Deuteronomy 11:18-20(v3)Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul. You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall…
Proverbs 3:3(v3)Don’t let kindness and truth forsake you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart.
Deuteronomy 6:8-9(v3)You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the door posts of…
Jeremiah 31:33(v3)“But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” says Yahweh: “I will put my law in their inward…
2 Corinthians 3:3(v3)being revealed that you are a letter of Christ, served by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets…
Show all 39 cross-references
Isaiah 30:8(v3)Now go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever.
Proverbs 6:21(v3)Bind them continually on your heart. Tie them around your neck.
Psalms 17:8(v2)Keep me as the apple of your eye. Hide me under the shadow of your wings,
Jeremiah 17:1(v3)“The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond. It is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the…
Proverbs 1:8(v1)My son, listen to your father’s instruction, and don’t forsake your mother’s teaching:
Leviticus 18:5(v2)You shall therefore keep my statutes and my ordinances, which if a man does, he shall live in them. I am Yahweh.
Proverbs 4:4(v2)He taught me, and said to me: “Let your heart retain my words. Keep my commandments, and live.
1 John 2:3-4(v2)This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commandments. One who says, “I know him,” and doesn’t keep his commandments, is a…
Luke 11:28(v1)But he said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it.”
John 14:21(v2)One who has my commandments and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. One who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love…
1 John 5:1-3(v2)Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. Whoever loves the Father also loves the child who is born of him. By this…
Revelation 1:3(v1)Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things that are written in it, for the time is at hand.
Deuteronomy 32:10(v2)He found him in a desert land, in the waste howling wilderness. He surrounded him. He cared for him. He kept him as the apple of his eye.
Proverbs 2:1-7(v1)My son, if you will receive my words, and store up my commandments within you, so as to turn your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to…
Proverbs 2:2-4(v4)so as to turn your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for discernment, and lift up your voice for…
Proverbs 4:6-8(v4)Don’t forsake her, and she will preserve you. Love her, and she will keep you. Wisdom is supreme. Get wisdom. Yes, though it costs all your…
Proverbs 4:13(v2)Take firm hold of instruction. Don’t let her go. Keep her, for she is your life.
Isaiah 55:3(v2)Turn your ear, and come to me. Hear, and your soul will live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
John 12:49-50(v2)For I spoke not from myself, but the Father who sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. I know that…
John 14:23(v1)Jesus answered him, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him.
John 15:14(v2)You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you.
Revelation 22:9(v1)He said to me, “See you don’t do it! I am a fellow bondservant with you and with your brothers, the prophets, and with those who keep the…
Job 22:22(v1)Please receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart.
Proverbs 3:1(v1)My son, don’t forget my teaching; but let your heart keep my commandments:
Zechariah 2:8(v2)For Yahweh of Armies says: ‘For honor he has sent me to the nations which plundered you; for he who touches you touches the apple of his…
John 15:20(v1)Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his lord.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If…
Deuteronomy 11:28(v1)and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, but turn away out of the way which I command you today, to go…
Luke 8:15(v1)Those in the good ground, these are those who with an honest and good heart, having heard the word, hold it tightly, and produce fruit with…
Job 17:14(v4)if I have said to corruption, ‘You are my father;’ to the worm, ‘My mother,’ and ‘My sister,’
Song of Solomon 8:1(v4)Oh that you were like my brother, who nursed from the breasts of my mother! If I found you outside, I would kiss you; yes, and no one would…
Revelation 22:14(v2)Blessed are those who do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into the city.
Proverbs 10:14(v1)Wise men lay up knowledge, but the mouth of the foolish is near ruin.
Matthew 12:49-50(v4)He stretched out his hand toward his disciples, and said, “Behold, my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father who is…
Luke 11:27-28(v4)It came to pass, as he said these things, a certain woman out of the multitude lifted up her voice, and said to him, “Blessed is the womb…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (25 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn v2By this diversity of words, he meaneth that nothing…
By this diversity of words, he meaneth that nothing ought to be so dear unto us as the word of God, nor that we look on anything more nor mind anything so much.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv1–4Pro 7:1 My son, keep my words, and lay…
Pro 7:1 My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.
