Ecclesiastes 9:13

"This, too, I have observed about wisdom under the sun, and it affected me profoundly: there was a small town with only a few inhabitants; and a mighty king came upon it and surrounded it, and built great siege works over it. Present in the city was a poor wise man who by his wisdom saved the town. Yet no one remembered that poor man. "While some people say that all things are uncertain, and that the righteous have no more than the wicked, I see even the greatest wisdom in this verse, because it happens repeatedly that there is a small township with only a few inhabitants, and it is surrounded by an army of a very powerful enemy, and the people inside is killed by the siege and by hunger. And suddenly and unexpectedly a poor man is found, who has more wisdom than all the rich men, than all those powerful and pompous men who are in danger, and who fear the siege. And he thinks, seeks and finds an answer as to how the town might be saved from the oppressors. But O ungrateful oblivion of men, after they were freed from bondage and released from captivity, and the freedom was given back to the fatherland, no one remembers that wise old man, no one gives thanks for their salvation, but all show honour to the rich, who were able to do nothing to help when in time of danger. My Hebrew tutor interpreted this passage differently: the small town, he says, is man, who even amongst learned men is called less clean. And the few men in the town, are the members by which the man shields and covers himself. But when a great king comes against it, that is the devil, and he searches for a place by which he might break through, and in the town is found a poor and wise man, that is the calm thought of that man on the inside, and that is what saves the town, which is surrounded and besieged by the enemy. […]

Second, the defect of order in the governance of providence is shown in particular, and this in three ways. "This wisdom also I have seen under the sun." He determined above the deficiency of the governance of providence in general; here he intends to show …

This wisdom, that is, this which he here describes, wisdom which enables a man to serve his country out of pure affection to its interests, when he himself gains no advantage by it, no, not so much as thanks for his pains, or the reputation of it, this is the wisdom which, Solomon says, seemed great unto him,

, to be the perverse reasoning of the atheists against the doctrine of God's providence; but I rather take it to be Solomon's concession, which he might the more freely make when he had fixed those truths which are sufficient to guard against any ill use that may be made of what he grants.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation

2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — verbatim-scripture