Ecclesiastes 9:14

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

There was once a small city with a few men in it, and a mighty king attacked it, besieging it and building strong siege works against it.

Additional Resources

Referenced Verses

  • 2 Sam 20:15-22 : 15 So Joab’s men came and laid siege against him in Abel of Beth Maacah. They prepared a siege ramp outside the city which stood against its outer rampart. As all of Joab’s soldiers were trying to break through the wall so that it would collapse, 16 a wise woman called out from the city,“Listen up! Listen up! Tell Joab,‘Come near so that I may speak to you.’” 17 When he approached her, the woman asked,“Are you Joab?” He replied,“I am.” She said to him,“Listen to the words of your servant.” He said,“Go ahead. I’m listening.” 18 She said,“In the past they would always say,‘Let them inquire in Abel,’ and that is how they settled things. 19 I represent the peaceful and the faithful in Israel. You are attempting to destroy an important city in Israel. Why should you swallow up the LORD’s inheritance?” 20 Joab answered,“Get serious! I don’t want to swallow up or destroy anything! 21 That’s not the way things are. There is a man from the hill country of Ephraim named Sheba son of Bicri. He has rebelled against King David. Give me just this one man, and I will leave the city.” The woman said to Joab,“This very minute his head will be thrown over the wall to you!” 22 Then the woman went to all the people with her wise advice and they cut off Sheba’s head and threw it out to Joab. Joab blew the trumpet, and his men dispersed from the city, each going to his own home. Joab returned to the king in Jerusalem.
  • 2 Kgs 6:24-7:20 : 24 The Lord Saves Samaria Later King Ben Hadad of Syria assembled his entire army and attacked and besieged Samaria. 25 Samaria’s food supply ran out. They laid siege to it so long that a donkey’s head was selling for eighty shekels of silver and a quarter of a kab of dove’s droppings for five shekels of silver. 26 While the king of Israel was passing by on the city wall, a woman shouted to him,“Help us, my master, O king!” 27 He replied,“No, let the LORD help you. How can I help you? The threshing floor and winepress are empty.” 28 Then the king asked her,“What’s your problem?” She answered,“This woman said to me,‘Hand over your son; we’ll eat him today and then eat my son tomorrow.’ 29 So we boiled my son and ate him. Then I said to her the next day,‘Hand over your son and we’ll eat him.’ But she hid her son!” 30 When the king heard what the woman said, he tore his clothes. As he was passing by on the wall, the people could see he was wearing sackcloth under his clothes. 31 Then he said,“May God judge me severely if Elisha son of Shaphat still has his head by the end of the day!” 32 Now Elisha was sitting in his house with the community leaders. The king sent a messenger on ahead, but before he arrived, Elisha said to the leaders,“Do you realize this assassin intends to cut off my head? Look, when the messenger arrives, shut the door and lean against it. His master will certainly be right behind him.” 33 He was still talking to them when the messenger approached and said,“Look, the LORD is responsible for this disaster! Why should I continue to wait for the LORD to help?” 1 Elisha replied,“Listen to the LORD’s message. This is what the LORD has said,‘About this time tomorrow a seah of finely milled flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.’” 2 An officer who was the king’s right-hand man responded to the prophet,“Look, even if the LORD made it rain by opening holes in the sky, could this happen so soon?” Elisha said,“Look, you will see it happen with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of the food!” 3 Now four men with a skin disease were sitting at the entrance of the city gate. They said to one another,“Why are we just sitting here waiting to die? 4 If we go into the city, we’ll die of starvation, and if we stay here we’ll die! So come on, let’s defect to the Syrian camp! If they spare us, we’ll live; if they kill us– well, we were going to die anyway.” 5 So they started toward the Syrian camp at dusk. When they reached the edge of the Syrian camp, there was no one there. 6 The Lord had caused the Syrian camp to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a large army. Then they said to one another,“Look, the king of Israel has paid the kings of the Hittites and Egypt to attack us!” 7 So they got up and fled at dusk, leaving behind their tents, horses, and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives. 8 When the men with a skin disease reached the edge of the camp, they entered a tent and had a meal. They also took some silver, gold, and clothes and went and hid it all. Then they went back and entered another tent. They looted it and went and hid what they had taken. 9 Then they said to one another,“It’s not right what we’re doing! This is a day to celebrate, but we haven’t told anyone. If we wait until dawn, we’ll be punished. So come on, let’s go and inform the royal palace.” 10 So they went and called out to the gatekeepers of the city. They told them,“We entered the Syrian camp and there was no one there. We didn’t even hear a man’s voice. But the horses and donkeys are still tied up, and the tents remain up.” 11 The gatekeepers relayed the news to the royal palace. 12 The king got up in the night and said to his advisers,“I will tell you what the Syrians have done to us. They know we are starving, so they left the camp and hid in the field, thinking,‘When they come out of the city, we will capture them alive and enter the city.’” 13 One of his advisers replied,“Pick some men and have them take five of the horses that are left in the city.(Even if they are killed, their fate will be no different than that of all the Israelite people– we’re all going to die!) Let’s send them out so we can know for sure what’s going on.” 14 So they picked two horsemen and the king sent them out to track the Syrian army. He ordered them,“Go and find out what’s going on.” 15 So they tracked them as far as the Jordan. The road was filled with clothes and equipment that the Syrians had discarded in their haste. The scouts went back and told the king. 16 Then the people went out and looted the Syrian camp. A seah of finely milled flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, just as in the LORD’s message. 17 Now the king had placed the officer who was his right-hand man at the city gate. When the people rushed out, they trampled him to death in the gate. This fulfilled the prophet’s word which he had spoken when the king tried to arrest him. 18 The prophet told the king,“Two seahs of barley will sell for a shekel, and a seah of finely milled flour for a shekel; this will happen about this time tomorrow in the gate of Samaria.” 19 But the officer replied to the prophet,“Look, even if the LORD made it rain by opening holes in the sky, could this happen so soon?” Elisha said,“Look, you will see it happen with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of the food!” 20 This is exactly what happened to him. The people trampled him to death in the city gate.

