Mishle 7:6-23

6 For at the chalon (window) of my bais I looked through my lattice,

7 And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the banim, a na’ar (young man) devoid of lev [of understanding, sense],

8 Passing through the street near her corner; and he went on the derech to her bais,

9 In the twilight, at erev, in the black and dark lailah;

10 And, hinei, there met him an isha with the attire of a zonah, and crafty of lev

11 —She is loud and soreret (rebellious, defiant); her raglayim abide not in her bais;

12 Now is she without, now in the rechovot, and lurketh in wait at every pinnah (corner)—

13 So she caught hold of him, and kissed him, and with a brazen ponem said unto him,

14 I have zivkhei shelamim vowed; this yom have I payed my neder.

15 Al ken (therefore) came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.

16 I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with a bedspread of fine linen of Mitzrayim.

17 I have perfumed my mishkav (bed) with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

18 Come, let us take our fill of dodim (loves) until boker; let us delight ourselves with ahavim (loves, pl. of intensity).

19 For the ish (man, i.e., husband) is not b’bais, he is gone a derech merachok (distant journey);

20 He hath taken a bag of kesef with him, and will come back to his bais at the appointed time.

21 By her enticing speech she caused him to yield, with the smoothness of her sfatayim she seduced him.

22 He goeth after her and followeth immediately, as a shor (ox) goeth to tavach (stock yard, slaughter-house), or as the fettered to the musar of the fool;

23 Till a khetz (arrow) strike through his liver; as a tzippor hasteth to the pach (snare), and knoweth not that it is for his nefesh (life).

Mishle 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.