Ecclesiastes 7:27 (LSB)

Passage

“See, I have found this,” says the Preacher, “adding one thing to another to find an explanation,

Nearby Context

Ecclesiastes 7:25 I turned my heart to know, to explore, and to seek wisdom and an explanation, and to know the wickedness of foolishness and the simpleminded folly of madness.

Ecclesiastes 7:26 And I found more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are chains. One who is good before God will escape from her, but the sinner will be captured by her.

Ecclesiastes 7:27 “See, I have found this,” says the Preacher, “adding one thing to another to find an explanation,

Ecclesiastes 7:28 which my soul still seeks but has not found. I have found one man out of a thousand, but I have not found a woman among all these.

Ecclesiastes 7:29 See, I have found only this, that God made men upright, but they have sought out many devices.”

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "found", "says", "preacher", "adding", "another", "find", and "explanation". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "found" and "says", 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 still seeks but has...", so "found" and "says" 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 "says" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.