Ecclesiastes 7:26 - On the noun אִשָּׁה

(The above rendering comes from the RJPS translation—an adaptation of the NJPS translation—including a correction in the footnote placement, anticipated for late 2024. Before accounting for this rendering, I will analyze the plain sense of the Hebrew term אִשָּׁה, the feminine form of the situating noun אִישׁ, by employing a situation-oriented construal as outlined in this introduction, pp. 11–16.)

Anyone who claims to be sure what this verse was intended to mean is really only guessing, to a far greater extent than most biblical passages. This is a grammatically odd and highly ambiguous passage whose relationship to its co-text is unclear. In support of that view are the following points, excerpted from Doug Ingram, “‘Riddled with Ambiguity’: Ecclesiastes 7:23–8:1 as an Example,” in The Words of the Wise Are like Goads: Engaging Qohelet in the 21st Century, edited by Mark J. Boda, Tremper Longman III, and Cristian G. Rata (Eisenbrauns, 2013), 219–240; here 229–231.

• Part of the way that Ecclesiastes facilitates learning is by using the tool of ambiguity.… The purpose of the ambiguity in Ecclesiastes is to encourage readers to think for themselves as they seek to work out what the text means.
• [In this passage,] Qohelet’s* diligent search for wisdom and folly has just been described when, suddenly, readers are introduced to הָאִשָּׁה (“the woman”), as though they are supposed to know who she is.… A number of possibilities are entertained by commentators:
  (1) womankind in general;
  (2) a specific sort of woman, who is described in the rest of the verse;
  (3) a specific woman, perhaps Qohelet’s wife;
  (4) Dame Folly, perhaps picking up on the only definite word in the previous verse, הַסִּכְלוּת (“the folly”);
  (5) Lady Wisdom, picking up on חָכְמָה (“wisdom”) in the previous verses;
  (6) an “untimely death”;
  (7) heresy [so, e.g., Rashi]; or
  (8) “the agent of a deterministic force.”
• Matters are further complicated by other words in the context [such as:] the adjective מַר (“bitter”), which modifies the woman, is masculine, while אִשָּׁה is a feminine noun.… [And] the object marker attached to הָאִשָּׁה (“the woman”) makes the woman the direct object of the verb [but such syntax does not allow the subsequently stated judgment to be made about her, yielding] a grammatical anomaly.…
• The anomalies can cause an awkward reading and an inability to pin down the text with any certainty.
• Thus, readers need to determine for themselves whether the words should be read with a moral sense or as amoral. The choice cannot properly be made on the basis of the words alone but must be based on the way the words are used throughout the book.
• No woman has been previously mentioned in the book, and there are only two other references to women, the highly contentious note two verses later and the mention in 9:9, where the tone seems to be quite different from 7:26–29, “Enjoy life with the wife [הָאִשָּׁה] whom you love.”

Viewing אִשָּׁה as a situating noun is not determinative here. The speaker is presenting a situation that he apparently finds unsavory. However, due to the tenuous relationship of this utterance to the co-text, the intended referent remains unclear.

Our solution to these formidable challenges is to present two dramatically different renderings—one in the text and the other in the footnote—and to note the uncertainty.

The rendering shown in the text expresses the view of two classical rabbinic commentators, Rashbam (or at least, a manuscript that has been attributed to him) and Sforno, and it is similar to NRSV. It accords with #2 above, construing אֲשֶׁר־הִיא restrictively (GKC §141f–h). This construal is slightly favored because it seems the most consistent with the tenor of the other two instances of הָאִשָּׁה in the book (cited above).

The footnoted alternative rendering is that of NJPS, which accords with #1 above, construing the definite article in הָאִשָּׁה as pointing to women as a type. So, e.g., Arnold Ehrlich, Randglossen zur Hebräischen Bibel 7:85, ad loc.

*On the name Qohelet/Koheleth, see 1:1 and the NJPS/RJPS footnote there.