Ver. 1. My son, keep my words.] Aristotle hath observed, and daily experience makes it good, that man shows his weakness no way more than about moderating the pleasure ef his tasting and touching, forasmuch as they belong to him, not as a man, but as a living creature. Now therefore as where the hedge is lowest, there the beast leaps over soonest, so Satan will be sure to assault us where we are least able to withstand him. And whereas old men {a} have no cause to be secure - (David was old when he went in to Bathsheba, and Lot not young when he deflowered his two daughters; - of the Brabonts it is said, that quo magis senescunt eo magis stultescunt, The older the more foolish; and the heathen sages say, Metuendam esse senectam, quod non veniat sola, that old age is to be feared, as that which comes not alone, but being itself a disease, it comes accompanied with many diseases both of body and mind); - young men {b} especially, whom the Greeks call ηιθεοι of αθω, to be hot, and Aιζηοι of Zεω, to boil, and who think they have a licence helluari, scortari, fores effringere, to drink and drab, which they count and call a trick of youth, have but more than need to be constantly and carefully cautioned and called upon, as here they are, to "flee fornication," {1Co 6:8} to "flee youthful lusts," {2Ti 2:22} with posthaste to flee them, to "abstain from fleshly lusts" tanquam a mellito veneno, "which war against the soul." {1Pe 2:11} The body cannot be so wounded with weapons as the soul is with lusts. Holy Timothy - so temperate a young man that St Paul was fain to prescribe him medicine, bidding him no longer to drink water, but "a little wine for his stomach’s sake and his often infirmities," {1Ti 5:23} contracted happily by his too much abstinence, for the better keeping under his body, and bringing it into subjection - is in the same chapter by the same apostle exhorted to exhort the younger women with all purity; {1Ti 5:2} whereby is intimated, that through the deceit of his heart, and the slipperiness of his age, even while he was pressing those young women to purity, some impure motion might press in upon him; which, though but a stranger to Timothy - as Peter Martyr and others observe out of that passage in Nathan’s parable, {2Sa 12:5} that lust was to David - yet might prove a troublesome inmate if not suddenly ejected. It is no marvel, therefore, that the wise man is so exceedingly earnest with his son about the business of abhorring harlotry, the hatefulness whereof he now paints out in a parable, setting it forth in liveliest colours.
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{a} Turpe est senescere aetatem, non tamen senescere lasciviam. - Nazianz.
{b} Contra πρεσβυτηρ α πυρ et σβεω: et senex quasi seminex.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv2–4And live, i.e. thou shalt live. A promise in…
And live, i.e. thou shalt live. A promise in the form of a command, as Pro 3:25.
As the apple of thine eye; with all possible care and diligence, as men guard that part from all dangers, yea, even from the least mote. The eye is a most noble and necessary, and therefore highly esteemed and beloved, part of the body, and the apple thereof is the most honourable, and beautiful, and useful part of that part, and it is a most tender part, easily hurt, or destroyed, and therefore needs to be diligently watched.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn v1These verses are an introduction to his warning against…
These verses are an introduction to his warning against fleshly lusts, much the same with that, Pro 6:20, etc., and ending (Pro 7:5) as that did (Pro 6:24), To keep thee from the strange woman; that is it he aims at; only there he had said, Keep thy father's commandment, here (which comes all to one), Keep my commandments, for he speaks to us as unto sons. He speaks in God's name; for it is God's commandments that we are to keep, his words, his law. The word of God must be to us, 1. As that which we are most careful of. We must keep it as our treasure; we must lay up God's commandments with us, lay them up safely, that we may not be robbed of them by the wicked one, Pro 7:1. We must keep it as our life: Keep my commandments and live (Pro 7:2), not only, "Keep them, and you shall live;" but, "Keep them as you would your life, as those that cannot live without them." It would be death to a good man to be deprived of the word of God, for by it he lives, and not by bread alone. 2. As that which we are most tender of: Keep my law as the apple of thy eye. A little thing offends the eye, and therefore nature has so well guarded it. We pray, with David, that God would keep us as the apple of his eye (Psa 17:8), that our lives and comforts may be precious in his sight; and they shall be so (Zac 2:8) if we be in like manner tender of his law and afraid of the least violation of it. Those who reproach strict and circumspect walking, as needless preciseness, consider not that the law is to be kept as the apple of the eye, for indeed it is the apple of our eye; the law is light; the law in the heart is the eye of the soul. 3. As that which we are proud of and would be ever mindful of (Pro 7:3): "Bind them upon thy fingers; let them be precious to thee; look upon them as an ornament, as a diamond-ring, as the signet on thy right hand; wear them continually as thy wedding-ring, the badge of thy espousals to God. Look upon the word of God as putting an honour upon thee, as an ensign of thy dignity. Bind them on thy fingers, that they may be constant memorandums to thee of thy duty, that thou mayest have them always in view, as that which is graven upon the palms of thy hands." 