Charles Ellicott Commentary Ecclesiastes 4:13

"Better is a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king, who knoweth not how to receive admonition any more." — Ecclesiastes 4:13 (ASV)

The section beginning here presents great difficulties of interpretation, and in overcoming these, we have little help from the context, because of the abruptness with which, in this verse, a new subject is introduced.

Poor. —The word occurs again in this book (Ecclesiastes 9:15–16), but not elsewhere in the Old Testament: related words occur in Deuteronomy 8:9; Isaiah 40:20. No confidence can be placed in the attempts made to find a definite historical reference in this verse and the next.