Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places

I have favorite verses in the Bible, but I also have least favorites.  I really dislike these verses.

Adding one thing to another to discover the scheme of things…while I was still searching, but not finding…I found one upright man among a thousand, but not one upright woman among them all.  Ecclesiastes 7: 27-28

Ecclesiastes was written by Solomon, who supposedly was an exceedingly wise man.  However, I have been observing since I was a teenager that really smart men can be really stupid when it comes to women.  I am pretty sure that Solomon’s wisdom betrayed him in this area.

In I Kings 11: 1-3 We find some evidence of the problem. 

King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women…they were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.  Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love.  He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray.

I have read commentary that Solomon had all these wives because it was common for a lesser king to give a greater king one of his daughters to cement the relationship between their kingdoms, so these ladies were sort of forced on poor Solomon.   I understand the concept, but it does say “Solomon held fast to them in love.”  So, it sounds to me like he was a willing participant.

Now let’s do the math.  700 wives + 300 concubines =1000 women.

Hmmm…doesn’t that verse in Ecclesiastes say he couldn’t find one upright woman among 1000?

Clearly, he was “looking for love in all the wrong places.”