4. As that which we are fond of and are ever thinking of: Write them upon the table of thy heart, as the names of the friends we dearly love, we say, are written in our hearts. let the word of God dwell richly in us, and be written there where it will be always at hand to be read. Where sin was written (Jer 17:1) let the word of God be written. It is the matter of a promise (Heb 8:10, I will write my law in their hearts), which makes the precept practicable and easy. 5. As that which we are intimately acquainted and conversant with (Pro 7:4): "Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister, whom I dearly love and take delight in; and call understanding thy kinswoman, to whom thou art nearly allied, and for whom thou hast a pure affection; call her thy friend, whom thou courtest." We must make the word of God familiar to us, consult it, and consult its honour, and take a pleasure in conversing with it. 6. As that which we make use of for our defence and armour, to keep us from the strange woman, from sin, that flattering but destroying thing, that adulteress; particularly from the sin of uncleanness, Pro 7:5. Let the word of God confirm our dread of that sin and our resolutions against it; let it discover to us its fallacies and suggest to us answers to all its flatteries.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv1–4My son, keep my words,.... Doctrines and instructions; which,…
My son, keep my words,.... Doctrines and instructions; which, as a father to a son, or a master to his scholars, he had delivered; these he would have him observe and attend to;
and lay up my commandments with thee: as a treasure in his heart, to be brought out upon occasion; to be kept as valuable, and made use of as an antidote against and a preservative from sinning; see Psa 119:11. The Septuagint and Arabic versions add, what is not in the Hebrew text,
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"son, honour the Lord, and thou shalt be strong;''
the Arabic adds,
"and he shall strengthen thee; and fear none besides him.''
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv1–4An exhortation to cleave to wisdom, as a preservative…
An exhortation to cleave to wisdom, as a preservative from strange women, ver. 1-5. The snares they lay for unwary young men, ver. 6-23. A serious caution against coming near them, ver. 24-37.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv1–4A farther exhortation to acquire wisdom, in order to…
CHAPTER VII
A farther exhortation to acquire wisdom, in order to be
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preserved from impure connections, 1-5.
The character of a harlot, and her conduct towards a youth who
fell into her snare, 6-23.
Solemn exhortations to avoid this evil, 24-27.
NOTES ON CHAP. VII
Verse 1. My son, keep my words] See Pr 2:1.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn v2Pro 7:2-4. Keep my commandments, and live — That…
Pro 7:2-4. Keep my commandments, and live — That is, thou shalt live. It is a promise in the form of a command, as Pro 3:25. And my law as the apple of thine eye — With all possible care and diligence, as men guard that most noble and necessary, and therefore highly-esteemed and beloved part of the body from all danger, yea, even from the least mote. Bind them upon thy fingers — As a ring which is put upon them, and is continually in a man’s eye. Constantly remember and meditate upon them. Write them, &c. — Fix them in thy mind and affection: see on Pro 3:3. Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister — The name of sister is a name of friendship, often used between the husband and wife, and denotes the chaste love which he should have to wisdom. Call understanding thy kinswoman — The LXX. render it, την δε φρονησιν γνωριμον περιποιησαι σεαυτω, Acquire to thyself prudence for an acquaintance; while other foolish young men seek wanton mistresses, whom they frequently call sisters, or kinswomen, let wisdom be thy mistress; acquaint and delight thyself with her. Say to her, Thou art my sister, my spouse, my beloved: let her have the command of thy heart, and the conduct of thy life.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn v1The harlot adulteress of an Eastern city is contrasted…
The harlot adulteress of an Eastern city is contrasted with the true feminine ideal of the Wisdom who is to be the “sister” and “kinswoman” Pro 7:4 of the young man as he goes on his way through life. See Prov. 8 in the introduction.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Charles Bridges1846 · Public DomainOn v1THE study of wisdom in the word of God…
THE study of wisdom in the word of God is here commended to us with affectionate earnestness, and with a beautiful variety of imagery. Let us ponder these valuable rules for practical application.
