule over princes.

Proverbs 30:22
For a servant when he reigneth; and a fool when he is filled with meat;

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Earth Foot Horseback Horses Princes Riding Rulers Servants Slaves Walking
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Earth Foot Horseback Horses Princes Riding Rulers Servants Slaves Walking
Ecclesiastes 10
1. observations of wisdom and folly
7. death in life
9. and the day of judgment in the days of youth, are to be thought on














(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.

Verse 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."

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
I have seen
רָאִ֥יתִי (rā·’î·ṯî)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - first person common singular
Strong's 7200: To see

slaves
עֲבָדִ֖ים (‘ă·ḇā·ḏîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 5650: Slave, servant

on
עַל־ (‘al-)
Preposition
Strong's 5921: Above, over, upon, against

horseback,
סוּסִ֑ים (sū·sîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 5483: A swallow, swift (type of bird)

while princes
וְשָׂרִ֛ים (wə·śā·rîm)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 8269: Chieftain, chief, ruler, official, captain, prince

go
הֹלְכִ֥ים (hō·lə·ḵîm)
Verb - Qal - Participle - masculine plural
Strong's 1980: To go, come, walk

on
עַל־ (‘al-)
Preposition
Strong's 5921: Above, over, upon, against

foot
הָאָֽרֶץ׃ (hā·’ā·reṣ)
Article | Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 776: Earth, land

like slaves.
כַּעֲבָדִ֖ים (ka·‘ă·ḇā·ḏîm)
Preposition-k | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 5650: Slave, servant


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OT Poetry: Ecclesiastes 10:7 I have seen servants on horses (Ecclesiast. Ec Ecc Eccles.)
Ecclesiastes 10:6
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