Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Proverbs 7:24-27
A Final Appeal Addressed To ‘Sons' Not To Follow Her Because Her Way Is The Way Of Death (Proverbs 7:24).
This final appeal is addressed, not to ‘my son' but to ‘sons'. He may well be thinking, not only of the young man, but of those who will follow in later generations. And he calls on them not to be led astray, because such women have had many victims, and the consequence for all of them has been death.
The subsection is in the form of a simple chiasmus:
A Now therefore, sons, listen to me, and attend to the words of my mouth, Do not let your heart decline to her ways, do not go astray in her paths. (Proverbs 7:24).
B For she has cast down many wounded, yes, all her slain are a mighty host (Proverbs 7:26).
A Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death (Proverbs 7:27).
In A he warns against declining into her ways, and going astray in her paths, and in the parallel he shows where those ways lead, for her house is the way to Sheol (the grave world). Central in B is the number who have been caught out by her.
‘Now therefore, sons, listen to me,
And attend to the words of my mouth,
Do not let your heart decline to her ways,
Do not go astray in her paths.
‘Now therefore sons listen to me' is a repeat of Proverbs 5:7 coming before a similar previous incident. The sons must therefore listen to him and not to the woman, and he calls on all who will hear his voice to take note of what he says and carry it into action (‘listen'). Let them attend to his words, and take them seriously. They must beware of letting their hearts take a downward path, descending into her ways. They must beware of going astray in her paths. Again we have the important emphasis on the fact that life is a way along which we walk, for good or ill, and we must beware of going downhill, or going astray in it. And the ways of this woman lead to deceit, the disintegration of society, shame and death.
For she has cast down many wounded,
Yes, all her slain are a mighty host.
For such women have had many victims, some wounded, others slain. And the dead have been many, ‘a mighty host'. Such women can be more destructive than a huge army. For no temptation destroys men more than straying sexually. Sex is a mighty force for evil, as well as, when properly used, for good..
Her house is the way to Sheol,
Going down to the chambers of death.
For the house of such a woman is the road to the grave world. Through it men go down to the chambers of death. The word for ‘chambers' indicates inner rooms cut off from outside. There may well have been ‘chambers of death' connected with Solomon's palace, dark places into which men go never to return alive. For this description compare Proverbs 2:18; Proverbs 5:5.