Let the whole mind and heart be occupied with it. Keep it as the daily means of life. (Pro 3:2122 ; Pro 4:4, Pro 4:13 . Isa 55:2-3 . Jer 22:15 .) Sir Matthew Hale told his children — ’If I omit reading a portion of Scripture in the morning, it never goes well with me through the day.’ Lay it up (Pro 10:14 . Deu 11:18 . Luk 2:19, Luk 2:51 ) carefully, not on our shelves, but on our hearts. Let the whole Word of God be our precious treasure. Receive the promises from his grace with simple affiance, and the commandments from his holiness with ready obedience. Stand with your eye in the land of promise; but with your feet "in the land of uprightness." (Psa 143:10 .)
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Maintain a jealous regard for the law. What care is necessary to keep the apple of the eye — that most tender part of the most tender member! (Deu 32:10 . Psa 17:8 . Zec 2:8 .) With the same care preserve the integrity of the law. Let every part of it have its full weight. To explain it away, or to lower its requirements, breaks down the barrier, and gives an easy entrance to temptation. The sensual sinner is often a covert infidel.
Let it be at hand for constant use. Bind them upon thy fingers (Pro 3:3 . Deu 6:8 ; Deu 11:18 ); that, being always in sight, they may be always ready for the present moment. And for their practical influence, write them upon the table of thine heart. Oh! my God! this is thy Almighty work (Isa 26:12 . 2Co 3:3 .) But thou hast engaged to do it for thy people (Jer 31:33 .) I "take hold of thy covenant." Lord! Seal thy promised grace.
Let it be the object of tender affection — as our sister — our kinswoman. It is her embrace that throws the harlot’s beauty into the shade. Man must have his object of delight. If wisdom is not loved, lust will be indulged. The Bible therefore — not merely read, but the cherished object of familiar intercourse — proves a sacred exorcist to expel the power of evil. (Pro 2:10, Pro 2:16 ; Pro 6:23-24 ; Pro 23:26-27 .)
Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs (1846) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn v1Words. As dangerous temptations always threaten, the same instructions…
Words. As dangerous temptations always threaten, the same instructions are frequently inculcated. (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures1864 · Public DomainOn v113. New admonition to chastity, with a reference to…
13. New admonition to chastity, with a reference to the warning example of a youth led astray by a harlot
Pro_7:1-27
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1 My son, keep my words,
and treasure up my commandments with thee.
2 Keep my commandments and thou shalt live—
and my instruction as the apple of thine eye.
3 Bind them to thy fingers,
write them on the tablet of thine heart.
4 Say to wisdom “Thou art my sister!”
and call understanding “acquaintance,”
5 that they may keep thee from the strange woman,
from the stranger that flattereth with her words.—
6 For through the window of my house,
through my lattice I looked out,
7 and I saw among the inexperienced ones,
discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding.
8 He passed along the street near her corner,
and sauntered along the way to her house,
9 in the twilight, in the evening of the day,
in the midst of the night and darkness.
10 And lo, a woman cometh to meet him,
in the attire of a harlot, and subtle in heart.
11 Boisterous was she, and ungovernable;
her feet would not tarry in her house;
12 now in the street, now in the market places,
and at every corner did she watch.
13 And she laid hold upon him, and kissed him,
put on a bold face and said to him,
14 “Thankofferings were (binding) upon me,
to-day have I redeemed my vows;
15 therefore came I out to meet thee,
to seek thy face, and I have found thee.
16 Tapestries have I spread upon my couch,
variegated coverlets of Egyptian linen;
17 I have sprinkled my couch
with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon.
18 Come, let us sate ourselves with love till morning,
and enjoy ourselves in love!
19 For the man is not at home,
he has gone a long journey;
20 the purse he has taken with him;
not till the day of the full moon will he return.”
21 She beguiled him with the multitude of her enticements,
by the allurements of her lips she led him astray.
22 He followed her at once,
as an ox goeth to the slaughter,
and as fetters (serve) for the correction of fools—
23 till an arrow pierceth his liver:—
as a bird hasteneth to the snare,
and knoweth not that his life is at stake.—
24 And now, ye children, hearken to me,
and observe the words of my mouth!
25 Let not thine heart incline to her ways,
and stray not into her paths.
26 For many slain hath she caused to fall
and all her slain are many.
27 Ways of hell (is) her house
going down to the chambers of death.
GRAMMATICAL AND CRITICAL
Pro_7:7. [אָבִינָה, the ו consec. omitted, as is sometimes the case, the form resembling a simple Intentional. Gesen. Lehrgeb. p. 874., Bött. § § 969, 6; 973, 5. Stuart (comm. in loc.) seems to be in error in regarding this a real voluntative, and rendering “that I might see among the simple, and observe, etc.”—A.].
