Verse 20
In spite of such bad leadership, Solomon urged restraint. If you complain, those in authority may eliminate you. Corrupt officials often have supporters in the most private places who take the names and words of complainers back to their masters. As the old saying goes, "Walls have ears."
Was Solomon saying that people should submit to governmental corruption and oppression without ever speaking out? The practices of Jesus, the prophets, and the apostles cast doubt on this interpretation. Probably Solomon had conditions in view in which there was no possibility that speaking out would produce any change for the better. In this section he was addressing the fact that wise people may lose their influence because of the actions of others (Ecclesiastes 10:12-20). His point was, do not endanger your future unnecessarily. He was not speaking about how to effect change in a crooked government (cf. Isaiah 5:11-12; Amos 6:4-6; 2 Peter 2:13-19).
"Everything that has been said about wisdom and folly points again to the main lesson of Ecclesiastes: the need to face life as it really is, and take our life day by day from the hand of a sovereign God." [Note: Eaton, p. 138.]
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