Background

There is a scripture that is a head scratcher.

It reads:-

1. In his soul, his recollection, for every thousand men, he found an upright man
2. Within the same journey, he considered women, as well
3. Considering women, he could not find a single women that merited being consider an upright woman

Examination

Personally I take the verse as a head scratcher.

And, I will need a bit more room to examine it.

Outline

1. Scripture
   • Contextually

Scripture

Contextually ( Ecclesiastes 7:21-29 )

Explanation – Verse By Verse

Verses 21 thru 22

Verse 21

1. Do not pay attention to every word that is spoken, or you may hear your servant cursing you.
   • Encouraged not to try to listen to every word that is spoken
   • Else you will hear your own servant cursing you
     • A servant under your charge
     • A servant in your own household

Verse 22

1. “For you know in your heart that many times you yourself have cursed others.”
   • Examine yourself
     • Have you cursed others
     • Have you gossiped on others

Verses 23 thru 24

Verses 23

1. All this I tested by wisdom, saying, “I resolve to be wise.” But it was beyond me
   • Resolve to be wise
   • But, it was beyond me

Verses 24

1. What exists is out of reach and very deep. Who can fathom it?
   • Exists is out of reach and very deep

Verses 25 thru 26

Verses 25

1. I directed my mind to understand, to explore, to search out wisdom and explanations, and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the folly of madness.
   • Directed my mind to understand
     • Stupidity of wickedness
     • Folly of madness

Verses 26

1. And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a net, and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is ensnared.
2. Bitterness births
   • Snare
   • Heart that is a net
   • Hands that are chains
3. Escape is only through God
4. Sinners are ensnared

Verses 27 thru 29

Verses 27

1.  “Behold,” says the Teacher, “I have discovered this by adding one thing to another to find an explanation.
   • Sought understanding through collecting many datasets

Verses 28

1. While my soul was still searching but not finding, among a thousand I have found one upright man, but among all these I have not found one such woman.
   • A thousand, one upright man
   • A thousand, no upright woman

Verses 29

1. Only this have I found: I have discovered that God made men upright, but they have sought out many schemes
   • Within creation, God made men upright
   • But, they have sought out many schemes

Explanation – Wholly

Outline

1. Activity
   • Active Listener
   • Active Talker
   • Life of Wisdom
2. Human Psychology
   • Faculty of wickedness
   • Faculty of madness
3. Woman
4. Scheme

Activity

Active Listener

Verse 21 ( ²¹ Do not pay attention to every word that is spoken, or you may hear your servant cursing you ) warns against increasing our propensity to listen to every thing.

Active Talker

Verse 22 ( ²² For you know in your heart that many times you yourself have cursed others. ) warns against becoming an active talker.

Life of Wisdom

Verse 23 ( ²³ All this I tested by wisdom, saying, “I resolve to be wise.” But it was beyond me. ) says that it is laudable to be a Berean and take everything to scripture, full comprehension remains beyond us.

In verse 24, ( ²⁴ What exists is out of reach and very deep. Who can fathom it? ), we are reminded that existence is beyond reach and depth.

Human Psychology

Faculty of wickedness

In verse 25, ( ²⁵ I directed my mind to understand, to explore, to search out wisdom and explanations, and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the folly of madness ), the author could ill grasp why wicked people are the way they are.

Faculty of madness

In the same verse 25, the author could not understand what drives people to the extremes of madness.

In essence, what endangers our need for self care and ill protects us from punting our own mind.

Woman

Outsider

Verse 26 reads “²⁶ And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a net, and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is ensnared.”

He is looking at women as a gender.

He is looking at all women.

He is taking a gender view.

He is saying that the one thing he has come to realize is more bitter than even death are:-

1. Women who are snares
2. Women whose heart/love is a snare
3. Women whose hands are chains

The only escape from such women is a loving and guiding God.

But, sinners, who choose not to love God will fall into the temptations of such women.

Soul Search

Verse 28 reads “While my soul was still searching but not finding, among a thousand I have found one upright man, but among all these I have not found one such woman.”.

In version 28 to me:-

1. Soul
   • It is no longer a mind search, he is taking on a soul search, a search of the heart, a search of his strength
   • A passion search
2. Found
   • Found one upright man
   • Did not find an upright woman

Scheme

Verse 29 reads “²⁹ Only this have I found: I have discovered that God made men upright, but they have sought out many schemes”.

In essence God created an upright man.

Yet, men have been persuaded to device new schemes.

The writer took a U-turn from looking at just women.

He returns to both men and women.

You both are schemas.

Scripturally

Parallel Verses

Deuteronomy 17:14-20 ( Guidelines for a King )

Bible Verses

Link

Rules of Engagement

1. Verse 16
   • But the king must not acquire many horses for himself or send the people back to Egypt to acquire more horses, for the LORD has said, ‘You are never to go back that way again.’
2. Verse 17
   • He must not take many wives for himself, lest his heart go astray. He must not accumulate for himself large amounts of silver and gold.
3. Verse 18
   • When he is seated on his royal throne, he must write for himself a copy of this instruction on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests.
4. Verse 19
   • It is to remain with him, and he is to read from it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by carefully observing all the words of this instruction and these statutes.
5. Verse 20
   • Then his heart will not be exalted above his countrymen, and he will not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or to the left, in order that he and his sons may reign many years over his kingdom in Israel.

1st King 11:1-8 ( Solomon’s Foreign Wives )

Bible Verses

Link

Details

1. Verse 1
   • ¹ King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh—women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women.
2. Verse 2
   • ² These women were from the nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, for surely they will turn your hearts after their gods.”
3. Verse 3
   • ³ He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines—and his wives turned his heart away.
     • Seven Hundred wives of royal birth
     • 300 hundred concubines
       • Total:- 1000 women
     • Turned Heart
4. Verse 5
   • ⁵ Solomon followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
5. Verse 7
   • ⁷ Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites.
6. Verse 8
   • ⁸ He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.

Proverbs 5 ( Avoiding Immorality )

Bible Verses

Link

Details

1. Verse 15
   • ¹⁵ Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.
2. Verse 16
   • ¹⁶ Why should your springs flow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?
3. Verse 17
   • ¹⁷ Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.
4. Verse 18
   • ¹⁸ May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth:

Examination

Outline

1. Scripture
   • BibleHub.com

Scripture

BibleHub.com

Ecclesiastes 7:28 reads:-

Here is a screen shot from the online bible that I use:-

Link

Thankfully, the verses are from a subject area title “The Limits of Human Wisdom”.

Jewels of scripture,  “The Limits of Human Wisdom”.

There is so much unknown.

So much undiscernible.

Do not allow Satan to lead you down the path of knowledge and thus ensnare you.

Dedication

Dedicating to my adoptive Dad.