Similar Verses (AI)

These verses are found using AI-powered semantic similarity based on meaning and context. Results may occasionally include unexpected connections.

  • Eccl 9:15-16
    2 verses
    82%

    15However, a poor but wise man lived in the city, and he could have delivered the city by his wisdom, but no one listened to that poor man.

    16So I concluded that wisdom is better than might, but a poor man’s wisdom is despised; no one ever listens to his advice.

  • Eccl 9:13
    79%

    13Most People Are Not Receptive to Wise Counsel This is what I also observed about wisdom on earth, and it is a great burden to me:

  • Neh 7:4
    77%

    4Now the city was spread out and large, and there were not a lot of people in it. At that time houses had not been rebuilt.

  • Prov 21:22
    74%

    22A wise man went up against the city of the mighty and brought down the stronghold in which they trust.

  • Eccl 7:19
    74%

    19Wisdom Needed Because No One is Truly Righteous Wisdom gives a wise person more protection than ten rulers in a city.

  • Job 3:14
    74%

    14with kings and counselors of the earth who built for themselves places now desolate,

  • Luke 14:30-31
    2 verses
    72%

    30They will say,‘This man began to build and was not able to finish!’

    31Or what king, going out to confront another king in battle, will not sit down first and determine whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?

  • Judg 9:51
    71%

    51There was a fortified tower in the center of the city, so all the men and women, as well as the city’s leaders, ran into it and locked the entrance. Then they went up to the roof of the tower.

  • Prov 18:11
    71%

    11The wealth of a rich person is like a strong city, and it is like a high wall in his imagination.

  • Ezek 4:2
    70%

    2Lay siege to it! Build siege works against it. Erect a siege ramp against it! Post soldiers outside it and station battering rams around it.

  • Nah 2:5
    70%

    5The commander orders his officers; they stumble as they advance; they rush to the city wall and they set up the covered siege tower.

  • Nah 3:14
    70%

    14Draw yourselves water for a siege! Strengthen your fortifications! Trample the mud and tread the clay! Make mud bricks to strengthen your walls!

  • Prov 10:15
    70%

    15The wealth of a rich person is like a fortified city, but the poor are brought to ruin by their poverty.

  • 2 Chr 14:7
    70%

    7He said to the people of Judah:“Let’s build these cities and fortify them with walls, towers, and barred gates. The land remains ours because we have followed the LORD our God; we have followed him, and he has made us secure on all sides.” So they built the cities and prospered.

