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.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Compare the account of Solomon's wives 1-Kings 11:1-8 : see also Proverbs 2:16-19; Proverbs 5:3...
And I find more bitter than death the woman - After all his investigation of the wickedness of folly, and the foolishness of madness, he found nothing equally dangerous and ruinous with the blandishments of cunning women. When once the affections are entangled, escape without ruin is almost impossible.
Whoso pleaseth God - The man who walks with God, and he alone, shall escape this sore evil: and even he that fears God, if he get with an artful woman, may be soon robbed of his strength, and become like other men. A bad or artful woman is represented as a company of hunters, with nets, gins, etc., to catch their prey.
And I find more bitter than death the woman,.... This was the issue of his diligent studies and researches, and the observations he had made; this was what he found by sad and woeful experience, and which he chose to take particular notice of; that he might not only expose this vanity among others, and caution men against it, even the love of women, which at best is a bitter sweet, as the poet (k) calls it, though here adulterous love is meant; but having this opportunity, might express his sincere repentance for this folly of his life, than which nothing had been more bitter to him, in the reflection of his mind upon it: death is a bitter thing, and terrible to nature, 1-Samuel 15:32; but to be ensnared by an adulterous woman is worse than that; it brings not only such diseases of body as are both painful and scandalous, but such horrors into the conscience, when awakened, as are intolerable, and exposes to eternal death; see Proverbs 5:3. By "the woman" is not meant the sex in general, which was far from Solomon's intention to reflect upon and reproach; nor any woman in particular, not Eve, the first woman, through whom came sin and death into the world; but an adulterous woman: see Proverbs 5:4. Some interpret this of original sin, or the corruption of nature, evil concupiscence, which draws men into sin, and holds them in it, the consequence of which is death eternal; but such who find favour in the eyes of God are delivered from the power and dominion of it; but obstinate and impenitent sinners are held under it, and perish eternally. Jarchi, by the woman, understands heresy; and so Jerom and others interpret it of heretics and idolaters: it may very well be applied to that Jezebel, the whore of Rome, the mother of harlots, that deceives men, and leads them into perdition with herself, Revelation 17:4; and who is intended by the harlot, and foolish and strange woman, in the book of Proverbs, as has been observed;
whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands; all the schemes and contrivances of a harlot are to ensnare men by her wanton looks and lascivious gestures; which are like snares laid for the beasts, and likeness spread for fishes, to take them in; and when she has got them, she holds them fast; it is a very difficult thing and a very rare one, ever to get out of her hands; so Plautus (l) makes mention of the nets of harlots: the same holds true of error and heresy, and of idolatry, which is spiritual adultery; the words used being in the plural number, shows the many ways the adulterous woman has to ensnare men, and the multitudes that are taken by her; see Revelation 13:3;
whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her: or, "who is good before God", or "in his sight" (m); See Gill on Ecclesiastes 2:26; to whom he gives his grace and is acceptable to him; such an one as Joseph was shall escape the snares and nets, the hands and bands, of such a woman; or if fallen into them, as Solomon fell, shall be delivered out of them, as it is observed by various interpreters: nothing but the grace of God, the true fear of God, the power of godliness and undefiled religion, can preserve a person from being ensnared and held by an impure woman; not a liberal nor religious education, not learning and good sense, nor any thing else; if a man is kept out of the hands of such creatures, he ought to esteem it a mercy, and ascribe it to the grace and goodness of God;
but the sinner shall be taken by her; a hardened and impenitent sinner, that is destitute of the grace and fear of God; who is habitually a sinner, and gives up himself to commit iniquity; whose life is a continued series of sinning; who has no guard upon himself, but rushes into sin, as the horse into the battle; he becomes an easy prey to a harlot; he falls into her snares, and is caught and held by her; see Proverbs 22:14.
