Ecclesiastes 7:25

Madness] As in Ecclesiastes 2:12, wickedness and madness are closely connected.

26-28. The writer gives us the general result of his experience of human character. Among men he has found but one true friend. The other sex he condemns without exception. We cannot tell why, ignorant as we are of the circumstances of his life. We must, however, remember that the position of women in the East has always been favourable to the growth of habits of frivolity, cunning, and licentiousness; also that elsewhere (Ecclesiastes 9 : cp. perhaps also Ecclesiastes 4:8) he modifies this judgment. It remained for Christianity to bring woman back to her rightful position as a helpmeet for man.