Ecclesiastes Chapter 7 verse 21 Holy Bible

ASV Ecclesiastes 7:21

Also take not heed unto all words that are spoken, lest thou hear thy servant curse thee;
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BBE Ecclesiastes 7:21

Do not give ear to all the words which men say, for fear of hearing the curses of your servant.
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DARBY Ecclesiastes 7:21

Also give not heed unto all words that are spoken, lest thou hear thy servant curse thee.
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KJV Ecclesiastes 7:21

Also take no heed unto all words that are spoken; lest thou hear thy servant curse thee:
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WBT Ecclesiastes 7:21


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WEB Ecclesiastes 7:21

Also don't take heed to all words that are spoken, lest you hear your servant curse you;
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YLT Ecclesiastes 7:21

Also to all the words that they speak give not thy heart, that thou hear not thy servant reviling thee.
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Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 21. - Also take no heed unto all words that are spoken; literally, give not thy heart, as Ecclesiastes 1:13, etc. Here is another matter in which wisdom will lead to right conduct. You will not pay serious attention to evil reports either about yourself or others, nor regulate your views and actions according to such distortions of the truth. To be always hankering to know what people say of us is to set up a false standard, which will assuredly lead us astray; and, at the same time, we shall expose ourselves to the keen-eat mortification when we find, as we probably shall find, that they do not take us at our own valuation, but have thoroughly marked our weaknesses, and are ready enough to censure them. We have an instance of patience under unmerited reproof in the case of David when cursed by Shimei (2 Samuel 16:11), as he, or one like minded, says (Psalm 38:13), "I, as a deaf man, hear not; and I am as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth. Yea, I am as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs." Corn. a Lapide comments in words to which no translation would do justice, "Verbaenim non aunt verbera; aerem feriunt non hominem, nisi qui its attendit mordetur, sauciatur." Lest thou hear thy servant curse thee. The servant is introduced as an example of a gossip or calumniator, because he, if any one, would be acquainted with his master's faults, and be most likely to disseminate his knowledge, and blame from such a quarter would be most intolerable. Commentators appositely quote Bacon's remarks on this passage in his 'Advancement of Learning,' 8:2, where he notes the prudence of Pompey, who burned all the papers of Sertorius reread, containing, as they did, information which would fatally have compromised many leading men in Rome.

Ellicott's Commentary