Ecclesiastes 9:14

There was once ¹  a small city with a few men in it, and a mighty king attacked it, besieging ²  it and building strong ³  siege works against it.

There was once a small city with only a few people in it. And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it and built huge siegeworks against it.

There was a small city with few men in it and a great king came to it, surrounded it and constructed large siegeworks against it.

There was a small town with only a few people living in it, and a great king came with his army and besieged it.

There was a small town with only a few people in it. A strong king came and mounted an attack, building trenches and attack posts around it.

There was a little town and the number of its men was small, and there came a great king against it and made an attack on it, building works of war round about it.

There was a little city with few people in it. A great king came against it and besieged it, building great siegeworks against it.

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.

There was once ¹  a small city with a few men in it, and a mighty king attacked it, besieging ²  it and building strong ³  siege works against it.

¹ tn The verbs in this section function either as past definite actions (describing a past situation) or as hypothetical past actions (describing an imaginary hypothetical situation for the sake of illustration). The LXX uses subjunctives throughout vv. 14-15 to depict the scenario as a hypothetical situation: “Suppose there was a little city, and a few men [lived] in it; and there should come against it a great king, and surround it, and build great siege-works against it; and should find in it a poor wise man, and he should save the city through his wisdom; yet no man would remember that poor man.”

² tn The two perfect tense verbs וְסָבַב (vÿsavav, “he besieged”) and וּבָנָה (uvanah, “he built”) may be taken in a complementary sense, qualifying the action of the main perfect tense verb וּבָא (uva’, “he attacked it”).

³ tn The root גדל (“mighty; strong; large”) is repeated in 9:13b for emphasis: “a mighty (גָדוֹל, gadol) king…building strong (גְדֹלִים, gÿdolim) siege works.” This repetition highlights the contrast between the vast power and resources of the attacking king, and the meager resources of the “little” (קְטַנָּה, qÿtannah) city with “few” (מְעָט, mÿ’at) men in it to defend it.