Ecclesiastes 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: 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 verse pictures a little city with few men or defenders inside it, against which a great and powerful king comes, lays siege, and builds great bulwarks or fortifications against it. A poor wise man found in the city delivers it by his wisdom. His deliverance proves that wisdom is better than strength and weapons of war, accomplishing what strength and weapons cannot, and that even the great bulwarks built against the city by knowledge and strength are overcome by wisdom.
The account is a literal example of God's pattern of accomplishing victory through one person, as when Jonah, commissioned by God, brought the great city of Nineveh to repentance and took it for God. The excellency of knowledge is that wisdom gives life to those who have it, so accumulated knowledge of Scripture truth alone amounts to nothing and puffs up until humble wisdom directs how to use it to glorify God. The church must therefore prize both gifts, because one supplements the other.
Though he delivers the city, the poor wise man is afterward forgotten. That forgetting illustrates political life, where wealthy men gain office and preferment while the poor wise man is overlooked.