Ecclesiastes Chapter Nine, Spurning Wisdom

Ecclesiastes 9:13 This wisdom I have also seen under the sun, and it seemed great to me: [14] There was a little city with few men in it; and a great king came against it, besieged it, and built great snares around it. [15] Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that same poor man. [16] Then I said: “Wisdom is better than strength. Nevertheless the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard. [17] Words of the wise, spoken quietly, should be heard rather than the shout of a ruler of fools. [18] Wisdom is better than weapons of war; but one sinner destroys much good.”

The preacher would have obviously heard the story of the siege at Abel during the twilight years of David as king. In truth, he would have already been alive and likely a young man at this point, serving as a prince under his father. The history of the siege of Abel, and the events that led to it, are chronicled in 2 Samuel chapter 20. Sheba, a man of Benjamin and a rebel, tried to get Israel to defect from David after a dispute between Judah and the other tribes, 2 Samuel 20:1, 2.

David recognized the danger of permitting Sheba to live and so sent an army after him. The reason for his haste to dispatch this potential political insurgent was due to the fact that his throne had already been jeopardized and technically taken by David’s son, Absalom. Having just won it back, and Absalom no longer being a threat to the crown, the king was eager to silence dissidents. Thus Joab and the army of Judah besieged Abel of Beth Maachah, where Sheba had hidden himself away. They built a siege mound against the city, and were ready to storm it and slaughter the inhabitants, but Joab was stayed by an old woman. Their exchange is a vivid demonstration of how words may have an impact greater than weapons of warfare.

The woman’s initial volley to Joab was thus, “They used to talk in former times, saying, ‘They shall surely seek guidance at Abel,’ and so they would end disputes,” 2 Samuel 20:18. Apparently, the town of Abel was renowned for being a place of wisdom because those with disputes (presumably legal disputes) would make pilgrimages to, in order to receive proper guidance. Also, Abel was not an adorning village for a larger town. It was a walled town, and the army was casting up a siege mound to overcome this difficult obstacle, 2 Samuel 20:15. In later generations Abel would be conquered by Ben Hadad of Syria in King Asa’s time, and the Assyrian king, Tiglath-pileser would capture it during Pekah, king of northern Israel’s time. However, in Joab’s time the city had garnered a reputation as an abode for the wise.

Before permitting Joab to respond, the old woman continues her dialogue. “I am among the peaceable and faithful in Israel. You seek to destroy a city and a mother in Israel. Why would you swallow up the inheritance of the Lord?” 2 Samuel 20:19. Now we know that in former times Abel was a revered place for the wise, and within it there were at least people like herself, both peaceable (that is, pursuing peace for the commonwealth of the nation) and faithful; faithful to Yahweh, and by extension faithful to Yahweh’s anointed king. The ESV lends a little clarity that Abel is, “a city that is a mother in Israel.” The focus is not on the woman, but on the city, which she claims is held up as a maternal figure, a place of wisdom where people go to settle matters. None of these statements are challenged by Joab.

Rather than argue with the woman, the king’s general answers her, “Far be it, far be it from me, that I should swallow up or destroy! That is not so. But a man from the mountains of Ephraim, Sheba the son of Bichri by name, has raised his hand against the king, against David,” 2 Samuel 20:20, 21. Joab is in agreement with the old woman, in that his intention was not to destroy a city, but to kill a rebel. One rebel, Sheba by name. His orders from King David were not to level Abel, but to put an end to Sheba’s attempted insurrection. If he needed to level a city to accomplish his goal, so be it. But if another legitimate means presented itself, he was ready and willing to listen, so long as he could carry out the king’s order. When she became aware of this, and learned why her city was in peril, she went to the people “in her wisdom,” 2 Samuel 20:22. Both parties were in despair. Joab was a soldier following orders. The people of Abel were desperate men, ready to defend their city and families from their own countrymen, knowing it was a doomed venture.

The old woman called a counsel or town meeting, explained clearly their danger and how it could be avoided. The people delivered to Joab Sheba’s head, and delivered to Sheba the natural consequence of rebelling against the king’s authority. The result was swift and I would imagine extremely relieving: “they withdrew from the city, every man to his tent,” 2 Samuel 20:22. The parallel between the conclusion of chapter 9 and this near-battle in David’s latter years are too similar to dismiss as coincidence. Perhaps the old woman was not remembered for her quick thinking and sagely counsel. There is the old saying that those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. The woman demonstrated what the preacher proclaimed: “Wisdom is better than weapons of war.” Wisdom is superior to weapons of war, I would paraphrase.

This situation reminds me of our Lord Jesus, and what Caiaphas said regarding Him. “You know nothing at all, nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish,” John 11:49, 50. Jesus, by His wisdom, would deliver His people Israel from their sin, and through His sacrifice the world would be redeemed to God. The chapter concludes with the notion that “one sinner destroys much good.” In Sheba’s case, it nearly cost David his throne a second time in short order. In our Lord’s case it is the leaven of sinful men invading the church with false teachings, to pollute the gospel with half-truths and peripheral ideas that are shoved to the fore rather than left in the far corners. This is why the preacher lamented that the poor man’s wisdom was despised, and his words unheard. Much of what is considered Christendom no longer adheres to the Scriptures as a source of authority, as THE source of authority in word and practice. But for those of us who are called, the preacher reminds everyone that, “words of the wise, spoken quietly, should be heard rather than the shout of a ruler of fools.”