Pro_7:8. [For the form פִּנָּהּ instead of the full form פִּנָּתָהּ (with the ordinary form of fem, nouns with suff.), see Bött. § 724, b. Comp. however Exegetical notes in regard to the proper reading.—A.].
Pro_7:11. [יִשְׁכְנוּ, used of repeated recurrence in the past—Fiens multiplex præteriti according to the terminology of Bött. § 949, f.—A.]
Pro_7:13. In the verb הֵעֵזָה (lit., she made hard, corroboravit) the doubling of the 2d radical is omitted, as in הֵחֵלָה, Jdg_20:40. [Given by Bött. § 500, 5, as an example of the simplifying of that which is usually doubled, to express the idea of the permanent, gradual or gentle. See also § 1123, 3. Comp. Green, § 141, 1; Stuart, § 66, 11.—A.].
Pro_7:15. [Stuart’s rendering of the last clause as final, “that I might find, etc.,” is unnecessary; it is rather a simple consecutive.—A.].
Pro_7:18. [נִתְעַלְּסַה, the cohortative use of the Intentional. Bött., § 965, 2.—A.].
EXEGETICAL
1. From the preceding warnings against unchastity and adultery (Pro_2:16-19; chap. 5; Pro_6:20-35) the one now before us is distinguished by the fact, that the poet, after a preliminary general introduction (Pro_7:1-5; comp. Pro_6:20-24), for the sake of delineating more clearly the repulsiveness and various consequences of intercourse with wanton women, depicts in narrative form the example of a single adulterous woman, who by her lascivious arts betrays a foolish youth into adultery. This is therefore a didactic narrative, with a purpose of earnest warning, here presented as a conclusion to the second larger group of admonitory discourses. It is not possibly an allegory, for nothing whatsoever in the text points to such a conception of the adulteress, by virtue of which she might be regarded as introduced as a personification of the abstract idea of folly (in contrast with that of wisdom personified). Not till we come to Pro_9:13 sq. do we find such a presentation of folly under the image of a wanton, adulterous woman.—In contrast with the expositors of the ancient church, most of whom gave allegorical interpretations, the correct view is found as early as M. Geier, Vatablus, Mercerus, Egard, Hansen, Michaelis, Starke, and also in nearly all the moderns except Von Gerlach. The view of several of those named, especially that of Starke, that the whole narration is to be regarded a true history, an actual experience of the poet, lacks sufficient support in the style and form of the delineation. The history may just as well be imaginary as the contents of many narrations of Christ,—e.g., that of the good Samaritan, of the prodigal son, etc.
2. Pro_7:1-5 : Introduction in a general form, in which Pro_7:1 reminds us of Pro_1:8; Pro_2:1; Pro_6:20; so Pro_7:2 of Pro_4:4; Pro_7:3 of Pro_3:3; Pro_6:21; Pro_7:5 of Pro_2:16; Pro_6:24.
Pro_7:2. And my teaching as the apple of thine eye, lit. “as the little man in thine eye.” The same figurative description is found in Arabic and Persian (see Umbreit on this passage). Comp. also the Greek κόρη, κοράσιον (=בַּת־עַיִן [the daughter of the eye] Lam_2:18) and the Latin pupa, pupilla. The apple of the eye is also in Deu_32:10; Psa_17:8 : Zec_2:12, the emblem of a precious possession guarded with peculiarly watchful care.
Pro_7:3. Bind them to thy fingers, not precisely as an amulet, as Umbreit thinks, but as an ornament, a costly decoration, like a ring; comp. Song Son_8:6, and the observations on Pro_3:3—Without adequate reason Hitzig regards the verse as spurious, on account of its partial correspondence with Deu_6:8; Deu_11:18. As though the figures here employed, especially that in the first clause, did not occur very frequently within the sphere of the Old Testament, and that in every instance with a form somehow slightly modified! Comp. e.g., Exo_13:9; Exo_13:16; Jer_22:24; Hag_2:23.
Pro_7:4. “Thou art my sister!” Comp. Job_17:14; Job_30:29; Wis_8:2. The parallel “acquaintance” in the 2d clause corresponds with the Hebrew expression מוֹדָע, which denotes knowledge, acquaintance, and then (abstract for the concrete, as occurs, e.g., also in the use of the French connaisance [and the English “acquaintance”]) one well known, a friend, familiaris. The same expression is found also in Rth_2:1 as the K’ri. Comp. P. Cassel on this passage, who however both for that passage and the one before us gives the preference to the K’thibh מְיֻדָּע (comp. Psa_55:14; Psa_88:9) as the more primitive reading.
3. Pro_7:6-9. The foolish young man.—Through my lattice I looked out. Comp. the quite similar representation in the song of Deborah, Jdg_5:28. אֶשְׁנָב denotes as it does there a latticed aperture, an arrangement for the circulation of fresh air (Hitzig).
Pro_7:7. And I saw among the inexperienced; literally, among the νηπίοις, the simple; comp. remarks on Pro_1:4, where the same expression פְּתָאִים is used, synonymous with נַעַר, boy, as here with בָּנִים. It is not necessary, with Arnoldi, Bertheau and Hitzig, to explain the expression in exact accordance with the Arabic by juvenes [young men].
Pro_7:8. Near a corner.—The Masoretic punctuation פִּנָּהּ with mappik in the ה (comp. מִדָּהּ, Job_11:9) represents the corner as hers, i.e., the corner of the adulteress, the corner of her house,—and many recent expositors, e.g., Umbreit and Hitzig, translate and explain accordingly. But inasmuch as according to Pro_7:12 (which Hitzig, without any reason, pronounces spurious), the adulteress is accustomed to watch “at every corner,” therefore at street corners in general, it is not quite needful to refer the corner here mentioned to her dwelling. All the ancient versions moreover have read only the simple פִּנָּה (LXX: παρὰ γωνίαν; Vulg.: juxta angulum, etc.).—And sauntered along the way to her house.—Psychologically it is pertinent to depict the young man predisposed to sin as strolling before the house of the adulteress, and this as the beginning of his imprudence, so far forth as he thus plunges himself into temptation. The verb צָעַד is fairly chosen, as it always expresses a certain care and intention in his going. We say substantially “he measures his steps; he paces before her door” (Umbreit).
Pro_7:9. In the twilight, in the evening of the day.—The accumulation of the expressions is explained by the fact that it was fitting to characterize the action and conduct of the young man as belonging to the works of darkness, the deeds of night. Comp. Luk_22:53; Rom_13:12; 1Th_5:4-7, etc. There is furthermore no contradiction between the notation of time in the first clause and that in the second; for נֶשֶׁף strictly signifies not the first evening twilight, but the later period of evening darkness, from 9 o’clock to 12 (see Job_7:4; Job_24:15), and so the time immediately bordering upon the true black night or midnight.—In the blackness of night—literally, “in the pupil of the night,” comp. Pro_20:20, K’ri. The tertium comparationis is to be found, doubtless in both, the blackness and the middle, and not in the first alone, as Umbreit holds. Comp. besides the phrase “heart of the night” in the poetic language of the Persians (see Umbreit on this passage).
4. Pro_7:10-20. The adulteress.—In the attire of a harlot.—שִׁית זוֹנָה, dress of a harlot (comp. with respect to שִׁית, dress, apparel, Psa_73:16), stands here with no connecting word in apposition to “woman;” a woman a harlot’s dress, as though the woman herself were nothing more than such a dress. Thus, and with good reason, Bertheau explains [and Words.], while Hitzig altogether artificially explains שִׁית by שְׁוִית (from שָׁוָה) as equivalent to דְּמוּת, likeness, and accordingly translates “with the outward appearance of a harlot;” in the same way also the LXX: εἶδος ἔχουσα πορνικόν.—Subtle in heart.—נְצֻרַת לֵב is strictly “one who is guarded in heart,” i.e., one whose heart is guarded and inaccessible, who locks up her plans and counsels deep in her breast, comp. Isa_65:4. Thus Chr. B. Michaelis (citing the French retenu), Umbreit, Bertheau, Elster, etc., and from earlier times at least the Vers. Veneta: πεφυλαγμένη τὴν καρδίαν. [With these Wordsw. is in substantial agreement; “her heart is like a walled fortress,” etc.]. The other ancient versions expressed the idea “one carrying away the heart of the young man,” as though they had read נֹצֶרֶת (so also recently Arnoldi). Ewald explains “of hardened heart, bold and confident;” Hitzig, in accordance with the Arabic and comparing the saucia in Virgil’s Æneid, iv. Proverbs 1 : “an arrow in her heart, wounded by love’s dart,” and therefore ardent and wanton—both of these being plainly altogether artificial and adventurous. [Fuerst, treating the adjective as fem. constr. from נָצוֹר, renders “watching (for hearts of young men”).—Boisterous was she and ungovernable.—With the first epithet (literally, shouting) comp. Pro_9:13; with the second, Hos_4:16, where the same word is used of a wild heifer that will not submit its neck to the yoke.
