Ecclesiastes 7:26

7:23-29 Solomon, in his search into the nature and reason of things, had been miserably deluded. But he here speaks with godly sorrow. He alone who constantly aims to please God, can expect to escape; the careless sinner probably will fall to rise no more. He now discovered more than ever the evil of the great sin of which he had been guilty, the loving many strange women,

Ecclesiastes 7:26 . And I find — By my own sad experience, which Solomon here records as a testimony of his true repentance for his foul miscarriages, for which he was willing to take shame to himself, not only from the present, but from all succeeding generations; more bitter than death is the woman — The strange woman, of whom he speaks so much in the Proverbs; more vexatious and pernicious, as producing those horrors of conscience, those reproaches, diseases, and other plagues, both temporal and spiritual, from God, which are far worse than the mere death of the body, and, after all these, everlasting destruction; whose heart is snares and nets — Who is full of crafty devices to ensnare men; and her hands — By gifts, or lascivious actions, as bands — Wherewith she holds them in cruel bondage, so that they have neither power nor will to forsake her, notwithstanding all the dangers and mischiefs which they know attend upon such practices. Whoso pleaseth God — Hebrew, he that is good before God, who is sincerely, and in the judgment of God, truly pious; shall escape her — Shall be preserved from falling into her hands.

Hereby he intimates, that neither a good temper of mind, nor great discretion, nor a good education, nor any other thing, except God’s grace, is a sufficient preservative from the dominion of fleshy lusts; but the sinner — Who rests satisfied without the saving grace of God and true piety, and therefore lives in known and wilful sin; shall be taken by her — Shall be entangled and held in her chains.

26. "I find" that, of all my sinful follies, none has been so ruinous a snare in seducing me from God as idolatrous women (1Ki 11:3, 4; Pr 5:3, 4; 22:14). As "God's favor is better than life," she who seduces from God is "more bitter than death." whoso pleaseth God—as Joseph (Ge 39:2, 3, 9). It is God's grace alone that keeps any from falling.

I find, by my own sad experience; which Solomon here records, partly as an instance of that folly and madness which he expressed in general, Ecclesiastes 7:25 , and partly as a testimony of his true repentance for his foul miscarriages, for which he was willing to take shame to himself, not only from the present, but from all succeeding generations. More bitter; more vexatious and pernicious, as producing those horrors of conscience, those reproaches, and diseases, and other plagues, both temporal and spiritual, from God, which are far worse than simple death and, after all these, everlasting destruction. The woman, the strange woman, of whom he speaks so much in the Proverbs, whose heart is snares and nets; who being subtle of heart, Proverbs 7:10 , is full of crafty devices to ensnare men; and her hands, either by gifts, or rather by lascivious actions, as bands; wherewith she holds them fast in cruel bondage; so that they have neither power nor will to forsake her, notwithstanding all the dangers and mischiefs which they know do attend upon such practices. Whoso pleaseth God, Heb. he that is good before God ; either, 1. Whom God loves and favours. Or rather, 2. Who is good sincerely, or in the judgment of God, who cannot be deceived, whereas hypocrites are frequently good in the eyes or opinions of men; which sense seems to be confirmed from the opposition of the sinner to him, both here and Ecclesiastes 2:26 .

Hereby he intimates that neither a good temper of mind, nor great discretion, nor good education and instruction, nor any other thing, except God’s grace, is a sufficient preservative from the dominion of this lust. Shall escape from her; shall be prevented from falling into that sin; or if by surprisal or strong temptation he be drawn to it, he shall be recovered out of it by true repentance. The sinner ; the wilful and obstinate sinner, who gives himself up to the common practice of this or other sins; he who is a sinner before the Lord, as the Sodomites are called, Genesis 13:13 , who is fitly opposed to him that is good before God; he in whom there is not a dram of true goodness; for otherwise all men are sinners, as was said, Ecclesiastes 7:20 . Shall be taken by her; shall be entangled and kept fast in her chains, as is implied, because this is opposed to escaping from her .

