Own hurt. — The Hebrew is ambiguous. We might omit “own,” and understand the verse of the misery inflicted by a tyrant on his subject, not on himself. But the context speaks of the small gain from his oppressions to the tyrant himself.
Related Commentaries of Ecclesiastes 8:9
Ecclesiastes 8:9
9 All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: there is a time wherein one man ruleth over another to his own hurt.