Ecclesiastes 9:16

Then said I, Wisdom is better than strength: nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard. WISDOM IS BETTER THAN STRENGTH - resuming the sentiment in . THE POOR MAN'S WISDOM IS DESPISED, AND HIS WORDS ARE NOT HEARD - permanently: though forced by necessity to hearken to him for a time, they soon forgot him. His poverty soon acted as a cloud, blinding the world to his merits. So Paul ()....

13-18 A man may, by his wisdom, bring to pass that which he could never do by his strength. If God be for us, who can be against us, or stand before us? Solomon observes the power of wisdom, though it may labour under outward disadvantages. How forcible are right words! But wise and good men must often content themselves with the satisfaction of having done good, or, at least, endeavoured to do it, when they cannot do the good they would, nor have the praise they should. How many of the good gifts, both of nature and Providence, does one sinner destroy and make waste! He who destroys his own soul destroys much good. One sinner may draw many into his destroying ways. See who are the friends and enemies of a kingdom or a family, if one saint does much good, and one sinner destroys much good....

Verse 16. _THE POOR MAN'S WISDOM_ IS _DESPISED, AND HIS WORDS ARE_ _NOT HEARD._] I cannot help pursuing this illustration a little farther. The soldier who found Archimedes busily employed in drawing figures upon the sand, put to him some impertinent question, withal rudely obtruding himself on his operations. To whom this wonderful mathematician replied, "Stand off, soldier, and do not spoil my diagram;" on which the bloody savage struck him dead!...

EXPOSITION ECCLESIASTES 9:1 One fate happens to all, and the dead are cut off from all the feelings and interests of life in the upper world. ECCLESIASTES 9:1 This continues the subject treated above, confirming the conclusion arrived at in Ecclesiastes 8:17, viz. that God's government of the world is unfathomable. FOR ALL THIS I CONSIDERED IN MY HEART EVEN TO DECLARE ALL THIS; literally, _for_ _all this laid up in my heart, and all this I have been about _(equivalent to _I sought_)_ to clear up_._ _The reference is both to what has been said and to what is coming. The ki,...

THEN SAID I, WISDOM [IS] BETTER THAN STRENGTH,.... Wisdom of mind, even in a poor man, is better than strength of body, even of the, most potent prince and powerful army, as may be concluded from the above instance; since the poor wise man could do more by his wisdom than the great king with his mighty army; who was obliged to break up the siege, in consequence of the counsel given, or the methods directed to, or taken, by the poor man; NEVERTHELESS, THE POOR MAN'S WISDOM [IS] DESPISED, AND HIS WORDS ARE NOT HEARD; notwithstanding such a flagrant instance and example as this just mentioned; yet men still retain their prejudices against a poor man, and despise his wise counsels and advice, for no other reason but because he is poor, and will not attend to what he says: or, "though the poor man's wisdom", c. k, as Aben Ezra Solomon drew the above conclusion from that instance; though this...

2. PRAISE OF WISDOM AND PHILOSOPHY, THEFINAL WORD AND THE GREAT CONCLUSION CHAPTER 9:13-18 Before he had declared that wisdom is strength. He comes back to this statement and gives an illustration of it. He is in a calmer mood, but what does his meditation amount to? Only to show that this also is vanity....

ECCLESIASTES 8:16 TO ECCLESIASTES 9:16. LIFE'S RIDDLE BAFFLES THE WISEST QUEST. The parenthesis in Ecclesiastes 8:16_ b_ describes the ceaseless effort of the keen student of life, or perhaps the fate of the toiler who is too tired to sleep; with Ecclesiastes 8:17; cf. Ecclesiastes 7:24; Job 11:6, and from the Christian standpoint Romans 11:33

_Wisdom is better than strength_ The maxim of ch. Ecclesiastes 7:19 is reproduced, but it is traversed by the fact that the wisdom must often be content to remain unrecognised. The power of the purse too often prevails against the wisdom of the poor. At the best, often, in words already quoted (Ecclesiastes 9:11), "Probitas laudatur et alget." "Virtue is praised, and left out in the cold." Juvenal, _Sat._i. 74. The marginal reference in the A. V. to Mark 6:2-3 is not without significance as indicating the highest illustration of the maxim, in the question which asked "Is not this the carpenter's son? Is he not himself a carpenter?" The chief butler's forgetfulness of Joseph ...

DISCOURSE: 842 WISDOM NOTIONALLY APPROVED, BUT PRACTICALLY DISREGARDED Ecclesiastes 9:14. _There was a little city, and few men within it: and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it. Now there was found in it a poor wise man: and he by his wisdom delivered the city: yet no man remembered that same poor man. Then said I, Wisdom is better than strength: nevertheless the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard_. WHETHER the account here given us was an actual occurrence, or only a parabolic representation, we will not undertake to determine: but certainly the event described may easily be supposed to have taken place, and to have come to the knowledge of Solomon. In fact, a precisely similar event had taken place within the memory of Solomon; the only difference being, that the city was saved by

THEN SAID I, WISDOM IS BETTER, &C.— _Then said I, Wisdom is preferable to power: Yet the wisdom of this experienced man is despised, and his deeds are not mentioned._ We have here the _first instance._ Though wisdom is, in its own nature, much superior to strength and power, (as plainly appears from the foregoing example, wherein strength was wanting, and yet a wonderful deliverance wrought by wisdom alone) yet it is not minded, when the possessor of it has nothing to recommend him besides his abilities and services, and his best actions are soon forgotten....