Ecclesiastes 7:26 - New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition 2021

²⁶ I found more bitter than death the woman who is a trap, whose heart is nets, whose hands are fetters; one who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her.

More versions

King James Version (Oxford) 1769

²⁶ and I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her.

Amplified Bible - Classic Edition

²⁶ And I found that [of all sinful follies none has been so ruinous in seducing one away from God as idolatrous women] more bitter than death is the woman whose heart is snares and nets and whose hands are bands. Whoever pleases God shall escape from her, but the sinner shall be taken by her.

American Standard Version (1901)

²⁶ And I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her.

Common English Bible

²⁶ I found one woman more bitter than death: she who is a trap, her heart a snare, her hands shackles. Anyone who pleases God escapes her, but a sinner is trapped by her.

Catholic Public Domain Version

²⁶ I have examined all things in my soul, so that I may know, and consider, and seek out wisdom and reason, and so that I may recognize the impiety of the foolish, and the error of the imprudent.

Ecclesiastes 7:26 Cross References

Proverbs 22:14

The mouth of a loose woman is a deep pit; he with whom the Lord is angry falls into it.

Ecclesiastes 2:26

For to the one who pleases him God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he gives the work of gathering and heaping, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.

Proverbs 2:16

You will be saved from the loose woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words,

Proverbs 9:18

But they do not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.

Exodus 10:7

Pharaoh’s officials said to him, “How long shall this fellow be a snare to us? Send the people away, so that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined?”

Proverbs 6:23

For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,

Proverbs 6:24

to preserve you from the wife of another, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.

Ecclesiastes 7:27

See, this is what I found, says the Teacher, adding one thing to another to find the sum,

Genesis 19:35

So they made their father drink wine that night also, and the younger rose and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she rose.

Genesis 39:9

He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great wickedness and sin against God?”