Ecclesiastes 7:27 Commentary and Bible Study

In summary, following his determination to seek out wisdom and an account of things, he tells us what he had found. The search had been painstaking and laboured; it had involved slowly piecing together the elements of wisdom in an attempt to build a total picture. He had tried not to miss out any significant factor but to take all into account. Yet he had again to admit that wisdom was far off and exceedingly deep, and so his search had taught him that ultimate wisdom was beyond his reach. Not only this, but it is very rare among men and women in this world. Though it is the most precious of all things that we can gain in this life, few see that it is worth searching for and fewer still find it. In Solomon’s experience, speaking perhaps only of those who were in his own court, and not wishing to totally write off womanhood, he testifies that he had found one man in a thousand who genuinely pursued wisdom and the fear of the Lord, who was not ensnared by the love of power and reputation, of wealth and earthly goods and with the enchantments of the opposite sex. But a woman among all these he had not found. That is not to say that he believed that there were no such women to be found in the world, for he says otherwise in Proverbs 31, but there were few. ‘King Solomon, loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites -- ² from the nations of whom the LORD had said to the children of Israel, "You shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods." Solomon clung to these in love. ³ And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines’Among this thousand, he had not found one who had a true heart. All were driven by self-interest, however great the skill with which they put themselves across. Any desire they affected to have for his God was a pretence intended to achieve personal advance. How rare and how precious is that woman who is truly virtuous; her worth is indeed far above rubies. Yet it was Solomon who had surrounded himself in this way and caused himself to taste the bitterness of their hearts, more bitter than death.