Proverbs 7:1-11

1 My son! keep my sayings, And my commands lay up with thee.

2 Keep my commands, and live, And my law as the pupil of thine eye.

3 Bind them on thy fingers, Write them on the tablet of thy heart.

4 Say to wisdom, `My sister Thou [art].' And cry to understanding, `Kinswoman!'

5 To preserve thee from a strange woman, From a stranger who hath made smooth her sayings.

6 For, at a window of my house, Through my casement I have looked out,

7 And I do see among the simple ones, I discern among the sons, A young man lacking understanding,

8 Passing on in the street, near her corner, And the way [to] her house he doth step,

9 In the twilight -- in the evening of day, In the darkness of night and blackness.

10 And, lo, a woman to meet him -- (A harlot's dress, and watchful of heart,

11 Noisy she [is], and stubborn, In her house her feet rest not.

Proverbs 7:1-11 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PROVERBS 7

The sum of this chapter is to exhort men to attend to the doctrines and precepts of Wisdom, in order to avoid the adulterous woman; the exhortation to keep them with care, affection, and delight, in order to answer the end, is in Pr 7:1-5. A story is told, of Solomon's own knowledge, of a young man ensnared and ruined by a lewd woman; it begins Pr 7:6. The young man is described as foolish, and as throwing himself in the way of temptation, Pr 7:7-9; the harlot that met him is described by her attire, her subtlety, her voice, her inconstancy, her impudence, and pretensions to piety, Pr 7:10-14. The arguments she made use of to prevail upon him to go with her are taken partly from the elegance of her bed, the softness of it, and its sweet perfume, and satiety of love to be enjoyed in it, Pr 7:15-18; and partly from the absence of her husband, who was gone a long journey, and had made provision for it for a certain time, Pr 7:19,20. By which arguments she prevailed upon him to his utter ruin: which is illustrated by the similes of an ox going to the slaughter, a fool to the stocks, and a bird to the snare, Pr 7:21-23. And the chapter is concluded with an exhortation to hearken to the words of Wisdom, and to avoid the ways and paths of the harlot, by which many and mighty persons have been ruined; they being the direct road to hell and death, Pr 7:24-27.