NOTES for Ecc 7:19
Most of us heard from childhood that knowledge is a power. And we usually understood it in a totally practical way, according to the principle "forewarned - forearmed". Independently of the fact, if it was about scientific knowledge giving power over nature, or practical knowledge, allowing to orient correctly in a concrete situation. But the wisdom that the Ecclesiastes talks about, is probably all the same a different kind. It is enough to remember that wisdom in the time of Salomon was still also understood as an art of communication, judgment and governance.
Then the meaning of the statement somehow changes: as we see, the Ecclesiastes wants to say that the problem is not in power, as such, but to be able to dispose of it properly so as not to lose neither the power, nor oneself in the power. The second is of course much more complex than the first. And how to solve both problems at once? It turned out to be another important aspect of wisdom here: the wisdom, as the art of righteousness, as the habit to follow the Torah and the observation of commandments.
In those days, when the book was written, many, if it is not all, already understood that neither a just judgment, nor a just governance are possible for a governor, if it does not aspire for righteousness in all its plenitude, even if this plenitude remains inaccessible for man. And only such understood righteousness makes the governor really strong. Because now it is not the power that makes him strong, as governor, but he as a righteous governor made the power strong by his righteousness.