For what hath the wise more than the fool? what hath the poor, that knoweth to walk before the living?
Parallel translations
- WEB For what advantage has the wise more than the fool? What has the poor man, that knows how to walk before the living?
- BSB What advantage, then, has the wise man over the fool? What gain comes to the poor man who knows how to conduct himself before others?
- NKJV For what more has the wise man than the fool? What does the poor man have, Who knows how to walk before the living?
- NASB For what advantage does the wise person have over the fool? What does the poor person have, knowing how to walk before the living?
- NLT So are wise people really better off than fools? Do poor people gain anything by being wise and knowing how to act in front of others?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
What real advantage has the wise over the fool, or the poor who knows how to conduct himself? It matters because even wisdom and skill cannot exempt anyone from death and life's limits.
Overview
The Preacher asks pointed questions exposing that wisdom, while genuinely good, offers no escape from mortality or final futility 'under the sun.' Even the prudent poor man faces the same end. This humbling realism keeps wisdom in its place and directs hope beyond earthly advantage to God, whose wisdom in Christ secures what human wisdom cannot (1 Corinthians 1:30).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Prov 19:1Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity, than he that is perverse in his lips, and is a fool.
- Eccl 2:14–16The wise man’s eyes are in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness: and I myself perceived also that one event happeneth to them all.
- Ps 101:2I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.
- 1 Tim 6:17Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;
- Luke 1:6And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.
- Eccl 5:11When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?
- Ps 116:9I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.
- Gen 17:1And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The search that finds everything 'under the sun' to be vapor exposes the emptiness of life without God and drives us to the one who alone gives meaning, the resurrection that makes our labor not in vain.
How Ecclesiastes 6:8 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.