Ecclesiastes 7:27

27 "Look! I found this," said the Teacher, "while trying to find how the plan fits together.

Ecclesiastes 7:27 Meaning and Commentary

Ecclesiastes 7:27

Behold, this have I found
That a harlot is more bitter than death; and which he found by his own experience, and therefore would have it observed by others for their caution: or one man among a thousand, ( Ecclesiastes 7:28 ) ; (saith the preacher);
of which title and character see ( Ecclesiastes 1:1 ) ; it is here mentioned to confirm the truth of what he said; he said it as a preacher, and, upon the word of a preacher, it was true; as also to signify his repentance for his sin, who was now the "gathered soul", as some render it; gathered into the church of God by repentance; [counting] one by one, to find out the account;
not his own sins, which he endeavoured to reckon up, and find out the general account of them, which yet he could not do; nor the good works of the righteous, and the sins of the wicked, which are numbered before the Lord one by one, till they are added to the great account; as Jarchi, from the Rabbins, interprets it, and so the Midrash: but rather the sense is, examining women, one by one, all within the verge of his acquaintance; particularly the thousand women that were either his wives or concubines; in order to take and give a just estimate of their character and actions. What follows is the result.

Ecclesiastes 7:27 In-Context

25 I set my mind to try to seek wisdom and the plan, and to know that wickedness [is] foolishness and that folly [is] delusion.

26 I myself found [that] more bitter than death [is] the woman who [is] a trap, whose heart [is] a snare, and whose hands [are] bonds. The one who pleases God escapes from her, but the sinner is caught by her.

27 "Look! I found this," said the Teacher, "while trying to find how the plan fits together.

28 What my heart sought, I did not find. Although I found one righteous man among one thousand, I did not find one [upright] woman among all these.

29 Look! This alone I found: God made mankind upright, but they have devised many schemes."

Footnotes

• [a] Hebrew "Qohelet"