Discovery BoxEcclesiastes 7:26 
ContextMore bitter than death is the kind of 2 woman 3 who is like a hunter’s snare; 4
her heart is like a hunter’s net and her hands are like prison chains.
The man who pleases God escapes her,
but the sinner is captured by her.
Ecclesiastes 8:12
Context8:12 Even though a sinner might commit a hundred crimes 5 and still live a long time, 6
yet I know that it will go well with God-fearing people 7 – for they stand in fear 8 before him.
1 tn The word “this” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for smoothness.
2 tn The phrase “kind of” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity (see the following note on the word “woman”).
3 tn The article on הָאִשָּׁה (ha’ishah) functions in a particularizing sense (“the kind of woman”) rather than in a generic sense (i.e., “women”).
4 tn Heb “is snares.” The plural form מְצוֹדִים (mÿtsodim, from the noun I מָצוֹד, matsod, “snare”) is used to connote either intensity, repeated or habitual action, or moral characteristic. For the function of the Hebrew plural, see IBHS 120-21 §7.4.2. The term II מָצוֹד “snare” is used in a concrete sense in reference to the hunter’s snare or net, but in a figurative sense of being ensnared by someone (Job 19:6; Prov 12:12; Eccl 7:26).
5 tn Heb “does evil one hundred [times].”
6 tn Heb “and prolongs his [life].”
7 tn Heb “those who fear God.”
8 tn Heb “they fear.”
