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Ecc_7:28 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.
Ver. 28. Which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not.] There is a place in Wiltshire called Stonhenge, for various great stones lying and standing there together: of which stones it is said, {a} that though a man number them "one by one" never so carefully, yet that he cannot find the true number of them, but that every time he numbers them he finds a different number from that he found before. This may well show, as one well applies it, the erring of man’s labour in seeking the acconnt of wisdom and knowledge; for, though his diligence be never so great in making the reckoning, he will always be out, and not able to find it out.
One man among a thousand.] Haud facile iuvenies multis e milibus unum. There is a very great scarcity of good people. These are as Gideon’s three hundred, when the wicked, as the Midianites, lie "like grasshoppers for multitude upon the earth," {Jdg_7:7; Jdg_7:12} and as those Syrians, {1Ki_20:27} they fill the country, they darken the air, as the swarms did the land of Egypt; and there is plenty of such dust heaps in every corner.
But a woman among all those have I not found,] i.e., Among all my wives and concubines, which made him ready to sing, Femina nulla bona est. There is no good woman. But that there are, and ever have been, many gracious women, see, besides the Scriptures, the writings of many learned men, De illustribus feminis. Concerning Illustrious Women. It is easy to observe, saith one, that the New Testament affords more store of good wives than the Old. And I can say, as Jerome does, Novi ego multas ad omne opus bonum promptas, I know many Tabithas full of good works. But in respect of the discovery of hearts and natures, whether in good or evil, it is harder to find out thoroughly the perfect disposition of a woman than of men; and that I take to be the meaning of this text.
{a} Camden.