Catching Idle Butterflies

King Solomon - Male Chauvinist Pig?

When we went through Chapter 7 in Ecclesiastes in last Wednesday’s Bible study, one lady, Diane, who is also in my Disciple class, pointed out this little gem beginning in verse 26: “I discovered that a seductive woman is a trap more bitter than death. Her passion is a snare, and her soft hands are chains. Those who are pleasing to God will escape her, but sinners will be caught in her snare.

“‘This is my conclusion,’ says the Teacher. ‘I discovered this after looking at the matter from every possible angle. Though I have searched repeatedly, I have not found what I was looking for. Only one out of a thousand men is virtuous, but not one woman!’”

We asked Kermit about it and he just shrugged and said, "He could be a male chauvinist pig, what can I say?"

With this still in mind, this week’s Disciple required we read much of Proverbs, most of which Solomon wrote. He talked mostly about the consequences of lying, stealing, and the like, but peppered throughout are warnings about being seduced by immoral women and other statements such as, “It’s better to live alone in the corner of an attic than with a quarrelsome wife in a lovely home.” (Proverbs 21:9) and “It’s better to live alone in the desert than with a quarrelsome, complaining wife.” (Proverbs 21:19)

These struck me as funny, and not just because they seemed so out of place with all the other, seemingly more appropriate, wisdoms preceding and following these statements. Knowing Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines, I can imagine what his home life must have been like. Men, you know how difficult it can be to live with one woman, now imagine having 1,000 of them in your home!

I couldn’t help but envision Solomon being interrupted from his important task of writing Proverbs and Ecclesiastes as another one of his wives or concubines interrupted him to nag, nag, nag!

To be fair, though, Solomon did praise women who were virtuous (so he did acknowledge women can be virtuous), such as in Proverbs 31 and the entire book of Song of Songs.

But as for being led astray by a seductive woman, Solomon knew all to well of the possibility, because he himself had been led to build temples and worship other gods by his many foreign wives, something God had warned him against (See Kings 11:1-13).