²³ I tested all this with wisdom, and I said, “I will be wise,” ^(A)but wisdom was far from me. ²⁴ What has been is remote and ^(B)very ^[a]mysterious. ^(C)Who can discover it? ²⁵ I ^[b](D)directed my ^[c]mind to know and to investigate, and to seek wisdom and an explanation, and to know the evil of foolishness and the foolishness of insanity. ²⁶ And I discovered as more ^(E)bitter than death the woman whose heart is ^(F)snares and nets, whose hands are chains. ^(G)One who is pleasing to God will escape from her, but ^(H)the sinner will be captured by her.

²⁷ “Behold, I have discovered this,” says the Preacher, “by adding one thing to another to find an explanation, ²⁸ which ^[d]I am still seeking but have not found. I have found one man among a thousand, but I have not found a ^(I)woman among all these. ²⁹ Behold, I have found only this, that ^(J)God made people upright, but they have sought out many schemes.”