Charles Ellicott Commentary Ecclesiastes 10:8

"He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh through a wall, a serpent shall bite him." — Ecclesiastes 10:8 (ASV)

Commentators cannot be said to have been very successful in their attempts to trace a connection between the proverbs of this chapter. Perhaps nothing better can be said than that the common theme of these proverbs is the advantage of wisdom, and here in particular of caution in great enterprises. It is forcing the connection to imagine that the enterprise from which the writer seeks to dissuade is that of rebellion against the ruler whose error is condemned (Ecclesiastes 10:5).

Digs a pit. —See Proverbs 26:27; Sirach 27:26. The word used here for “pit” is found in later Hebrew and nowhere else in the Old Testament.

A hedge. —Rather, a stone wall, in whose crevices serpents often dwell. (Lamentations 3:9; Amos 5:19.) This verse allows for a curious verbal comparison with Isaiah 58:12, builder of the breach, in one, answering to “breacher of the building” in the other.