Ecclesiastes 9:9-18 ▼

9 See life with the wife whom you have loved, all the days of the life of your vanity, that He has given to you under the sun, all the days of your vanity, for it [is] your portion in life, even of your labor that you are laboring at under the sun.

10 All that your hand finds to do, with your power do, for there is no work, and plan, and knowledge, and wisdom in Sheol to where you are going.

11 I have turned so as to see under the sun, that not to the swift [is] the race, nor to the mighty the battle, nor even to the wise bread, nor even to the intelligent wealth, nor even to the skillful grace, for time and chance happen with them all.

12 For even man does not know his time; as fish that are taken hold of by an evil net, and as birds that are taken hold of by a snare, the sons of man are snared like these at an evil time when it falls on them suddenly.

13 This also I have seen: wisdom under the sun, and it is great to me.

14 A little city, and few men in it, and a great king has come to it, and has surrounded it, and has built against it great bulwarks;

15 and there has been found in it a poor wise man, and he has delivered the city by his wisdom, and men have not remembered that poor man!

16 And I said, “Better [is] wisdom than might, and the wisdom of the poor is despised, and his words are not heard.”

17 The words of the wise are heard in quiet, || More than the cry of a ruler over fools.

18 Better [is] wisdom than weapons of conflict, || And one sinner destroys much good!