Ecclesiastes 7:26

"I applied my heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness. And I find that woman is more bitter than death, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands are as bands: whoever pleases God shall escape her; but the sinner shall be taken by her. "The Septuagint here has: "I even applied my heart that I should know". Symmachus has interpreted this saying, 'I have looked into all things with my reasoning to know, to distinguish and to find out.' Since therefore Ecclesiastes had said above that he had tried to know all wisdom and the more he sought it the more it eluded him, now he says even that he sought out another thing in his wisdom, for wickedness precedes all things in human affairs, and that affair is first and foremost in impiety, stupidity, madness, and insanity. He also says that he found woman to be the cause of all evil, since through her, death came into the world and took the most prized spirits of men. And even for all adulterers, it is like there is a coat of mail on their heart, the heart that makes the souls of adolescents soar upwards. And when this happens to the mind of a wretched lover, it pushes him into first position, and he is not allowed to look back at his feet, but like a snare or noose it ensnares the heart of a youth. 'For he has chains around his wrists', which Aquila interpreted as being, 'for his hands are in chains'. For he can convince, but he doesn't have the strength and can't pull himself to those who are unwilling. Those things destroy him, who was righteous and good before God; but the sinner who has been captured will be led down to his death. Let us not think that Solomon held this opinion about women thoughtlessly, he speaks only those things that he has experienced. […]

In many passages of divine instruction, thoughts and mindsets are called "women" of those who have them, both in a positive and in a negative sense. So it is said, for example, "Sophia gives birth to a man's insight," and, "Your wife is like a …

Solomon seems to me very wise in bestowing upon an indecent woman the face of every heresy and then saying about her that it is necessary to repudiate and to flee such a woman, "who is a hunter's snare, and her heart is a net, and in her hands are bonds." The good man before the face of God will be rescued from her and the sinner will be ensnared by her.

Although a perfect apprehension of the truth is at present far removed from us by reason of the infirmity of the flesh, yet it is possible, as the Preacher himself has said, to perceive the madness of the impious, and having found it, to say that it is "more bitter than death." Therefore for this reason, as perceiving this and able to find it out, I have written, knowing that to the faithful the detection of impiety is a sufficient information wherein piety consists. For although it is impossible to comprehend what God is, yet it is possible to say what he is not.

Solomon followed foolish women, therefore he laments and says in Ecclesiastes: "I found woman more bitter than death, who is the snare of hunters, and her heart is a net, her hands are bonds. He who pleases God shall escape from her, but he who …