Ecclesiastes 9:13

13 Also I saw this wisdom under the sun, and I proved it the most.

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 under [the] sun, that running is not of swift men, neither battle is of strong men, neither bread is of wise men, neither riches be of teachers, nor grace is of craftsmen; but time and hap is in all things . (I turned me to another thing, and I saw under the sun, that the race is not always to the swift, or the battle to the strong, or bread to the wise, or riches to those who teach, or favour to the skilled, but timing and happenstance be to everything.)

12 A man knoweth not his end; but as fishes be taken with an hook, and as birds be taken with a snare, so men be taken in (an) evil time, when it cometh suddenly [up]on them.

13 Also I saw this wisdom under the sun, and I proved it the most.

14 A little city, and few men therein; a great king came against it, and compassed it with pales, and he builded strongholds, either engines, by compass; and [the] besieging was made perfect. (There was a small city, with only a few people in it; a great king came against it, and surrounded it with posts, and he built strongholds, or bulwarks, all around it; and so the siege was made perfect.)

15 And a poor man and a wise was found therein; and he delivered the city by his wisdom, and no man bethought afterward on that poor man. (And a poor but wise man was found there; and he saved the city by his wisdom, but afterward no one thought much about that poor man.)