Ecclesiastes 7:26 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
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.
properly · conjunction + verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
bitter
מַ֣רmar
H4751
bitter (literally or figuratively) · adjective, masculine singular absolute
death
מִמָּ֗וֶתmi.Ma.vet
H4194
death (natural or violent) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
woman
הָֽאִשָּׁה֙ha.'i.Shah
H802
a woman · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
heart
לִבָּ֖הּli.Bah
H3820
the heart · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
snares
מְצוֹדִ֧יםme.tzo.Dim
H4685
a net (for capturing animals or fishes) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
nets
וַחֲרָמִ֛יםva.cha.ra.Mim
H2764
physical (as shutting in) a net (either literally or fi… · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural absolute
hands
יָדֶ֑יהָya.Dei.ha
H3027
a hand (the open one (indicating power · noun, common both genders dual construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
bands
אֲסוּרִ֣ים'a.su.Rim
H612
a bond (especially manacles of a prisoner) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
pleaseth
ט֞וֹבTov
H2896
good (as an adjective) in the widest sense · adjective, masculine singular absolute
God
הָאֱלֹהִים֙ha.'E.lo.Him
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
escape
יִמָּלֵ֣טyi.ma.Let
H4422
properly · verb, niphal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
sinner
וְחוֹטֵ֖אve.cho.Te'
H2398
properly · conjunction + verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
taken
יִלָּ֥כֶדyi.La.khed
H3920
to catch (in a net · verb, niphal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Proverbs 22:14 The mouth of strange women is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the LORD shall fall therein.
Proverbs 5:3-5 For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
Proverbs 2:16 To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words;
Proverbs 2:18-19 For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead.
Ecclesiastes 2:26 For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap…
Proverbs 7:21-27 With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.
Proverbs 23:27-28 For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.
Judges 16:18-21 And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up this once, fo…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 7:23–end
Solomon had hitherto been proving the vanity of the world and its utter insufficiency to make men happy; now here he comes to show the vileness of sin, and its certain tendency to make men miserable; and this, as the former, he proves from his own experience, and it was a dear-bought experience. He is here, more than any where in all this book, putting on the habit of a penitent. He reviews what he had been discoursing of already, and tells us that what he had said was what he knew and was well assured of, and what he resolved to stand by: All this have I proved by wisdom, Ecc 7:23. Now here,
I. He owns and laments the deficiencies of his wisdom. He had wisdom enough to see the vanity of the…
"I find" that, of all my sinful follies, none has been so ruinous a snare in seducing me from God as idolatrous women (Kg1 11:3-4; Pro 5:3-4; Pro 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 (Gen 39:2-3, Gen 39:9). It is God's grace alone that keeps any from falling.
John Gill on Ecclesiastes 7:26
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 t…
Solomon seems to me very wise in bestowing upon an indecent woman the face of every heresy and then saying about her that it is necessary to repudiate and to flee such a woman, "who is a hunter's snare, and her heart is a net, and in her hands are bonds." The good man before the face of God will be rescued from her and the sinner will be ensnared by her.
"My heart took a circuit to know the joy of the impious man and to examine carefully and to seek wisdom and a mode of calculating and to know joy through the impious man and trouble and disquietude, and I find that it is bitterer than death"—not because death is bitter, but because it is bitter for the impious one. And yet life is bitterer than death. For it is a greater burden to live for sin than to die in sin, because the impious person increases his sin as long as he lives, but if he dies, he ceases to sin.
Although a perfect apprehension of the truth is at present far removed from us by reason of the infirmity of the flesh, yet it is possible, as the Preacher himself has said, to perceive the madness of the impious, and having found it, to say that it is "more bitter than death." Therefore for this reason, as perceiving this and able to find it out, I have written, knowing that to the faithful the detection of impiety is a sufficient information wherein piety consists. For although it is impossible to comprehend what God is, yet it is possible to say what he is not.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Chastity · Saints are kept in — Saints are kept in
Heart, Character Of The Unrenewed · Ensnaring — Ensnaring
Net · FIGURATIVE — FIGURATIVE
Temptation · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Woman · Frequently: Subtle and deceitful — Frequently: Subtle and deceitful
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
"And I found woman more bitter than death; she is like hunting-nets. and like snares is her heart, her hands are bands: he who pleaseth God will escape from her; but the sinner is caught by them." As א ושׁ, Ecc 4:2, so here וּם א gains by the preceding אני וסבּותי a past sense;
(Note: With reference to this passage and Pro 18:22, it was common in Palestine when one was married to ask מצא או מוחא = happy or unhappy? Jebamoth 63b.)
the particip. clause stands frequently thus, not only as a circumstantial clause, Gen 14:12., but also as principal clause, Gen 2:10, in an historical connection. The preceding pred. מר, in the mas. ground-form, follows the rule, Gesen. 147. Regarding the construct…
And I find more bitter than death. Which is the severest of the ten harsh things that were created in the world, as it is [stated] in [Maseches] Bava Basra, in [the chapter entitled] “The Partners.”6010a. “And I find more bitter” and severe than it, “the woman,” this refers to heresy.
Whose her heart is full of [traps and] nets. An expression of a net, as in, “he catches them in his net and gathers them in his trawl.”61Chavakuk 1:15.
Her hands as chains. Once she seizes a man, he is as though bound with thick ropes.
Chains. אֲסוּרִים is] a noun meaning “bonds,” as in, “and his bonds אֱסוּרָיו melted,”62Shoftim 15:14. meaning his bonds, and so did Menachem explain it.
