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Date: 17 December 2023

Ecclesiastes – Pity the fool

It was in the 1982 classic, Rocky 3, that Clubber Lang, played by Mr. T, was asked if he hated his upcoming boxing opponent, Rocky Balboa. His response is one of the best known lines in movies, “No, I don't hate Balboa, but I pity the fool.” The sentiment expressed by Solomon in Ecclesiastes 10 is similar to that expressed by Clubber Lang. He didn’t feel genuine sympathy for the foolish ruler (vv. 4-7), the foolish worker (vv. 8-11), the foolish talker (vv. 12-15), or the foolish officer (vv. 16-20), because they made their own foolish choices, but he considered it a great pity that they had deliberately taken a particular course of action, when they knew better, and had needlessly suffered the consequences of their foolishness.

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