whoever digs a pit will fall into it

The now commonly-used German proverb wer (anderen) eine Grube gräbt, fällt selbst hinein, meaning any evil planned for others will come back to oneself was first coined in 1534 in the German Bible translation by Martin Luther. (Source: Zetzsche)

Other languages where this also has become a proverb which is based on Bible translations as well include Dutch (Wie een kuil graaft voor een ander… valt er zelf in, Danish (den, der graver en grav for andre, falder tit selv i den), Norwegian (Den som graver en grav, faller selv i den), French (Qui creuse un piège pour autrui y tombe), Spanish (El que cava una fosa para su prójimo, caerá en ella), Italian (Chi scava la fossa agli altri, ci cade dentro), or Latin (Qui fodit foveam alteri, incidet in eam).

complete verse (Ecclesiastes 10:8)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ecclesiastes 10:8:

  • Kupsabiny: “A person who digs a hole, may fall into it himself, and the one who makes a hole in a wall, a snake may come through it and bite that person.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Someone who digs a pit may fall into it himself.
    The person who tears down a wall may be bitten by a snake.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “If you (sing.) dig a pit, you (sing.) might fall. If you (sing.) break-through the hole of a stoned-wall, you (sing.) might be-bitten by a snake.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “It is possible that those who dig pits
    will fall into one of those pits.
    It is possible that someone who tears down a wall
    will be bitten by a snake that is in that wall.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Ecclesiastes 10:8

Verses 8-9 represent four examples of occupations in which the worker is exposed to certain risks. They illustrate the principle in 9.18 that wisdom or something of value can be destroyed by small errors or by some minor but unexpected danger.

The first of four examples of possible danger to the worker relates to He who digs a pit. A participle form “digging one” describes the worker. The illustration is not concerned with details about the hole or why it is being dug, so translation should be equally general.

Will fall into it renders the Hebrew imperfect verb form. As an illustration or example, Qoheleth is not saying that the person must inevitably fall into the hole he has dug, but that this is a possible danger. The English will fall is too strong; so we solve the problem by using “could,” “might,” “may” as the auxiliary verb with fall (so New American Bible and New English Bible). The sense of possible trouble is absent from Good News Translation, which says baldly “you fall into it,” giving the impression that it always happens. We can say “Anyone who digs a hole could fall into it,” or “A person who digs a hole might fall into it.”

The second and parallel possibility concerns him who breaks through a wall. The participle phrase breaks through refers to someone knocking a wall down (compare New English Bible “pulls down a wall”). The purpose of knocking it down is not of any concern here. The Hebrew term used for wall is used for walls along the roadside protecting a field, so probably this is what the example refers to rather than the wall of a house or room.

Qoheleth pictures a serpent, which has presumably been lying on the wall or in a hole in the wall, biting the person who disturbed it. Although serpent is a general term, the context seems to suggest a poisonous snake. Many language groups have no general term for snakes but identify each type by its own name. In such cases we can translate using the name of a poisonous snake found in rocky places.

Will bite: like the verb in the first part of the clause, this one should use the potential form, so “may bite” is a good choice. We should not follow Good News Translation for the same reasons as given above.

Some commentators interpret the danger presented in this and the following verses as a punishment. They suggest that the person must have done something wrong to deserve this misfortune. The Hebrew text, however, gives no reason for drawing this kind of conclusion. Qoheleth assumes that the snake was disturbed while the wall was being knocked down, and therein lies the danger. A possible translation is “anyone who knocks down a wall could be bitten by a snake hiding in it.”

A translation that preserves the grammatical parallelism in the verse may be:

• A person who digs a hole might fall into it;
A person who tears down a wall might get bitten by a snake.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Zogbo, Lynell. A Handbook on the Book of Ecclesiates. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .