20. Surely there is no one righteous on the earth who continually does good and never sins.
21. Do not pay attention to everything people say, lest you hear your own servant curse you.
22. For your heart knows that you also have cursed others many times.
23. All this I have tested with wisdom. I said, “I will be wise!” but it was beyond my grasp.
24. Whatever is—it is far beyond comprehension. Who can discover it?
25. I set my mind to try to seek wisdom and the plan, and to know that wickedness is foolishness and that folly is delusion.
26. I myself found that more bitter than death is the woman who is a trap, whose heart is a snare, and whose hands are bonds. The one who pleases God escapes from her, but the sinner is caught by her.
27. “Look! I found this,” said the Teacher, “while trying to find how the plan fits together.
28. What my heart sought, I did not find. Although I found one righteous man among one thousand, I did not find one upright woman among all these.
29. Look! This alone I found: God made mankind upright, but they have devised many schemes.”