Ecclesiastes 7:26 (WEB)

Passage

I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and traps, whose hands are chains. Whoever pleases God shall escape from her; but the sinner will be ensnared by her.

Nearby Context

Ecclesiastes 7:24 That which is, is far off and exceedingly deep. Who can find it out?

Ecclesiastes 7:25 I turned around, and my heart sought to know and to search out, and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know that wickedness is stupidity, and that foolishness is madness.

Ecclesiastes 7:26 I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and traps, whose hands are chains. Whoever pleases God shall escape from her; but the sinner will be ensnared by her.

Ecclesiastes 7:27 “Behold, I have found this,” says the Preacher, “to one another, to find out the scheme;

Ecclesiastes 7:28 which my soul still seeks; but I have not found. I have found one man among a thousand; but I have not found a woman among all those.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "find", "bitter", "than", "death", "woman", "whose", "heart", and "snares". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "find" and "bitter", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 25's "I turned around and my heart sought..." into verse 27's "Behold I have found this says the...", so "find" and "bitter" 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 "find" and "bitter" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.