  • Prov 24:31-32
    2 verses
    70%

    31I saw that thorns had grown up all over it, the ground was covered with weeds, and its stone wall was broken down.

    32Then I scrutinized it. I was putting my mind to it– I saw; I took in a lesson:

  • 2 Chr 17:12
    69%

    12Jehoshaphat’s power kept increasing. He built fortresses and storage cities throughout Judah.

  • Ezek 26:9
    69%

    9He will direct the blows of his battering rams against your walls and tear down your towers with his weapons.

  • Isa 22:10
    69%

    10You counted the houses in Jerusalem, and demolished houses so you could have material to reinforce the wall.

  • Isa 26:1
    69%

    1Judah Will Celebrate At that time this song will be sung in the land of Judah:“We have a strong city! The LORD’s deliverance, like walls and a rampart, makes it secure.

  • Dan 11:15
    69%

    15Then the king of the north will advance and will build siege mounds and capture a well-fortified city. The forces of the south will not prevail, not even his finest contingents. They will have no strength to prevail.

  • Deut 3:5
    69%

    5All of these cities were fortified by high walls, gates, and locking bars; in addition there were a great many open villages.

  • Eccl 2:9
    69%

    9So I was far wealthier than all my predecessors in Jerusalem, yet I maintained my objectivity:

  • 2 Sam 20:15
    69%

    15So Joab’s men came and laid siege against him in Abel of Beth Maacah. They prepared a siege ramp outside the city which stood against its outer rampart. As all of Joab’s soldiers were trying to break through the wall so that it would collapse,

  • Amos 5:9
    69%

    9He flashes destruction down upon the strong so that destruction overwhelms the fortified places.)

  • Jer 1:18
    68%

    18I, the LORD, hereby promise to make you as strong as a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall. You will be able to stand up against all who live in the land, including the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and all the people of the land.

  • Prov 11:11
    68%

    11A city is exalted by the blessing provided from the upright, but it is destroyed by the counsel of the wicked.

  • Prov 29:8
    68%

    8Scornful people inflame a city, but those who are wise turn away wrath.

  • Isa 24:12
    68%

    12The city is left in ruins; the gate is reduced to rubble.

  • Hag 2:16
    68%

    16From that time when one came expecting a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten; when one came to the wine vat to draw out fifty measures from it, there were only twenty.

  • Prov 14:28
    68%

    28A king’s glory is the abundance of people, but the lack of subjects is the ruin of a ruler.

  • 2 Chr 33:14
    68%

    14After this Manasseh built up the outer wall of the City of David on the west side of the Gihon in the valley to the entrance of the Fish Gate and all around the terrace; he made it much higher. He placed army officers in all the fortified cities in Judah.

  • Zeph 1:16
    68%

    16a day of trumpet blasts and battle cries. Judgment will fall on the fortified cities and the high corner towers.

  • Isa 41:28
    67%

    28I look, but there is no one, among them there is no one who serves as an adviser, that I might ask questions and receive answers.

  • 2 Chr 15:5-6
    2 verses
    67%

    5In those days no one could travel safely, for total chaos had overtaken all the people of the surrounding lands.

    6One nation was crushed by another, and one city by another, for God caused them to be in great turmoil.

  • Isa 2:15
    67%

    15for every high tower, for every fortified wall,

  • Job 12:14
    67%

    14If he tears down, it cannot be rebuilt; if he imprisons a person, there is no escape.

  • Job 29:7
    67%

    7When I went out to the city gate and secured my seat in the public square,

  • Ps 55:10
    67%

    10Day and night they walk around on its walls, while wickedness and destruction are within it.

  • Prov 24:6
    67%

    6for with guidance you wage your war, and with numerous advisers there is victory.

  • Eccl 9:18
    67%

    18Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner can destroy much that is good.

  • Ps 37:16
    67%

    16The little bit that a godly man owns is better than the wealth of many evil men,

  • Isa 3:2
    67%

    2the mighty men and warriors, judges and prophets, omen readers and leaders,

  • 2 Kgs 24:10
    67%

    10At that time the generals of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon marched to Jerusalem and besieged the city.

  • Zech 2:4
    67%

    4and said to him,“Hurry, speak to this young man as follows:‘Jerusalem will no longer be enclosed by walls because of the multitude of people and animals there.