Ecclesiastes 7:19-29

New American Standard Bible

^19 (A)Wisdom strengthens a wise person more than ten rulers who are in a city. ²⁰ Indeed, ^(B)there is not a righteous person on earth who always does good and does not ever sin. ²¹ Also, do not ^[a]take seriously all the words which are spoken, so that you do not hear your servant ^(C)cursing you, ²² for ^[b]you know that even you have cursed others many times as well.

²³ I tested all this with wisdom, and I said, “I will be wise,” ^(D)but wisdom was far from me. ²⁴ What has been is remote and ^(E)very ^[c]mysterious. ^(F)Who can discover it? ²⁵ I ^[d](G)directed my ^[e]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 ^(H)bitter than death the woman whose heart is ^(I)snares and nets, whose hands are chains. ^(J)One who is pleasing to God will escape from her, but ^(K)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 ^[f]I am still seeking but have not found. I have found one man among a thousand, but I have not found a ^(L)woman among all these. ²⁹ Behold, I have found only this, that ^(M)God made people upright, but they have sought out many schemes.”