Екклесиаст 7:27

"Behold what I have found, saith Koheleth, adding one thing to another, to find out the account: What my soul hath still sought, and I have not found, (is this): one man among a thousand have I found; and a woman among all these have I not found." It is the ascertained result, "one man, etc.," which is solemnly introduced by the words preceding. Instead of אם קה, the words ראמר הקּה are to be read, after Ecc 12:8, as is now generally acknowledged; errors of transcription of a similar kind are found at Sa2 5:2; Job 38:12. Ginsburg in vain disputes this, maintaining that the name Koheleth, as denoting wisdom personified, may be regarded as fem. as well as mas.; here, where the female sex is so much depreciated, was the fem. self-designation of the stern judge specially unsuitable. Hengst. supposes that Koheleth is purposely fem. in this one passage, since true wisdom, represented by Solomon, stands opposite to false philosophy. But this reason for the fem. rests on the false opinion that woman here is heresy personified; he further remarks that it is significant for this fem. personification, that there is "no writing of female authorship in the whole canon of the O.T. and N.T." But what of Deborah's triumphal song, the song of Hannah, the magnificat of Mary? We hand this absurdity over to the Clementines! The woman here was flesh and blood, but pulchra quamvis pellis est mens tamen plean procellis; and Koheleth is not incarnate wisdom, but the official name of a preacher, as in Assyr., for חזּנרם, curators, overseers, hazanâti (Note: Vid., Fried. Delitzsch's Assyr. Stud. (1874), p. 132.) is used. זה, Ecc 7:27, points, as at Ecc 1:10, to what follows. אחת ל, one thing to another (cf. Isa 27:12), must have been, like summa summarum and the like, a common arithmetical and…

Solomon had given many proofs and instances of the vanity of this world and the things of it; now, in this chapter, I. He recommends to us some good means proper to be used for the redress of these grievances and the arming of ourselves against the mischief we are in danger of from them, that we may make the best of the bad, as 1. Care of our reputation (Ecc 7:1). 2. Seriousness (Ecc 7:2-6). 3. Calmness of spirit (Ecc 7:7-10). 4. Prudence in the management of all our affairs (Ecc 7:11, Ecc 7:12). 5. Submission to the will of God in all events, accommodating ourselves to every condition (Ecc 7:13-15). 6. A conscientious avoiding of all dangerous extremes (Ecc 7:16-18). 7. Mildness and tenderness towards those that have been injurious to us (Ecc 7:19-22). In short, the best way to save ourselves from the vexation which the vanity of the world creates us is to keep our temper and to maintain a strict government of our passions. II. He laments his own iniquity, as that which was more vexatious than any of these vanities, that mystery of iniquity, the having of many wives, by which he was drawn away from God and his duty (Ecc 7:23-29).