I discovered that a seductive woman is a trap more bitter than death. Her passion is a snare, and her soft hands are chains. Those who are pleasing to God will escape her, but sinners will be caught in her snare.
Parallel translations
- WEB 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.
- KJV And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her.
- BSB And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a net, and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is ensnared.
- NKJV And I find more bitter than death The woman whose heart is snares and nets, Whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God shall escape from her, But the sinner shall be trapped by her.
- NASB And I discovered as more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are chains. One who is pleasing to God will escape from her, but the sinner will be captured by her.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The Preacher found more bitter than death the seductress whose heart is a snare; the one who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is caught. It matters because it warns that enticement to sin is a deadly trap, and only God's favor delivers from it.
Overview
Drawing on Proverbs' warnings about the adulteress (Proverbs 5; 7), the Preacher depicts the snare of seductive temptation as deadlier than death. The verse is not a blanket statement against women but a warning against the entrapment of immorality. Deliverance comes by pleasing God, ultimately through the grace of Christ, who rescues sinners from sin's deadly snares and grants the favor that sets us free.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Prov 22:14The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit. He who is under Yahweh’s wrath will fall into it.
- Prov 5:3–5For the lips of an adulteress drip honey. Her mouth is smoother than oil,
- Prov 2:16To deliver you from the strange woman, even from the foreigner who flatters with her words;
- Prov 2:18–19for her house leads down to death, her paths to the departed spirits.
- Eccl 2:26For to the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he gives travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.
- Prov 7:21–27With persuasive words, she led him astray. With the flattering of her lips, she seduced him.
- Prov 23:27–28For a prostitute is a deep pit; and a wayward wife is a narrow well.
- Judg 16:18–21When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up this once, for he has told me all his heart.” Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her, and brought the money in their hand.
- Prov 9:18But he doesn’t know that the departed spirits are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.
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Christ at the center
The search that finds everything 'under the sun' to be vapor exposes the emptiness of life without God and drives us to the one who alone gives meaning, the resurrection that makes our labor not in vain.
How Ecclesiastes 7:26 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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