Ecclesiastes or Preacher 09 Wisdom is often more useful to others than to the one who possesses it.

 Ecclesiastes or Preacher 09

Wisdom is often more useful to others than to the one who possesses it.

11 I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the mighty, nor yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to the discerning, nor yet favor to men of understanding; but that time and chance belong to them all.

12 For man also does not know his time. Like fish caught in a wicked net, or like birds caught in a snare, so are the sons of men snared in evil weather, when it suddenly falls upon them.

13 I also saw wisdom under the sun, and it was great to me:

14 There was a small city, and there were few people in it; and a great king came against it and besieged it, and built great sieges against it.

15 And there lived a poor wise man, and he delivered that city by his wisdom; and no one remembered that poor man. 

16 Then I said, "Wisdom is better than strength." Yet the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.

17 The words of the wise are better heard in silence than the clamor of one who rules over fools.

18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.