Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Ecclesiastes 10:2

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 (Psalms 16:8; Psalms 110:5), while to "sit on the right hand," is to occupy the place of honour (Psalms 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."

Aias184.

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.

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Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Ecclesiastes 10:2

Old Testament

New Testament