Pro_7:12. Now in the street, etc.—That we have only here a custom, a habit of the wanton woman described, while in the preceding verse we have delineated her condition in a single instance, is an entirely arbitrary assumption of Hitzig’s, which is altogether opposed by the use of the Imperfect in both cases (יִשְׁכְנוּ, Pro_7:11, and תֶּאֱרֹב , Pro_7:12). Therefore the argument that the verse is spurious, resting as it does mainly on this alleged difference in the substance and scope of the verse, is to be rejected (comp. above, remarks on Pro_7:8).
Pro_7:13. Put on a bold face.—Comp. Pro_21:29; Ecc_8:1.
Pro_7:11. Thank–offerings were binding upon me—that is, in consequence of a vow, as the second clause shows. She has therefore on the day that is hardly gone (“to-day”—the day is here represented as continuing into the night) slain a victim in sacrifice that had been vowed to the Lord for some reason or other, and has prepared for a meal the flesh of this animal, which in accordance with the law, Lev_7:16, must be eaten on the second day, at the latest. To this meal, which, to judge from the description of the luxurious furnishing of the chamber, in Pro_7:16 sq., is no simple affair, she now invites the young man.
Pro_7:16. Variegated coverlets of Egyptian linen.—חֲטֻבוֹת which the older translators nearly all interpret as “variegated coverlets,” the larger number derive from the Arabic ־َ״ָِ to be many colored (therefore tapetes versicolores s. picti, as it is found as early as the Vulgate); Bertheau, on the contrary, derives from =הטב הצב to cut, to make stripes or strips (therefore striped material); Hitzig finally derives from the Arab. ُ׃״ָ cotton, appealing to Pliny, H. N., XIX. 1, 2, according to whom cotton fabrics in great quantity were manufactured from native material. The first of these explanations, as the simplest and best attested, deserves the preference.—אֵטוּן is equivalent to the Ægypt. Athiouniau, linen, and is found in Greek also in the form ὀθόνη or ὀθόνιον. [The rendering of the E. V. “with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt” conforms too closely to the primary meaning of the verb חָטַב “to carve.” It cannot refer to any carved frame work of the bed, but rather to the embroidered figures which resemble carving—A.].
Pro_7:17. I have sprinkled my couch, etc.—Hitzig, who translates the verb by “I have perfumed,” has in mind a mere perfuming of the bed or of its apparel by means of the swinging of a censer filled with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. But while נוּף does properly signify to raise, to swing, yet the signification “sprinkle” is easily enough derived from this; and although the spices in question were not sprinkled precisely in the form of water holding them in solution, they still produced a satisfactory result if strewed upon the coverlets of the couch in little bits, fragments of the bark, fibres or scales. In no other way than this is it to be supposed that the same fragrant materials (with cassia) were employed, according to Psa_45:8, in perfuming the king’s robes of state; comp. also Song Son_3:6; Son_4:14.
Pro_7:18. Let us sate ourselves with love, etc.—Comp. Pro_5:19, and also the phrase שִׁכְרוּ דוֹדִים, Song Son_5:1.—Enjoy ourselves in love.—Instead of the meaning “enjoy” or “delight one’s self,” well attested by Job_20:18; Job_39:13, the old interpreters give to the verb in this instance the stronger meaning “to embrace passionately, to cohabit” (LXX: ἐγκυλισθῶμεν ἕρωτι; Aquila and Theodotion: συμπεριπλέκωμεν; so also Hitzig: “let us join in love’s indulgence!”). But it is plainly unnecessary to substitute an obscene import, artificially and with a possible appeal to the Arabic, for the simpler meaning, which is abundantly attested by the usus loquendi of the Old Testament.
Pro_7:19. The man is not at home.—Let it be observed with how cold and strange a tone the faithless wife speaks of her husband.—He has gone a long journey.—Lit., “upon a journey from afar;” the idea “from afar” is loosely appended to that of “journey” in order to represent not so much the way itself as rather the person traversing it as far removed.
