Ecclesiastes 9:13

13 This wisdom also I have seen under the sun, and it seemed to me to be very great:

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 turned me to another thing, and I saw that under the sun, the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the learned, nor favour to the skilful: but time and chance in all.

12 Man knoweth not his own end: but as fishes are taken with the hook, and as birds are caught with the snare, so men are taken in the evil time, when it shall suddenly come upon them.

13 This wisdom also I have seen under the sun, and it seemed to me to be very great:

14 A little city, and few men in it: there came against it a great king, and invested it, and built bulwarks round about it, and the siege was perfect.

15 Now there was found in it a man poor and wise, and he delivered the city by his wisdom, and no man afterward remembered that poor man.