Ecclesiastes 7:26 (YLT)

Passage

And I am finding more bitter than death, the woman whose heart <FI>is<Fi> nets and snares, her hands <FI>are<Fi> bands; the good before God escapeth from her, but the sinner is captured by her.

Nearby Context

Ecclesiastes 7:24 Far off <FI>is<Fi> that which hath been, and deep, deep, who doth find it?

Ecclesiastes 7:25 I have turned round, also my heart, to know and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and reason, and to know the wrong of folly, and of foolishness the madness.

Ecclesiastes 7:26 And I am finding more bitter than death, the woman whose heart <FI>is<Fi> nets and snares, her hands <FI>are<Fi> bands; the good before God escapeth from her, but the sinner is captured by her.

Ecclesiastes 7:27 See, this I have found, said the Preacher, one to one, to find out the reason

Ecclesiastes 7:28 (that still my soul had sought, and I had not found), One man, a teacher, I have found, and a woman among all these I have not found.

Study Lenses

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

The nearby context moves from verse 25's "I have turned round also my heart..." into verse 27's "See this I have found said the...", so "finding" 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 "finding" and "bitter" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.