Ecclesiastes 7:25–8:1

²⁵I turned my thoughts to know, explore, and examine wisdom^t and an explanation for things, and to know that wickedness is stupidity and folly is madness. ²⁶And I find more bitter than death^u the woman who is a trap:^v her heart a net and her hands chains. The one who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner will be captured by her. ²⁷“Look,” says the Teacher, “I have discovered this by adding one thing to another to find out the explanation, ²⁸which my soul continually searches for but does not find: I found one person in a thousand, but none of those was a woman.^{w 29}Only see this: I have discovered that God made people upright,^x but they pursued many schemes.”

WISDOM, AUTHORITIES, AND INEQUITIES

8Who is like the wise person, and who knows the interpretation of a matter? A person’s wisdom brightens his face, and the sternness of his face is changed.^y