12 And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
And where one would fail, two will prevail; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
(12.) And if they prevail over (impersonal, any prevail over) the single, the doubles will stand before him (plural, the idea is that there are two to one), and the cord which is the triplex is not in haste broken (Jeremiah viii. 16; Judges xvi. 9).
13 Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, [¹]who will no more be admonished.
[¹] Hebrew who knoweth not to be admonished.
A Poor and Prudent young man is better than a Perverse old king, who cannot be prevailed on to listen to a warning.
(13.) Good is a child, poor (מסכן, occurs chapter iv. 13, ix. 15, 16 only; the root occurs in the sense ‘profitable,’ see Job xxii. 2; the idea seems to be, that kind of poverty which is economical and sparing) and wise from (‘above,’ that is; the ordinary מ־ of comparison;) a king old (זקן, the alliteration between miscan and zakan gives pungency. We have rendered this in the paraphrase by a corresponding alliteration) and befooled, who does not know how to be warned as yet. (The allusion here to Solomon is palpable, and this may account for the apparently redundant עוד, ‘as yet,’ at the end of the sentence.)