Where no counsel [is], the people fall,.... Where there is no wise and prudent, sound and good counsel, as the word signifies; where that is not, there had as good be none, or better; a people, a kingdom, a commonwealth, nation, or city, fall into ruin and destruction, or into schemes which bring them to it; they are like a ship without a pilot, or without a helm, or one to steer it: the Targum, Syriac, and Vulgate Latin versions, render it,
"where there is no governor;''
and the Arabic version,
"they that have no providence (or forecast) fall as a leaf falls;''
and so the Septuagint version,
"they that have no government fall as leaves,''
as leaves fall in autumn; and the word signifies the helm of government o, in allusion to a ship;
but in the multitude of counsellors [there is] safety; because what one may miss another may hit upon; and, if they agree in their advice, it may be the more depended upon; and, if not, yet their different sentiments being compared together, and the reasons of them, a person may the better judge which is best to follow, and what is fit to be done: it may be rendered, "in the greatness" or "largeness of a counsellor" p, for the word is in the singular number; that is, in the large capacity or endowments of a counsellor; in one that is abundantly qualified for a counsellor; whose abilities are not to be questioned; in the advice of such an one a man may safely confide; and who that answers to this character as Jesus Christ, the wonderful Counsellor? in whose counsel we may rest with the greatest safety; and which may be found in his word, in the Scriptures, which David says should be the men of his counsel, Psalms 119:24; see Isaiah 9:6.
o תחבלות "gubernationes", Schultens. p ברב יועץ "in amplitudine consiliarii", Junius & Tremellius.