which my mind has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found.
Then, if there should be for one of them an angel, a mediator, one of a thousand, one who declares a person upright,
Help, O Lord, for there is no longer anyone who is godly; the faithful have disappeared from humankind.
See, this is what I found, says the Teacher, adding one thing to another to find the sum,
My soul yearns for you in the night, my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.