Ecclesiastes 9:16
Good News Translation
I have always said that wisdom is better than strength, but no one thinks of the poor as wise or pays any attention to what they say.

New Revised Standard Version
So I said, “Wisdom is better than might; yet the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are not heeded.”

Contemporary English Version
So I decided that wisdom is better than strength. Yet if you are poor, no one pays any attention to you, no matter how smart you are.

New American Bible
Though I had said, “Wisdom is better than force,” yet the wisdom of the poor man is despised and his words go unheeded.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And I said that wisdom is better than strength: how then is the wisdom of the poor man slighted, and his words not heard?

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

And I said that wisdom is better than strength: how then is the wisdom of the poor man slighted, and his words not heard?

wisdom

Ecclesiastes 9:18 Better is wisdom, than weapons of war: and he that shall offend in one, shall lose many good things.

Ecclesiastes 7:19 Wisdom hath strengthened the wise more than ten princes of the city.

Proverbs 21:22 The wise man hath scaled the city of the strong, and hath cast down the strength of the confidence thereof.

Proverbs 24:5 A wise man is strong: and a knowing man, stout and valiant.

the poor

Proverbs 10:15 The work of the just is unto life: but the fruit of the wicked unto sin.

Mark 6:2,3 And when the Sabbath was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were in admiration at his doctrine, saying: How came this man by all these things? and what wisdom is this that is given to him, and such mighty works as are wrought by his hands? . . .

John 7:47-49 The Pharisees therefore answered them: Are you also seduced? . . .

John 9:24-34 They therefore called the man again that had been blind and said to him: Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner. . . .

1 Corinthians 1:26-29 For see your vocation, brethren, that there are not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble. . . .

James 2:2-6 For if there shall come into your assembly a man having a golden ring, in fine apparel; and there shall come in also a poor man in mean attire: . . .

Context
Wisdom is Better than Strength
15Now 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. 16And I said that wisdom is better than strength: how then is the wisdom of the poor man slighted, and his words not heard?17The words of the wise are heard in silence, more than the cry of a prince among fools.…
Cross References
Proverbs 8:14
By me kings reign, and lawgivers decree just things.

Proverbs 21:22
The wise man hath scaled the city of the strong, and hath cast down the strength of the confidence thereof.

Ecclesiastes 7:12
For as wisdom is a defence, so money is a defence: but learning and wisdom excel in this, that they give life to him that possesseth them.

Ecclesiastes 7:19
Wisdom hath strengthened the wise more than ten princes of the city.

Ecclesiastes 9:18
Better is wisdom, than weapons of war: and he that shall offend in one, shall lose many good things.

Ecclesiastes 9:15
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