Which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not
He was very earnest and diligent in his inquiry; he took a great
deal of pains, and was exceedingly solicitous; he sought with
great intenseness of mind, and with an eager desire, to find out
a chaste and virtuous woman among them all, but could not;
one man among a thousand have I found;
it is a great rarity to find a good man F14, truly
wise and gracious; there are many that walk in the broad way, and
but few that find the strait gate and narrow way, and are saved;
they are but as one to a thousand; see ( Jeremiah 5:1
) ( Matthew
7:13 Matthew 7:14
) . Or rather, by this one of a thousand, is meant the, Messiah,
the Wisdom of God, he sought for, ( Ecclesiastes
7:25 ) ; and now says he found; to whom he looked for peace,
pardon, and atonement, under a sense of his sins; who is the
messenger, an interpreter, one among a thousand; yea, who is the
chiefest among ten thousands, ( Job 33:23 ) ( Song of Solomon
5:10 ) ; who is superior to angels and men, in the dignity of
his person; in the perfection, purity, and holiness of his
nature; in the excellency of his names; in his offices and
relations; and in his concern in the affairs of grace and
salvation; and who is to be found by every truly wise and
gracious soul that seeks him early and earnestly, in the word and
ordinances, under the illumination and direction of the blessed
Spirit. If it is to be understood of a mere man, I should think
the sense was this; of all the men that have been ensnared and
taken by an adulterous woman, but one of a thousand have I
observed, and perhaps Solomon has respect to himself, that was
ever recovered out of her hands; but a woman among all
those have I not found;
that is, among all the harlots and adulterous women I ever knew
or heard of, I never knew nor heard of one that was ever
reclaimed from her evil ways, and reformed or became a chaste and
virtuous woman: he may have respect to the thousand women that
were either his wives and concubines, and, among all these, he
found not one that deserved the above character; for this is not
to be understood of women in general, for Solomon must have known
that there have been good women in all ages, and perhaps more
than men; and that there were many in his days, though those with
whom his more intimate acquaintance was were not such, which was
his unhappiness; and his criminal conversation with them is what
he lamented and repented of. It may be interpreted thus, One man,
the Messiah, among all the sons of men, have I found, free from
original sin; but one woman, among all the daughters of Eve, I
have not found clear of it. The Targum is,
``there is another thing which yet my soul seeketh, and I have not found; a man perfect and innocent, without corruption, from the days of Adam, till Abraham the righteous was born; who was found faithful and just among the thousand kings who were gathered together to build the tower of Babel; and a woman among all the wives of those kings, as Sarah, I found not.''