Ecclesiastes 9:13

13 Also this I came to see as wisdom under the sun, and it impressed me.

Ecclesiastes 9:13 Meaning and Commentary

Ecclesiastes 9:13

This wisdom have I seen also under the sun
Or, "this also I have seen under the sun, even wisdom" ^F8: besides those things he had, just now observed, he took notice that there was such a thing as wisdom among men; though success did not always attend the wise, the understanding, and skilful; and though there was so much ignorance in men, of their own time, and were so easily and suddenly ensnared in an evil time; and it [seemed] great unto me;
Solomon had a high value for wisdom, and he still retained the same sentiments of it he had before, in ( Ecclesiastes 2:13 ) ( Ecclesiastes 7:11 Ecclesiastes 7:12 Ecclesiastes 7:19 ) , of which he gives the following instance.

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FOOTNOTES:

F8 (vmvh txt hmkx ytyar hz Mg) "Hoc etiam vidi sub sole, nempe sapientiam", Tigurine version; "etiam hoc vidi, sapientiam sub sole", Cocceius; "etiam hoc vidi, videlicet, sapientiam sub sole", Gejerus.

Ecclesiastes 9:13 In-Context

11 I again saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift and the battle is not to the warriors, and neither is bread to the wise nor wealth to the discerning nor favor to men of ability; for time and chance overtake them all.

12 Moreover , man does not know his time: like fish caught in a treacherous net and birds trapped in a snare, so the sons of men are ensnared at an evil time when it suddenly falls on them.

13 Also this I came to see as wisdom under the sun, and it impressed me.

14 There was a small city with few men in it and a great king came to it, surrounded it and constructed large siegeworks against it.

15 But there was found in it a poor wise man and he delivered the city by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man.

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "great it was to me"