HEBREW WORD STUDY – ONE IN A THOUSAND – ‘ECHAD ME’EALPH – אחד מאלף Aleph Cheth Daleth   Mem Aleph Lamed Pei

Ecclesiastes 7:26-29: “And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart [is] snares and nets, [and] her hands [as] bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her. (27) Behold, this have I found, saith the preacher, [counting] one by one, to find out the account: (28) Which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not: one man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found. (29) Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.”

This is Hebrew poetry and like most poetry there is a certain amount of ambiguity.  This is because that even though a poet may have a particular theme and context in mind, he also wants to leave his poetic verse open to multiple interpretations. That is the genius of poetry.  Poetry is not the ability to make up little rhymes like: “Little boxes on a hilltop, little boxes made of tickty tack.”  A poet not only wants to convey a deep emotional message, but also leave his verse open to messages that the reader might find from his own personal experience that the poet has not experienced. That is perhaps why the poet ie., Solomon has left out a key adjective.  He is searching for one man in a thousand and one woman in a thousand.  Just what type of man and woman is he looking for?

Many of our modern translations will paraphrase this, despite their claims to being a translation and not a paraphrase, by adding the adjective righteous, or upright as that seems to be the context he is speaking from. But why did he just not the word righteous?  Most commentators quickly point out that Solomon’s use of one in a thousand is likely referring to his 300 wives and 700 concubines and he could not find one among them that meet his specifications, whatever that mighty be.  He was likely seeking the same in a man.  He uses the word adam for man to distinguish the gender from the ishah or woman.  There are some who speculate that this would indicate that he is speaking of sexual fidelity and that Solomon desired both women and men?  There is no strong evidence of this although historically many Middle Eastern kings did engage same sex relationships.  

Clearly Solomon did engage in sexual behavior that was offensive to God. He joined with foreign women which was forbidden and he had liaisons with multiple women. He says in Proverbs 5:18: “Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. It is believed by many in Jewish Literature that the Shulamite woman in the Song of Solomon was Solomon’s true love and that he cheated on her so much that she grew cold to him emotionally and at the end of his life he now discovers that his relationships with both men and women brought him no satisfaction and regrated that he pushed away the one love of his life, the one to whom his soul loved – Song of Solomon 3:4.   The ambiguity of this passage does allow for this speculation. Whether it is true or not we do not know. 

Some read the syntax in verse 28 that he found one man out of a thousand that his soul sought but this is disputed and that what he is really saying is that among both men and women he has found none that were…whatever it is his soul was searching for. Perhaps it was a fidelity, perhaps just a good solid friendship or a companion. Leadership is one of the loneliest jobs and once Solomon was estranged from his one true love and from God he became a lonely man indeed.

Remember this is the book of Ecclesiastes.  This is a book about existentialism that is every bit as profound as anything written by Soren Kierkegaard, Jean-Paul Sartre, or Albert Camus. In Solomon’s poem, he lists all he could acquire in life, achievement, fame, wealth, power, sexual pursuits, wisdom, intelligence, you name it he had it and yet he said all was vanity, vanity of vanities.   And now in chapter 7, he expresses his disappointment in humanity.  No one human being in a thousand is what he would expect of someone.  The words literally in the Hebrew is one from a thousand  echad me’elaph.  I don’t believe Solomon was making a reference to his 1,000 wives and concubines nor a thousand men in his service or that he counted as friends.  I believe he was making a play on words. You see the word echad is a word used with God in Deuteronomy 6:4 in the Shema, “Hear O’ Israel the Lord our God is echad – one.”   The word for 1,000 is the word aleph, the first letter of the Hebrew Alphabet which represents God. 

You see, this whole poem is one of despair and hopelessness.  Solomon had everything a human being could long for and desire and still, he was dissatisfied because through his life of neglect and disobedience to  God he was estranged from God. Everything bored him, wealth, fame, fortune and even people all bored him, life was worthless, useless – without his relationship with God.  

Finally, after having had all his heart’s desires, he discovered the only thing that brought him a sense of oneness, a sense of satisfaction, and fulfillment was his relationship with God. 

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