Translation
Paraphrase
Wisdom makes the wise stronger than the ten most powerful men of a large city.
Footnotes
1: “powerful”
This word could mean physical strength such as that possessed by warriors, or it could be leadership power such as the power held by political leaders. The choice of this word quite possibly leaves things open to go either direction. This means that the wise are not only known as wise, but the more wisdom they gain, the more influence they will have over others.
The purpose is this verse is to highlight what he has been saying and what he will continue talking about – the nature of righteous living. A truly wise person will understand the difference between true spirituality and false spirituality. He was talking about people like the Pharisees hundreds of years before the Pharisees came along. Jesus likewise taught that the spirituality of the Pharisees was not true spirituality and thus was not a wise choice. Even though spirituality is the central issue here, the power that spiritual wisdom can give you may take various forms.