“Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man.”
My Notes
What Does Ecclesiastes 9:15 Mean?
The Preacher tells a parable: a poor wise man saved a city through wisdom — but afterward, nobody remembered him. "Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man." The wisdom was effective. The remembrance was absent. The rescue was real but the rescuer was forgotten.
The poverty is the reason for the forgetting: "yet no man remembered that same poor man." The wisdom that saved everyone was delivered by a person whose poverty made him invisible. The same poverty that didn't prevent the wisdom from working did prevent the wisdom's source from being honored. The city was saved. The saver was erased from memory.
The Preacher's conclusion (verse 16): "wisdom is better than strength" — but the poor man's wisdom is despised. The evaluation and the experience don't match: wisdom IS objectively better than strength. But the wise poor person IS subjectively despised. The value of wisdom is real. The world's treatment of the wise poor person contradicts the value.
Reflection Questions
- 1.Whose wisdom has benefited your life without being properly credited?
- 2.Why does poverty erase the memory of contributions that were genuinely valuable?
- 3.How does the gap between wisdom's objective value (better than strength) and its subjective treatment (despised when poor) describe your world?
- 4.What would it look like to remember the poor wise person whose insight saved your situation?
Devotional
He saved the city. With wisdom. Nobody remembered him. The poor wise man delivered everyone through his insight — and then everyone forgot he existed. The rescue was real. The remembering wasn't.
The poverty is the eraser: the man who saved the city through wisdom was poor. And the poverty that didn't prevent his wisdom from working prevented his wisdom from being honored. The same community that benefited from his insight lost track of his name. The memory of the rescue survived. The memory of the rescuer didn't.
The Preacher tells this story to illustrate one of Ecclesiastes' most painful observations: wisdom works but the world doesn't reward it the way strength is rewarded. The general who conquers by force gets the statue. The poor wise man who delivers by insight gets forgotten. Both saved the city. One is remembered. One isn't. The method (wisdom versus strength) determines the recognition, not the result.
The forgetfulness isn't malicious. It's structural: poor people are invisible in every society. Their contributions are absorbed without attribution. The insight that saved the city was consumed like food — gratefully in the moment, forgotten by the next meal. The poor wise man is the anonymous contributor whose work everyone benefits from and nobody credits.
The Preacher's verdict is balanced: wisdom IS better than strength (verse 16). AND the poor man's wisdom IS despised (verse 16). Both are true. The objective value of wisdom doesn't match the subjective treatment of the wise poor. The best strategy for saving cities doesn't produce the best strategy for being remembered.
Whose wisdom has saved your situation — and have you remembered them? Or has their poverty made them invisible?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
Now there was found in it a poor wise man,.... Christ, who is man, though not a mere man, but God as well as man; who…
A parable probably without foundation in fact. Critics who ascribe this book to a late age offer no better suggestion…
Solomon still recommends wisdom to us as necessary to the preserving of our peace and the perfecting of our business,…
and he by his wisdom delivered the city The history of the siege of Abel-beth-Maachah in 2Sa 20:14-20 presents a…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture