23. For your conscience knows that you, too, have repeatedly spoken evil of others.
24. I have tested everything in wisdom. I have said: "I will be wise." And wisdom withdrew farther from me,
25. so much more than it was before. Wisdom is very profound, so who shall reveal her?
26. I have examined all things in my soul, so that I may know, and consider, and seek out wisdom and reason, and so that I may recognize the impiety of the foolish, and the error of the imprudent.
27. And I have discovered a woman more bitter than death: she who is like the snare of a hunter, and whose heart is like a net, and whose hands are like chains. Whoever pleases God shall flee from her. But whoever is a sinner shall be seized by her.