²⁵ So I turned my mind to understand,
    to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things^(A)
and to understand the stupidity of wickedness
    and the madness of folly.^(B)

²⁶ I find more bitter than death
    the woman who is a snare,^(C)
whose heart is a trap
    and whose hands are chains.
The man who pleases God will escape her,
    but the sinner she will ensnare.^(D)

“Adding one thing to another to discover the scheme of things—
²⁸     while I was still searching
    but not finding—
I found one upright man among a thousand,
    but not one upright woman^(F) among them all.
²⁹ This only have I found:
    God created mankind upright,
    but they have gone in search of many schemes.”

⁵ As you do not know the path of the wind,^(A)
    or how the body is formed^[a] in a mother’s womb,^(B)
so you cannot understand the work of God,
    the Maker of all things.