Ecclesiastes 10:2

A wise man's heart is at his right hand; but a fool's heart at his left.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(2) At his right hand.—Perhaps better, towards his right hand, i.e., leads him to go to the right hand. The thought is the same as Ecclesiastes 2:13, namely, that though the actual results of wisdom are often disappointing, the superiority of wisdom over folly is undeniable.

Benson Commentary

Ecclesiastes 10:2-3. A wise man’s heart is at his right hand — His understanding or wisdom is always present with him, and ready to direct him in all his actions. He manages all his affairs prudently and piously. He mentions the right hand because that is the common instrument of action. But a fool’s heart is at his left — His understanding and knowledge serve him only for idle speculation and vain ostentation, but is not useful or effectual to govern his affections and actions. Yea also, when he walketh by the way — Not only in great undertakings, but in his daily conversation; his wisdom faileth him — Hebrew, לבו חסר, his heart is wanting; he acts preposterously and foolishly, as if he were without a heart. He saith, &c. — He discovers his folly to all that meet him or converse with him.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:1-3 Those especially who make a profession of religion, should keep from all appearances of evil. A wise man has great advantage over a fool, who is always at a loss when he has anything to do. Sin is the reproach of sinners, wherever they go, and shows their folly.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The metaphor perhaps means "A wise man's sense is in its place, ready to help and protect him; but a fool's sense is missing when it is wanted, and so is useless."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2. (Ec 2:14).

right—The right hand is more expert than the left. The godly wise is more on his guard than the foolish sinner, though at times he slip. Better a diamond with a flaw, than a pebble without one.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

A wise man’s heart, i.e. his understanding or wisdom,

is at his right hand; is always present with him, and ready to direct him in all his actions. He manageth all his affairs prudently and piously. He mentions the right hand, because that is the chief and most common instrument of actions, which by most men are done with more strength, and expedition, and orderliness, and comeliness by their right hand than by their left.

A fool’s heart at his left; his understanding and knowledge serves him only for idle speculation and vain ostentation, but is not at all useful or effectual to govern his affections and actions. He acts preposterously and foolishly, like one without heart, as it follows.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

A wise man's heart is at his right hand,.... This is not designed to express the direct position and situation of the heart of man, wise or foolish, which is the same in both; and which, according to anatomists, is in the middle of the body, inclining to the left side; but the understanding and wisdom of men, as Aben Ezra observes; which, with a wise man, is ready a hand to direct and assist him in any affair; and which under the influence of it, he goes about with great readiness and dexterity, and performs it with great ease and facility, without sinister ends and selfish views; it inclines him to pursue the true way to honour, heaven, and happiness, which lies to the right; to seek things that are above, at the right hand of God; and, in all, his honour and glory;

but a fool's heart is at his left; he is at a loss for wisdom and understanding to direct him, when he has an affair of any moment upon his hand; which he goes about in an awkward manner, as left handed persons do, and has sinister ends in what he does; and he is to every good work reprobate and unfit, and seeks earth and earthly things, which lie to the left, and in all himself. The Targum is,

"the heart of a wise man is to get the law, which was given by the right hand of the Lord; and the heart of a fool to get the goods of gold and silver:''

so Jarchi,

"his wisdom is ready to incline him (the wise man) to the right hand way for his good; but the heart of a fool to pervert him from it.''

The ancients (o) used to call things wise and prudent the right hand and things foolish the left hand.

(o) Suidas in voce

Geneva Study Bible

A {a} wise man's heart is at his right hand; but a fool's heart is at his left.

(a) So that he does all things well and justly, where as the fool does the contrary.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

2. A wise man’s heart is at his right hand] The symbolism of the right or the left hand, the former pointing to effective, the latter to ineffective, action, is so natural that it is scarcely necessary to look for its origin in the special thoughts or customs of this or that nation. It is, however, noticeable, probably as another trace of the Greek influence which pervades the book, that this special symbolism is not found elsewhere in the Old Testament, in which to “be on the right hand” of a man is a synonym for protecting him (Psalm 16:8; Psalm 110:5), while to “sit on the right hand,” is to occupy the place of honour (Psalm 110:1). In Greece, on the other hand, the figurative significance was widely recognised. The left was with augurs and diviners the unlucky quarter of the heavens. So the suitors of Penelope see an ill-boding omen:

αὐτὰρ ὁ τοῖσιν ἀριστερὸς ἤλυθεν ὄρνις

αἰετὸς ὑψιπέτης, ἔχε δὲ τρήρωνα πέλειαν.

“But to them came an omen on the left,

A lofty eagle, holding in its claws

A timid dove.”

Od. xx. 242.

Or still more closely parallel, as indicating a mind warped and perverted by unwisdom, in Sophocles:

οὔποτε γὰρ φρενόθν γʼ ἐπʼ ἀριστερά,

ποῖ Τελαμῶνος, ἔβας τόσσον.

“For never else, O son of Telamon,

Had’st thou from reason gone so far astray,

Treading the left-hand path.”

Aias 184.

Our own use of the word “sinister” is of course, a survival of the same feeling. The highest application of the symbolism is found in those that are set “on the right hand” and “on the left” in the parable of Matthew 25:31-46.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 2, 3. - A tetrastich contrasting wisdom and folly. Verse 2. - A wise man's heart is at his right hand; but a fool's heart at his left. There is here no reference to the classical use of right and left, as ominous of success and disaster, which is never found in the Old Testament. The right hand is the place of honor, the left of inferiority, as a matter of fact, not of superstition and luck. The symbolism is intimated in Christ's account of the judgment (Matthew 25:31, etc.). But in the present passage we should best paraphrase - The wise man's heart, his understanding and sentiments, lead him to what is right and proper and straightforward; the fool's heart leads him astray, in the wrong direction. The former is active and skilful, the latter is slow and awkward. One, we may say, has no left hand, the other has no right. To be at the right hand is to be ready to help and guard. "The Lord is at thy right band," to protect thee, says the psalmist (Psalm 110:5). The wise man's mind shows him how to escape dangers and direct his course safely; the fool's mind helps him not to any good purpose, causes him to err and miss his best object. Ecclesiastes 10:2

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

A double proverb regarding wisdom and folly in their difference: "The heart of a wise man is directed to his right hand, and the heart of the fool to his left. And also on the way where a fool goeth, there his heart faileth him, and he saith to all that he is a fool." Most interpreters translate: The heart of the wise man is at his right hand, i.e., it is in the right place. But this designation, meant figuratively and yet sounding anatomically, would be in bad taste

(Note: Christ. Fried. Bauer (1732) explains as we do, and remarks, "If we translate: the heart of the wise is at his right hand, but the heart of the fool at his left, it appears as if the heart of the prudent and of the foolish must have a different position in the human body, thus affording to the profane ground for mockery.")

in this distinguishing double form (vid., on the contrary, Ecclesiastes 2:14). The ל is that of direction;

(Note: Accordingly, Ecclesiastes 10:2 has become a Jewish saying with reference to the study of a book (this thought of as Heb.): The wise always turn over the leaves backwards, repeating that which has been read; the fool forwards, superficially anticipating that which has not yet been read, and scarcely able to wait for the end.)

and that which is situated to the right of a man is figuratively a designation of the right; and that to the left, a designation of the wrong. The designation proceeds from a different idea from that at Deuteronomy 5:32, etc.; that which lies to the right, as that lying at a man's right hand, is that to which his calling and duty point him; השׂ denotes, in the later Hebrew, "to turn oneself to the wrong side."