Better is a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king, who knoweth not how to receive admonition any more.
Ecc 4:13 “Better is a youth poor and wise, than a king old and foolish, who no longer understands how to be warned,” - i.e., who increases his folly by this, that he is “wise in his own eyes,” Pro 26:12; earlier, as עוד denotes, he was, in some measure, accessible to the instruction of others in respect of what was wanting to him; but...
The "threefold cord" [Ecc 4:12] of social ties suggests the subject of civil government. In this case too, he concludes that kingly power confers no lasting happiness. The "wise" child, though a supposed case of Solomon, answers, in the event foreseen by the Holy Ghost, to Jeroboam, then a poor but valiant youth, once a "servant" of Solomon, and (Kg1 11:26-40) appointed by God through...
Solomon was himself a king, and therefore may be allowed to speak more freely than another concerning the vanity of kingly state and dignity, which he shows here to be an uncertain thing; he had before said so (Pro 27:24, The crown doth not endure to every generation), and his son found it so. Nothing is more slippery than the highest post of honour without wisdom and the people's love.
Commenting on Ecclesiastes 4:13-16