New Living Translation (NLT)
Ecclesiastes 10
8 When you dig a well, you might fall in. When you demolish an old wall, you could be bitten by a snake.
9 When you work in a quarry, stones might fall and crush you. When you chop wood, there is danger with each stroke of your ax.
10 Using a dull ax requires great strength, so sharpen the blade. That’s the value of wisdom; it helps you succeed.
11 If a snake bites before you charm it, what’s the use of being a snake charmer?
12 Wise words bring approval, but fools are destroyed by their own words.
13 Fools base their thoughts on foolish assumptions, so their conclusions will be wicked madness;
14 they chatter on and on. No one really knows what is going to happen; no one can predict the future.
15 Fools are so exhausted by a little work that they can’t even find their way home.
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.
18 Laziness leads to a sagging roof; idleness leads to a leaky house.
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