14There was once a small city with only a few people in it. And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it and built huge siegeworks against it.


In Context

11 I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.

12 Moreover, no man knows when his hour will come: As fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare, so men are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them.

13 I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed me:

14 There was once a small city with only a few people in it. And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it and built huge siegeworks against it.

15 Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom. But nobody remembered that poor man.

16 So I said, "Wisdom is better than strength." But the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are no longer heeded.

Ecclesiastes 9:14 in Other Translations

The King James Version of the Holy Bible

9:14[There was] a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it:

The Douay-Rheims Version of the Holy Bible

9:14A little city, and few men in it: there came against it a great king, and invested it, and built bulwarks round about it, and the siege was perfect.

The American Standard Version of the Holy Bible

9:14There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it.

The Darby Bible Translation of the Holy Bible

9:14There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and encompassed it, and built great bulwarks against it:

The English Revised Version of the Holy Bible

9:14There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it:

The Webster Bible Translation of the Holy Bible

9:14There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it:

The World English Bible Translation of the Holy Bible

9:14There was a little city, and few men within it; and a great king came against it, besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it.

The Young's Literal Translation of the Holy Bible

9:14A little city, and few men in it, and a great king hath come unto it, and hath surrounded it, and hath built against it great bulwarks;

The American King James Version of the Holy Bible

9:14There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it: