What Does Ecclesiastes 9:16 Mean?
And I say, wisdom is better than might, yet the poor man's wisdom is scorned, and his words are not heard.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Then said I, Wisdom is better than strength: nevertheless the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.THE KEY
Being unheard measures the room’s judgment of the speaker, not the worth of the wisdom.
THE MEANING
Wisdom can exceed force, yet its carrier can be discounted before the words are received. When poverty makes a speaker seem negligible, the silence reveals the hearers’ judgment, not the measure of the wisdom itself.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that being unheard proves a person has nothing worth hearing; this verse separates the worth of wisdom from the status granted to its speaker.
THE ROOT
נִשְׁמָעִים
nishma’im
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
To hear, listen to, or heed.
The form says the poor man’s words do not get heard or heeded. The Hebrew root can carry the sense of listening responsively, so the verse exposes a gatekeeping act: wisdom may be present while its audience refuses to receive it.
ALSO GROWS
shama: To hear or listen.
שָׁמַע
It is the verb behind the verse’s “heard,” making the failure of reception visible.
shomea: One who hears or listens.
שֹׁמֵעַ
The branch draws attention to the listener: the words’ reception depends on someone being willing to hear.
בְּזוּיָה
bezuyah
GROWS FROM
בזה
b-z-h
To despise or treat as worthless.
“scorned” in this verse is bezuyah. The contempt falls on the poor man’s wisdom, not on a lack of wisdom. The root shows how an audience can assign worthlessness to insight because of the person carrying it.
ALSO GROWS
bazah: To despise or hold in contempt.
בָּזָה
This verbal form makes the dismissal an act of judgment by others.
bizayon: Contempt or disgrace.
בִּזָּיוֹן
This noun names the social dishonor surrounding the wisdom, rather than any flaw in the wisdom itself.
חָכְמָה
chokhmah
GROWS FROM
חכם
ḥ-k-m
To be wise or skillful.
“wisdom” in this verse is chokhmah. Chokhmah can name skilled competence, including the skillful work described in Exodus 31:3, not only clever thought. Here that capacity is called better than strength, even while the poor person who carries it is disregarded.
ALSO GROWS
chakam: Wise or skillful; a wise person.
חָכָם
It shows wisdom as a quality a person carries, even when others fail to recognize it.
chokhmah: Wisdom or skill.
חָכְמָה
The same word names the capacity that the verse places above physical might.
THE PATTERN
People often let visible standing decide whom they hear, so wisdom can be present without receiving recognition.
Better is a poor and wise child than an old and thick-headed king, who no longer knows how to be warned.But the LORD said to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, for I have pushed him away. The LORD does not see as the human sees. The human sees what is outside, but the LORD sees the heart.And you look upon the one who wears shining clothing, and say to him, Sit here well; and say to the emptied one, Stand there, or sit here beneath my footstool.THE THREAD
The aligned cry out, and the LORD hears, and snatches them out of all their narrow places.Ecclesiastes says the poor man’s words do not get heard; Psalm 34:17 uses the same Hebrew root, שמע (shama, “hear”), when the LORD hears a cry. The shared verb sets human disregard beside divine attention, so being unheard by people is not the only measure of whether a voice is received.
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