Irradiations of bismuth samples with thermal and epithermal neutrons have been performed for a comparison of activation to the $^{210g}\mathrm{Bi}$ ground state and to the $^{210m}\mathrm{Bi}$ metastable state. The bismuth irradiations were conducted at the Soreq IRR1 research reactor at a near-core location with integrated neutron flux of approximately $2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{18}\mathrm{neutrons}/\mathrm{c}{\mathrm{m}}^{2}$ and a gold cadmium ratio of 3.1. Two nearly identical bismuth samples were irradiated, one without and one with a cadmium shield, to enable a comparison between thermal and epithermal neutron capture cross sections. Subsequent gamma spectrometry indicates nearly equal levels of activation to the ground and to the metastable states of $^{210}\mathrm{Bi}$, both with thermal and epithermal neutrons. Absolute thermal cross sections and resonant integrals were deduced by including previously reported bismuth activation measurements performed conjointly with gold foil activation for normalization. A comparison of the present results with existing data is presented. It is argued that the bismuth resonances lie in the neutron energy range relevant for stellar temperatures, and therefore the neutron capture cross section ratio $({\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{g}/{\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{m})$ measured for the epithermal neutrons is relevant also for stellar $^{210}\mathrm{Bi}$ production. This is of importance since bismuth lies at the end of the chain for the s\penalty1000-\hskip0ptprocess reaction for nucleosynthesis in stars. Precise knowledge of bismuth activation to the $^{210m}\mathrm{Bi}$ metastable state is also vital for the planning of GEN-IV reactors given the 3-million-yr half-life of $^{210m}\mathrm{Bi}$.