Komentaryo sa Eclesiastes 10:13: Tze'enah Ure'enah, Rashi & Kohelet Rabbah

“The beginnings of his words” [10:13]. The first words of Balaam to the Holy One were foolish. When the Holy One asked him, what type of people are with you? Balaam supposedly answered, You, God, know everything and who they are. He answered with arrogance. That is to say, when I, Balaam, am humble in your eyes, but the king Balak considers me important and he sent these nobles to me. At the end, he became crazy and very confused and did not know himself what he was talking.¹⁴⁹Rashi, Ecclesiastes, 10:13.

The beginning of his words is foolishness. When the Holy One, Blessed Is He, said to him [Bilam], “Who are these men with you?”²³Bamidbar 22:9. he should have replied, “Adonoy, You know,” but [instead] he said, “Balak son of Tzippor, king of Mo’av sent them to me,”²⁴Ibid., verse 10. i.e., though I may be despised in Your eyes, I am esteemed in the eyes of the earthly kings.

“The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, and the end of his mouth is evil debauchery” (Ecclesiastes 10:13).
“The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness” – as [Cyrus] said: “He is the God, who is in Jerusalem” (Ezra 1:3).⁶⁶Implying He is God only in Jerusalem. “And the end of his mouth is evil debauchery” – as he recanted and abrogated his decrees and said: Whoever has crossed⁶⁷The Euphrates has crossed, and whoever has not crossed shall not cross.
Another matter: “The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness” – this is Aḥashverosh, as it is stated: “And in the reign of Aḥashverosh, at the beginning of his reign, they wrote libel [against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem]” (Ezra 4:6). “And the end of his mouth [is evil debauchery]” – as he arose and abrogated the labor of the construction of the Temple.⁶⁸Aḥashverosh, who is also identified as Artaḥshasta, began his reign with the foolish decree to stop the rebuilding of the Temple due to the libel, and he continued to prevent its rebuilding for the remainder of his reign.

And the end of talk is [evil] madness. Madness and confusion [by advising], “Come I will counsel you” with foolish lewdness.²⁵Alternatively, from beginning [=תחלת] to end [=ואחרית], a fool’s statements are folly and madness. (Metsudas Dovid)