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The Hebrew is this:

אֲשֶׁ֛ר עֹוד־ בִּקְשָׁ֥ה נַפְשִׁ֖י וְלֹ֣א מָצָ֑אתִי אָדָ֞ם אֶחָ֤ד מֵאֶ֙לֶף֙ מָצָ֔אתִי וְאִשָּׁ֥ה בְכָל־ אֵ֖לֶּה לֹ֥א מָצָֽאתִי׃

My translation: My soul still seeks which I cannot find. I have found one [upright] man among a thousand, but I have not found a [upright] woman among all these.

I understand that putting upright there before man and woman is presumptuous of me but it seems to be what the author is speaking of given he's speaking of what his soul seeks as well as what the next verse says. Thoughts?

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    What do you mean by "misogyny"? Question posts ending in "thoughts?" are usually not great fits for our format. Try to focus on a specific answerable question. (Motion to put on hold in the meantime)
    – Double AA ♦
    Commented Oct 21, 2021 at 1:55
  • @DoubleAA What else can misogyny mean? It seems to suggest that there are more men who are upright than women. I'm not sure how else you want me to frame my question.
    – Mordecai
    Commented Oct 21, 2021 at 1:58
  • Two notes, without providing an actual answer: (1) When counting rare events with small counts, the Poisson error is huge. Taking this pasuk at face value, the difference between men and women is not statistically significant. Maybe he just got lucky when looking for men and unlucky when looking for women. (2) In the previous pasuk, Shlomo refers to himself with feminine grammar (אמרה קהלת).
    – Heshy
    Commented Oct 21, 2021 at 9:39
  • @Mordecai I don't care how you frame your question; I only care what you are asking. What exactly are you asking?
    – Double AA ♦
    Commented Oct 21, 2021 at 14:00
  • There's no point in debate of who can prove more people understood or didn't understand the question. If there are some people who are having trouble, which apparently there are, I implore you to clarify further.
    – Double AA ♦
    Commented Oct 21, 2021 at 21:49

2 Answers 2

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The mention of a woman in a thousand is a reference to the number of King Shlomo's wives (see Kings I 11:3, he had 700 wives and 300 concubines). (King Shlomo is the author of Ecclesiastes/Kohelet).

Artscroll comments (based on Ibn Yachya) that King Shlomo was ultimately led into sin by his wives, so he writes that from his personal experience righteous women are harder to find that righteous men.

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  • But it says he found a man among the 1000, if the 1000 refers to his wives and concubines, how did he find a man among them?
    – Mordecai
    Commented Oct 21, 2021 at 3:30
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    I understand that he found upright men in his acquaintances but didn't find an upright woman in all of his wives.
    – mbloch
    Commented Oct 21, 2021 at 3:31
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If you are looking for a source that views this statement in a positive light, refer to Rabbeinu Bachaye who says that it was Shlomo HaMelech's assessment of what happened in the sin of the Eigel HaZahav (the Golden Calf). He writes there:

When the Torah had described the donations for the making of the golden calf which, according to Aaron (32:2), should have been given by the women and the girls, the Torah did not report any of the women giving up their jewellery for such a project. This is why the Torah reports the men as divesting themselves of their own jewelry instead (in that verse). Solomon alluded to this when he wrote in Kohelet 7,28: אדם אחד מאלף מצאתי ואשה בכל אלה לא מצאתי, “I have found one man in a thousand, but I have not even found one woman amongst these,” (who contributed to אלה, the word used when the Israelites were told to look upon that calf as a deity).

So according to the Rabbeinu Bachaye this verse is actually a praise to the women and not something that views them negatively.

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