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.