25 I turned my thoughts to know, explore, and seek wisdom(A) and an explanation for things, and to know that wickedness is stupidity and folly is madness. 26 And I find more bitter than death(B) the woman who is a trap,(C) her heart a net, and her hands chains. The one who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner will be captured by her. 27 “Look,” says the Teacher, “I have discovered this by adding one thing to another to find out the explanation, 28 which my soul continually searches for but does not find: among a thousand people I have found one true man, but among all these I have not found a true woman.(D) 29 Only see this: I have discovered that God made people upright,(E) but they pursued many schemes.”

Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers.