Righteousness is no sure protection against hard times or an early death. If true righteousness and wisdom do not necessarily prevent ruin, then extreme, legalistic rightousness and wisdom will surely not help. Extreme wickedness is even more foolhardy. Wisdom and Folly. A. Wisdom is better.
Wisdom makes one wise man better than ten rulers in a city.
Since no one is righteous and all must look to God for foregiveness, no one should be harsh on those who offend him in words. B. A few more conclusions. The Preacher had learned that in himself he had been unable to acquire true wisdom. Of all his sinful follies none had been so ruinous in seducing him from God as the idolatrous woman. Solomon's comment that there may be one upright man among a thousand but not one upright woman among them all is simply a report of his experiencce, not a generalization about men and women.