9:11. I turned me to another thing, and I saw that under the sun, the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the learned, nor favour to the skilful: but time and chance in all. 9:12. Man knoweth not his own end: but as fishes are taken with the hook, and as birds are caught with the snare, so men are taken in the evil time, when it shall suddenly come upon them. 9:13. This wisdom also I have seen under the sun, and it seemed to me to be very great: 9:14. A 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. 9:15. Now 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. 9:16. And I said that wisdom is better than strength: how then is the wisdom of the poor man slighted, and his words not heard? 9:17. The words of the wise are heard in silence, more than the cry of a prince among fools. 9:18. Better is wisdom, than weapons of war: and he that shall offend in one, shall lose many good things. Ecclesiastes Chapter 10 Observations on wisdom and folly, ambition and detraction. 10:1. Dying flies spoil the sweetness of the ointment. Wisdom and glory is more precious than a small and shortlived folly. 10:2. The heart of a wise man is in his right hand, and the heart of a fool is in his left hand. 10:3. Yea, and the fool when he walketh in the way, whereas he himself is a fool, esteemeth all men fools. 10:4. If the spirit of him that hath power, ascend upon thee, leave not thy place: because care will make the greatest sins to cease. 10:5. There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, as it were by an error proceeding from the face of the prince: 10:6. A fool set in high dignity, and the rich sitting beneath. 10:7. I have seen servants upon horses: and princes walking on the ground as servants. 10:8. He that diggeth a pit, shall fall into it: and he that breaketh a hedge, a serpent shall bite him. 10:9. He that removeth stones, shall be hurt by them: and he that cutteth trees, shall be wounded by them. 10:10. If the iron be blunt, and be not as before, but be made blunt, with much labour it shall be sharpened: and after industry shall follow wisdom. 10:11. If a serpent bite in silence, he is nothing better that backbiteth secretly. 10:12. The words of the mouth of a wise man are grace: but the lips of a fool shall throw him down headlong. 10:13. The beginning of his words is folly, and the end of his talk is a mischievous error. 10:14. A fool multiplieth words. A man cannot tell what hath been before him: and what shall be after him, who can tell him? 10:15. The labour of fools shall afflict them that know not how to go to the city. 10:16. Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and when the princes eat in the morning.