Ecclesiastes 7:24-26
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
24 What exists is far-reaching; it is deep, very deep:[a] Who can find it out? 25 [b](A)I turned my heart toward knowledge; I sought and pursued wisdom and its design, and I recognized that wickedness is foolishness and folly is madness.
Critique of Advice on Women. 26 (B)More bitter than death I find the woman[c] who is a hunter’s trap, whose heart is a snare, whose hands are prison bonds. The one who pleases God will be delivered from her, but the one who displeases will be entrapped by her.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 7:24 Far-reaching…deep: the spatial metaphor here emphasizes wisdom’s inaccessibility, a frequent theme in wisdom literature; cf. Jb 28; Prv 30:1–4; Sir 24:28–29; Bar 3:14–23.
- 7:25–29 The emphasis is on the devious designs of human beings in general, reflecting the viewpoint of Genesis.
- 7:26 More bitter than death…the woman: warnings against the scheming, adulterous woman are common in ancient wisdom (e.g., Prv 2:16–19, etc.).
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