Proverbs 7:1-27
1 My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.
2 Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.
3 Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.
4 Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman:
5 That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.
6 For at the window of my house I looked through my casement,
7 And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths,a a young man void of understanding,
8 Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house,
9 In the twilight, in the evening,b in the black and dark night:
10 And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.
11 (She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:
12 Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.)
13 So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him,
14 I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows.
15 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 carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.
17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
18 Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.
19 For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:
20 He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed.
21 With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.
22 He goeth after her straightway,c as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks;
23 Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.
24 Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth.
25 Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths.
26 For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her.
27 Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.
Proverbs 7:1. Keep my words lay up my commandments. These terms being of constant occurrence in the didactic scriptures, will be found explained in the beginning of the hundred and nineteenth psalm.
Proverbs 7:2. Keep my law, as the apple of thine eye; a most precious, beautiful, and tender sense. The idea is often repeated, as in Deuteronomy 32:10; Psalms 17:8.
Proverbs 7:3. Bind them upon thy fingers, as the phylacteries. Deuteronomy 6:8. Love them, have them always at hand, and ready in thy mind. Love the holy scriptures, and wisdom will love you.
Proverbs 7:4. Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister. Claim with her the nearest affinity: her value is far above rubies. She is the spirit and power of God, a pure influence or emanation of the divine glory. No spot of impurity can touch her: she is the brightness of everlasting light, the unspotted mirror of divine omnipotence. It is this hallowed affinity with wisdom, this genuine conversion of the soul to God, which alone can save youth from an unhallowed affinity with the profane character, here contrasted with wisdom.
Proverbs 7:5. The strange woman flattereth with her words. A woman in meretricious array, exposing herself in the shades of night, faithless to her husband, and abandoned to vice. Canst thou, oh pupil of divine wisdom, forget the lovely virgin to whom thou art betrothed, whose society is so pleasant, whose graces are brilliant, whose virtues elevate thy soul. Canst thou, I say, leave a wife, lovely in innocence, for one whose body is all corruption, and whose soul is the seat of every sin? Oh no! Let the graceless, let the incorrigible go after her, as the ox goes to the slaughter, and be hurried away with an untimely death.
Proverbs 7:14. I have peace-offerings, as at the new moon; a delicious supper at home. These embraces are followed by disease, by murder, and the immolation of the soul in hell.
Proverbs 7:22. Or as a fool to the correction of the stocks, till a dart strike through his liver. The LXX read, as a dog to his halter, or as a stag pierced with a dart through his liver.
Proverbs 7:26. Many strong ones have been slain by her. The way to hell is her house: Proverbs 7:27. In war, the conquerors boast of their trophies; but here is the conqueror of heroes, here is glory lost in shame; here is nobility and honour, here is wealth and fortune, here is literature and science I do not say, men of the sacerdotal habit, all lying prostrate at the feet of a harlot. Hear how she boasts in her songs, and in her wine, of the great ones bowed at her feet. But short is her song; death is at the door, and hell follows after.