Ecclesiastes Chapter 7 verse 28 Holy Bible
which my soul still seeketh, but I have not found: one man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found.
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For which my soul is still searching, but I have it not; one man among a thousand have I seen; but a woman among all these I have not seen.
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which my soul yet seeketh, and I have not found: one man among a thousand have I found, but a woman among all those have I not found.
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Which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not: one man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found.
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which my soul still seeks; but I have not found: one man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found.
read chapter 7 in WEB
(that still my soul had sought, and I had not found), One man, a teacher, I have found, and a woman among all these I have not found.
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Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 28. - Which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not; or, which my soul hath still sought, but I have not found. The conclusion at which he did arrive was something utterly different from what he had hoped to achieve. The soul and the ego are separately regarded (comp. ver. 25); the whole intellectual faculties were absorbed in the search, and the composite individual gives his consequent experience. One man (Adam) among a thousand have I found. He found only one man among a thousand that reached his standard of excellence - the ideal that he had formed for himself, who could be rightly called by the noble name of man. The phrase, "one of a thousand," occurs in Job 9:3; Job 33:23; Ecclus. 6:6 (εϊς ἀπὸ χιλίων, as in the Septuagint here). Adam, the generic term, is used here instead of ish, the individual, to emphasize the antithetical ishah, "woman," in the following clause, or to lead the thought to the original perfection of man's nature. So in Greek ἄνθρωπος is sometimes used for ἀνήρ, though generally the distinction between the two is sufficiently marked, as we find in Herodotus, 7:210, Ὅτι πολλοὶ μὲν ἄνθρωποι εϊεν ὀλίγοι δὲ ἄνδρες. But a woman among all those have I not found; i.e. not one woman in a thousand who was what a woman ought to be. Says the Son of Sirach, "All wickedness is but little to the wickedness of a woman; let the portion of a sinner fall upon her" (Ecclus. 25:19). So the Greek gnome - Θάλασσα καὶ πῦρ καὶ γυνὴ κακὰ τρία. "Three evils are there - sea, fire, and woman." Solomon had a thousand wives and concubines, and his experience might well have been that mentioned in this passage.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(28) One man among a thousand.--See Job 9:3; Job 33:23. The disparaging estimate of the female sex here expressed is common in countries where polygamy is practised. (See Ecclesiasticus 25:24; Ecclesiasticus 42:13.) It is credible enough that Solomon, with his thousand wives, did not find a good one among them; but see Proverbs 18:22; Proverbs 19:14; Proverbs 31:10. . . .
