Jerome : "Wisdom is good with an inheritance: and by it there is profit to them that see the sun. For wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence: but the advantage of knowledge is, that wisdom gives life to those that have it. "A wise man with riches has more glory than just a wise man alone. For some men need wisdom, some wealth, but he who is both wise and not rich is able to teach what is good, but meanwhile he can't show what is to be sought. Therefore he says, since the protection of wisdom is the protection of money, then just as wisdom protects, so too money also protects. And lest he seem to detract from wisdom, while he adds to it by good fortune, (for it is not in our power to obtain riches, which often the unrighteous own in greater quantity), he therefore shows wisdom to be greater, saying "but the advantage of knowledge is, that wisdom gives life to those that have it." In that respect, he says, wisdom is greater than riches, because without any wealth it preserves those who think themselves rich. Certain scholars see this passage in a different way: they say that he places heredity in place of good association, by which we are the heirs of God, and co-heirs of Christ. Therefore Ecclesiastes wants to teach how much of a difference there is between those who merit seeing the sun (of justice), and have wisdom by their good association, and those in contrast, who without wisdom have only enthusiasm for vice and association. Since even David shows this, saying "the intelligent shine out by their speech, as the shining bodies of the sky" [Dan. 12. 3.], or as Theodotion interpreted this, "just as the brightness of the firmament. Indeed those who wrote my speeches are as the stars of the sky". But we ought to take that protection of silver (or money) according to "anagoge [See footnote 50.] "from which talents and coins are collected in the parables of the Gospels [Cfr Matth. 25, 14-23; Luc. 19. 12-25.], just as when we were under the protection of wisdom and under the protection of such money: "the sun does not burn us by day, nor the moon by night". [Ps. 120, 6.] But this can even be said to be true since protection is our life on the earth: "the breath of our nostrils, the anointed Christ our Lord of whom we said: under His shadow we should live among the heathen". [Thren. 4, 20.] All of our protection in this life is like a shade, or like wisdom, or as is said about money, until the day moves on and the shadows move away. Symmachus interprets this more clearly in his usual manner, saying, "just as wisdom protects, so too money protects in a similar fashion". But the following verse openly encourages the enthusiasm for knowledge. — Commentary on Ecclesiastes