Ecc 7:26, 28 | JFB | STEP | 26. "I find" that, of all my sinful follies, none has been so ruinous a snare in seducing me from God as idolatrous women ( ). As "God's favor is better than life," she who seduces from God is "more bitter than death." whoso pleaseth God —as Joseph ( ). It is God's grace alone that keeps any from falling.

Ecclesiastes 7:26

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.

Ecclesiastes 7:28

28. Rather, referring to his past experience, "Which my soul sought further, but I found not."

one man—that is, worthy of the name, "man," "upright"; not more than one in a thousand of my courtiers (Job 33:23; Ps 12:1). Jesus Christ alone of men fully realizes the perfect ideal of "man." "Chiefest among ten thousand" (So 5:10). No perfect "woman" has ever existed, not even the Virgin Mary. Solomon, in the word "thousand," alludes to his three hundred wives and seven hundred concubines. Among these it was not likely that he should find the fidelity which one true wife pays to one husband. Connected with Ec 7:26, not an unqualified condemnation of the sex, as Pr 12:4; 31:10, &c., prove.