Discovery BoxEcclesiastes 7:26-28 
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.
7:27 The Teacher says:
I discovered this while trying to discover the scheme of things, item by item.
7:28 What I have continually sought, I have not found;
I have found only 5 one upright 6 man among a thousand,
but I have not found one upright woman among all of them.
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 The word “only” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for smoothness.
6 tn The word “upright” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation twice, here and in the following line, for clarity.
