Ecclesiastes 7:26

And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her. AND I FIND MORE BITTER THAN DEATH - (; .) "I find" that of all my sinful follies, none has been so ruinous a snare in seducing me from God as idolatrous women (1 Kings 11:3; Proverbs 5:3). Since "God's favour is better than life," she who seduces from God is "more bitter than death." Hengstenberg allegorizes "the woman" as an ideal personage, representing 'earthly, sensual, devilish wisdom,' in contrast to 'the wisdom from above' ...

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, 1 Kings 11:1. A woman thoroughly upright and godly, he had not found. How was he likely to find such a one among those he had collected? If any of them had been well disposed, their situation would tend to render them all nearly of the same character. He here warns others against the sins into which he had been betrayed. Many a godly man can with thankfulness acknowledge that he has found a prudent, virtuous woman in the wife of his bosom; but those men who have gone in Solomon's track, cannot expect to find one. He tra...

Verse 26. _AND I FIND MORE BITTER THAN DEATH THE WOMAN_] After all his investigation of the _wickedness of folly_, and the _foolishness_ _of madness_, he found nothing equally dangerous and ruinous with the _blandishments of cunning women_. When once the affections are entangled, escape without ruin is almost impossible. _WHOSO PLEASETH GOD_] The man who walks with God, and he alone, shall escape this sore evil: and even he that fears God, if he get with an artful woman, may be soon robbed of his strength, and become like other men. A bad or artful woman is represented as a _company of hunters_, with _nets, gins_, c., to catch their prey....

Compare the account of Solomon’s wives 1 Kings 11:1 : see also Proverbs 2:16; Proverbs 5:3......

EXPOSITION ECCLESIASTES 7:1 Ecclesiastes 12:8.—Division II. DEDUCTIONS FROM THE ABOVE-MENTIONED EXPERIENCES IN THE WAY OF WARNINGS AND RULES OF LIFE. ECCLESIASTES 7:1 Section 1. Though no man knows for certain what is best, yet there are _some practical rules for the conduct of life which wisdom gives_._ _Some of these Koheleth sets forward in the prov

AND I FIND MORE BITTER THAN DEATH THE WOMAN,.... This was the issue of his diligent studies and researches, and the observations he had made; this was what he found by sad and woeful experience, and which he chose to take particular notice of; that he might not only expose this vanity among others, and caution men against it, even the love of women, which at best is a bitter sweet, as the poet k calls it, though here adulterous love is meant; but having this opportunity, might express his sincere repentance for this folly of his life, than which nothing had been more bitter to him, in the reflection of his mind upon it: death is a bitter thing, and terrible to nature, 1 Samuel 15:32; but to be ensnared by an adulterous woman is worse than that; it brings not only such diseases of body as are both painful and scandalous, but such horrors into the conscience, when awakened, as

PART II. CHAPTER S 7-12 1. The Good Advice of the Natural Man, Discouragement and Failure CHAPTER 7 _ 1. The better things (Ecclesiastes 7:1)_ 2. The anomalies (Ecclesiastes 7:15) 3. The strength of wisdom, yet none perfect (Ecclesiastes 7:19) 4. The worst thing he found (Ecclesiastes 7:23) Ecclesiastes 7:1. All had been tested by the royal searcher; all was found out to be vanity and vexation of spirit. Darkness, discouragement, uncertainty and despai

PROVERBS AND REFLECTIONS. After asking, What is good for man in life? (Ecclesiastes 6:12), Qoheleth gives us advice as to what a man may do by way of mitigating his worries. First of all it is advisable for him to cultivate seriousness rather than levity (Ecclesiastes 7:1). The curious remark that a (good) name is better than precious ointment (_cf._ Ca. Ecclesiastes 1:3 *) is in the Heb. a play on the words _shem_ and _shemen;_ ointment is highly esteemed in the East. Ecclesiastes 7:1_ b_ reminds us of the Thracian tribe mentioned by Herodotus ...

_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 cr

WHOSE HEART IS SNARES AND NETS— _Who herself is a company of hunters; nay, her heart is nets; her hands are bands. He who is good in the presence of God shall escape from her,_ &c. The simile is here taken from hunting; and there is a distinction plainly marked in the original, and well observed by the ancients, between the woman herself on the one hand, and her heart and hands on the other; which I have endeavoured to preserve in the version that I have given. See Desvoeux, p. 396....