23 All this I have tested by ^awisdom. I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me. 24 That which has been is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out?

25 I turned my heart to know and to ^bsearch out and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know the wickedness of ^cfolly and the foolishness that is madness. 26 And I find something more ^dbitter than death: the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters. ^eHe who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her. 27 Behold, this is what I found, says the ^fPreacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things— 28 which my soul 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. 29 See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.