26 . And I find more bitter than death ] The result is a strange one in its contrast to the dominant tendency of Hebrew thought; especially we may add to that thought as represented by the Son of David with whom the Debater identifies himself. We think of the praises of the Shulamite in the Song of Solomon; of the language of Proverbs 5:13 ; and (though that is probably of later date) of the acrostic panegyric on the virtuous woman in Proverbs 31:10-31 ; and we find here nothing like an echo of them, but rather a tone of scorn, culminating in Ecclesiastes 7:28 in that which reminds us of the misogyny of the later maxim-makers of Greece, or of the Eastern king who never heard of any great calamity or crime without asking, Who is she? Such a change might, it is true, be explained as the result of the satiety into which the historical Solomon might have fallen as the penalty of his sensuality; and has its parallel in the cynical scorn of Catullus for the Lesbia whom he had once loved so tenderly (see Introduction , ch. iii.) and in that of a thousand others. Doubtless the words speak of such a personal experience on the part of the Debater. He had found no wickedness like that of the “strange woman,” such as she is painted in Proverbs 2:16-19 ; Proverbs 7:1-27 . But we can scarcely fail to trace the influence of the Greek thought with which, as we have seen, the writer had come into contact.

Of this the following may serve as samples out of a somewhat large collection. Μεστὸν κακῶν πέφυκε φορτίον γυνή . “A woman is a burden full of ills.” Ὅπου γυναῖκες εἰσι , πάντ ʼ ἐκεῖ κακά . “Where women are, all evils there are found.” Θηρῶν ἁπάντων ἀγριωτέρα γυνή . “Woman is fiercer than all beasts of prey.” Poet. Graec. Gnomici , Ed. Tauchnitz, p. 182. It might, perhaps, be pleaded in reference to this verse that the writer speaks of one class of women only, probably that represented in the pictures of Proverbs 2 or 7 and that the “ corruptio optimi est pessima ,” but the next verse makes the condemnation yet more sweeping. The suggestion that the writer allegorizes, and means by “the woman” here the abstract ideal of sensuality is quite untenable. In the imagery of “snares” and “nets” and “bands” some critics (Tyler) have traced a reminiscence of the history of Samson and Delilah (Judges 16). Such a reference to Hebrew history is however not at all after the writer’s manner, and it is far more natural to see in it the result of his own personal experience (see Introduction , ch. iii.). The Son of Sirach follows, it may be noted, in the same track of thought, though with a somewhat less sweeping condemnation ( Sir 25:15-26 ; Sir 26:6-12 ). whoso pleaseth God ] The marginal reading, whoso is good before God should be noted as closer to the Hebrew.

Verse 26. - One practical result of his quest Koheleth cannot avoid mentioning, though it comes with a suddenness which is somewhat startling. And I find more bitter than death the woman . Tracing men's folly and madness to their source, he finds that they arise generally from the seductions of the female sex. Beginning with Adam, woman has continued to work mischief in the world. "Of the woman came the beginning of sin," says Siracides, "and through her we all die" (Ecclus. 25:24); it was owing to her that the punishment of death was inflicted on the human race. If Solomon himself were speaking, he had indeed a bitter experience of the sin and misery into which women lead their victims (see 1 Kings 11:1, 4, 11 ). It may be thought that Koheleth refers here especially to "the strange woman" of Proverbs 2:16 , etc.; Proverbs 5:3, etc.; but in ver. 28 he speaks of the whole sex without qualification; so that we must conclude that he had a very low opinion of them. It is no ideal personage whom he is introducing; it is not a personification of vice or folly; but woman in her totality, such as he knew her to be in Oriental courts and homes, denied her proper position, degraded, uneducated, all natural affections crushed or undeveloped, the plaything of her lord, to be flung aside at any moment. It is not surprising that Koheleth's impression of the female sex should be unfavorable. He is not singular in such an opinion.