Ecclesiastes 7:27 (DBY)

Passage

See this which I have found, saith the Preacher, [searching] one by one to find out the reason;

Nearby Context

Ecclesiastes 7:25 I turned, I and my heart, to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom and reason, and to know wickedness to be folly, and foolishness to be madness;

Ecclesiastes 7:26 and I found more bitter than death the woman whose heart is nets and snares, [and] whose hands are bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be caught by her.

Ecclesiastes 7:27 See this which I have found, saith the Preacher, [searching] one by one to find out the reason;

Ecclesiastes 7:28 which my soul yet seeketh, and I have not found: one man among a thousand have I found, but a woman among all those have I not found.

Ecclesiastes 7:29 Only see this which I have found: that God made man upright, but they have sought out many devices.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "found", "saith", "preacher", "searching", "find", and "reason". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "found" and "saith", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 26's "and I found more bitter than death..." into verse 28's "which my soul yet seeketh and I...", so "found" and "saith" belong inside that flow. In Ecclesiastes context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "found" and "saith" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.