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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ecclesiastes 7:26 - 7:26
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“And I found woman more bitter than death; she is like hunting-nets. and like snares is her heart, her hands are bands: he who pleaseth God will escape from her; but the sinner is caught by them.” As אֲ וְשַׁ, Ecc 4:2, so here וּם אֲ gains by the preceding אני וְסִבּוֹתִי a past sense;
(Note: With reference to this passage and Pro 18:22, it was common in Palestine when one was married to ask מצא או מוחא = happy or unhappy? Jebamoth 63b.)
the particip. clause stands frequently thus, not only as a circumstantial clause, Gen 14:12., but also as principal clause, Gen 2:10, in an historical connection. The preceding pred. מַר, in the mas. ground-form, follows the rule, Gesen. §147. Regarding the construction of the relative clause, Hitzig judges quite correctly: “הִיא is copula between subj. and pred., and precedes for the sake of the contrast, giving emphasis to the pred. It cannot be a nomin., which would be taken up by the suff. in לִבָהּ, since if this latter were subject also to מץ, היא would not certainly be found. Also asher here is not a conj.” This הוּא (הִיא), which in relative substantival clauses represents the copula, for the most part stands separated from asher, e.g., Gen 7:2; Gen 17:12; Num 17:5; Deu 17:15; less frequently immediately with it, Num 35:31; 1Sa 10:19; 2Ki 25:19; Lev 11:26; Deu 20:20. But this asher hu (hi) never represents the subj., placed foremost and again resumed by the reflex. pronoun, so as to be construed as the accentuation requires: quae quidem retia et laquei cor ejus = cajus quidem cor sunt retia et laquei (Heiligst.). מָצוֹד is the means of searching, i.e., either of hunting: hunting-net (mitsodah, Ecc 9:12), or of blockading: siege-work, bulwarks, Ecc 9:14; here it is the plur. of the word in the former meaning. חֵרֶם, Hab 1:14, plur. Eze 26:5, etc. (perhaps from חרם, to pierce, bore through), is one of the many synon. for fishing-net. אֲסוּרִים, fetters, the hands (arms) of voluptuous embrace. The primary form, after Jer 37:15, is אֵסוּר, אֱסוּר; cf. אֵבוּס, אֲב, Job 39:9. Of the three clauses following asher, vav is found in the second and is wanting to the third, as at Deu 29:22; Job 42:9; Psa 45:9; Isa 1:13; cf. on the other hand, Isa 33:6. Similar in their import are these Leonine verses:
Femina praeclara facie quasi pestis amara,
Et quasi fermentum corrumpit cor sapientum.
That the author is in full earnest in this harsh judgment regarding woman, is shown by 26b: he who appears to God as good (cf. Ecc 2:26) escapes from her (the fut. of the consequence of this his relation to God); but the sinner (חוֹטֵאוְ) is caught by her, or, properly, in her, viz., the net-like woman, or the net to which she is compared (Psa 9:16; Isa 24:18). The harsh judgment is, however, not applicable to woman as such, but to woman as she is, with only rare exceptions; among a thousand women he has not found one corresponding to the idea of a woman.