Proverbs 7:13-23

13 She grabbed him and kissed him. Without shame she said to him,
14 "I made my fellowship offering and took some of the meat home. Today I have kept my special promises.
15 So I have come out to meet you; I have been looking for you and have found you.
16 I have covered my bed with colored sheets from Egypt.
17 I have made my bed smell sweet with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
18 Come, let's make love until morning. Let's enjoy each other's love.
19 My husband is not home; he has gone on a long trip.
20 He took a lot of money with him and won't be home for weeks."
21 By her clever words she made him give in; by her pleasing words she led him into doing wrong.
22 All at once he followed her, like an ox led to the butcher, like a deer caught in a trap
23 and shot through the liver with an arrow. Like a bird caught in a trap, he didn't know what he did would kill him.

Proverbs 7:13-23 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.

Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.