Proverbs 7:6-23

6 For at the window of my house I looked through the lattice.
7 I saw among the simple, I noticed among the youths, a young man lacking judgment,
8 crossing the street near her corner, strolling down the road to her house,
9 at twilight, as the day was fading into the dark of the night.
10 Then a woman came out to meet him, with the attire of a harlot and cunning of heart.
11 She is loud and defiant; her feet do not remain at home.
12 Now in the street, now in the squares, she lurks at every corner.
13 She seizes him and kisses him; she brazenly says to him:
14 “I have made my peace offerings; today I have paid my vows.
15 So I came out to meet you; I sought you, and I have found you.
16 I have decked my bed with coverings, with colored linen from Egypt.
17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, with aloes, and with cinnamon.
18 Come, let us take our fill of love till morning. Let us delight in loving caresses!
19 For my husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey.
20 He took with him a bag of money and will not return till the moon is full.”
21 With her great persuasion she entices him; with her flattering lips she lures him.
22 He follows her on impulse, like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer bounding into a trap, [a]
23 until an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird darting into a snare— not knowing it will cost him his life.

Proverbs 7:6-23 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.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Probable reading (see LXX, Vulgate, Syriac); Hebrew like fetters to discipline a fool
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