Ecclesiastes Rabbah 10:5

¹“There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, like an error that emerges from before the ruler” (Ecclesiastes 10:5). “There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, like an error that emerges from before the ruler” – so said Jacob to Laban: “With whomever you find your gods, he shall not live […and Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them]” (Genesis 31:32). So it was, “like an error that emerges from before the ruler,” and Rachel died. The son of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi had something that he swallowed [lodged in his throat]. [Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi] went and brought one of the disciples of bar Pandeira to extricate what he had swallowed. He said to him: ‘What did you recite over him?’ He said to him: ‘This passage after that.’ He said: ‘It would have been preferable for him to be buried and not have you recite that passage over him.’ So it was, “like an error that emerges from before the ruler.” Rabbi Yirmeya of Shabashta took a crown of olive branches and tied it on his head. Shmuel heard and said: ‘It would have been preferable for him to be beheaded and not to have done so.’ So it occurred to him. Antoninus the younger, grandson of Antoninus the elder, was asking our holy Rabbi, he said: ‘Who will die first, me or you?’ He said to him: ‘I will.’ His students said to him: ‘Our Rabbi, the whole world is praying for your good life, and this is what you say?’ He said to them: ‘If my time arrives [first] what of it? And if the angel of death comes to take him [first], what will he say to him: Do not come to me [first], I am not coming? Moreover, if it will be so, the gentiles will say: Blessed is the God of the Jews, as they even know the time of their death.’ So it occurred to him, “like an error that emerges from before the ruler.” Another matter: “There is an evil that I have seen…like an error that emerges from before the ruler” – this is Eli the priest, who said to Samuel: My sons will not inherit my position, so, too, your sons will not inherit your position. 11a). Eli demanded that Samuel tell him what prophecy God had revealed to him, and cursed him if he would not reveal the prophecy (see I Samuel 3:17). Although Samuel did reveal the prophecy, Eli’s curse came true nonetheless. So it was, “like an error that emerges from before the ruler.”