(k) Musaeus, v. 166. Vid. Barthii ad Claudian. de Nupt. Honor. v. 70. (l) Epidicus, Acts. 2. Sc. 2. v. 32. "Illecebrosius nihil fieri potest", ib. Bacchides, Sc. 1. v. 55. Truculentus, Acts. 1. Sc. 1. v. 14-21. (m) "bonus coram Deo", Pagninus, Mercerus, Drusius, Amama, Rambachius; "qui bonus videtur coram Deo ipso", Junius & Tremellius.
"I find" that, of all my sinful follies, none has been so ruinous a snare in seducing me from God as idolatrous women (1-Kings 11:3-4; Proverbs 5:3-4; Proverbs 22:14). As "God's favor is better than life," she who seduces from God is "more bitter than death."
whoso pleaseth God--as Joseph (Genesis 39:2-3, Genesis 39:9). It is God's grace alone that keeps any from falling.
"And I found woman more bitter than death; she is like hunting-nets. and like snares is her heart, her hands are bands: he who pleaseth God will escape from her; but the sinner is caught by them." As א ושׁ, Ecclesiastes 4:2, so here וּם א gains by the preceding אני וסבּותי a past sense;
(Note: With reference to this passage and Proverbs 18:22, it was common in Palestine when one was married to ask מצא או מוחא = happy or unhappy? Jebamoth 63b.)
the particip. clause stands frequently thus, not only as a circumstantial clause, Genesis 14:12., but also as principal clause, Genesis 2:10, in an historical connection. The preceding pred. מר, in the mas. ground-form, follows the rule, Gesen. 147. Regarding the construction of the relative clause, Hitzig judges quite correctly: "היא is copula between subj. and pred., and precedes for the sake of the contrast, giving emphasis to the pred. It cannot be a nomin., which would be taken up by the suff. in לבהּ, since if this latter were subject also to מץ, היא would not certainly be found. Also asher here is not a conj." This הוּא (היא), which in relative substantival clauses represents the copula, for the most part stands separated from asher, e.g., Genesis 7:2; Genesis 17:12; Numbers 17:5; Deuteronomy 17:15; less frequently immediately with it, Numbers 35:31; 1-Samuel 10:19; 2-Kings 25:19; Leviticus 11:26; Deuteronomy 20:20. But this asher hu (hi) never represents the subj., placed foremost and again resumed by the reflex. pronoun, so as to be construed as the accentuation requires: quae quidem retia et laquei cor ejus = cajus quidem cor sunt retia et laquei (Heiligst.). מצוד is the means of searching, i.e., either of hunting: hunting-net (mitsodah, Ecclesiastes 9:12), or of blockading: siege-work, bulwarks, Ecclesiastes 9:14; here it is the plur. of the word in the former meaning. חרם, Habakkuk 1:14, plur. Ezekiel 26:5, etc. (perhaps from חרם, to pierce, bore through), is one of the many synon. for fishing-net. אסוּרים, fetters, the hands (arms) of voluptuous embrace. The primary form, after Jeremiah 37:15, is אסוּר, אסוּר; cf. אבוּס, אב, Job 39:9. Of the three clauses following asher, vav is found in the second and is wanting to the third, as at Deuteronomy 29:22; Job 42:9; Psalm 45:9; Isaiah 1:13; cf. on the other hand, Isaiah 33:6. Similar in their import are these Leonine verses:
Femina praeclara facie quasi pestis amara,
Et quasi fermentum corrumpit cor sapientum.
That the author is in full earnest in this harsh judgment regarding woman, is shown by 26b: he who appears to God as good (cf. Ecclesiastes 2:26) escapes from her (the fut. of the consequence of this his relation to God); but the sinner (חוטאו) is caught by her, or, properly, in her, viz., the net-like woman, or the net to which she is compared (Psalm 9:16; Isaiah 24:18). The harsh judgment is, however, not applicable to woman as such, but to woman as she is, with only rare exceptions; among a thousand women he has not found one corresponding to the idea of a woman.
I find - By my own sad experience. Shall escape - Shall be prevented from falling into her hands.
*More commentary available at chapter level.