Pro_7:20. The purse he hath taken with him—and therefore proposes extensive transactions at a distance from home, and will continue journeying a considerable time.—On the day of the full moon he will return.—In the Hebrew the כֶּסֶא (for which in Psa_81:4 we have the form כֶּסֶה) forms an alliteration with the כֶּסֶף in the first member, which is probably not undesigned; “the verse flows so smoothly along (comp. Pro_2:13) and one imagines that he hears the sweetly musical voice of the betrayer” (Hitzig). Furthermore the “day of the full moon” is not a designation of the full moon of the feast of tabernacles which was celebrated with peculiar festivities (Umbreit, Elster), but the expression plainly relates to the next succeeding full moon. Since now, according to Pro_7:9, the time to which the narrative relates must be about new moon, the cunning woman means to hint that her husband will not return for about a fortnight. See Hitzig on this passage.
5. Pro_7:21-23. The result of her enticing arts. Pro_7:21. With the multitude of her enticements.—לֶקַח, learning (Pro_1:5; Pro_9:9) is here ironically employed of the skilful and bewildering rhetoric which the adulteress has known how to employ.—With the expression “smoothness, of lips” comp. “smoothness of tongue,” Pro_6:24.
Pro_7:22. At once, Hebrew פִּתְאֹם, implies that he had at first hesitated, until this fear of his to take the decisive step was overcome by evil appetite, and he now with passionate promptness formed the vile purpose and executed it at once, to cut off all further reflection. Here is evidently a stroke in the picture of the profoundest psychological truth.—As an ox goeth to the slaughter.—Therefore following another, and with a brutish unconsciousness. Comp. the corresponding figure, which, however, is used with a purpose of commendation, in Isa_53:7. And as fetters (serve) for the correction of the fool.—With the fetters (עֶכֶם comp. Isa_3:18) we have here compared, of course, the adulteress who suddenly and by a single effort prevails upon the thoughtless youth,—and not, possibly, the young man himself (as Umbreit supposes, who finds the significance of the comparison in this, that the foolish and ensnared youth is represented first as a dumb beast, and then as a simply material physical thing, as a mere dead instrument. As the obstinate fool (אֱוִיל) who treads a forbidden path, is suddenly caught and held fast by the trap lying in it, so has the deceitful power of the adulteress caught the foolish young man. Thus, and with probable correctness, Elster, and long ago many of the older expositors, like Sol. Glass, Philol. Sacra, p. 738, and M. Geier on this passage (only that they unnecessarily explain by an hypallage: “as fetters for the correction of a fool,” in other words, “as the fool (comes) to the correction of fetters”). Somewhat differently Bertheau, and before him Luther, Starke, etc. [and recently Stuart]; “He comes as if to fetters, which are decreed for the correction of the fool;” but to supply before אֶל עֶכֶם from the preceding has the order and parallelism against it. [Fuerst regards the noun as an instrumental accus., and translates “and as in fetters, i.e., slowly, the fool is led to correction,”—but regards the evidence as all indicating a defective text. Noyes and Muenscher treat the noun as instrumental, but vary the construction of the other words: “as one in fetters to the chastisement of the fool.” Wordsw. suggests two or three renderings, of which that of Noyes is one, but indicates no preference. Zöckler’s rendering is brought, we think, with the least violence, into correspondence with the other two comparisons, where the idea is plainly that of a certain fate, notwithstanding unconsciousness of it. So fetters await the fool, though he may not be aware of it—A.] Many older interpreters, either failing to understand the figure, or judging it inconsistent with the context, have sought relief in more violent ways. The LXX, Peschito and Targums explain the עֶכֶם or some word substituted for this, as referring to a dog (LXX: ὤσπερ κύων ἐπὶ δεσμούς), which is here made a parallel to the ox and then the bird in the following verse; so also more recent commentators, like Michaelis, Köhler, etc. The Vulgate probably read כֶּבֶשׂ instead of עֶכֶם, since it translates “as a wanton and stupid lamb.” Others, as of the older class the LXX, Peschito, Targums, Arabic vers., etc. altered the אֱוִיל to אַיָּל stag, and connected it with Pro_7:23; so also more recently Schelling and Rosenmueller., e.g.; “and like a deer rushing into fetters.” Hitzig finally treats the passage with the greatest violence, since he transfers Pro_7:23, third clause, to the place of the 2d clause in Pro_7:22; in this line, by altering עכם to כּעם he changes the meaning to “for the fool is angry at correction;” he finally transposes the first and third clauses of Pro_7:23, so that the two verses have this general import:
Pro_7:22.“He followeth her at once, as an ox that goeth to, the slaughter, and as a bird hasteneth to the snare.Pro_7:23.For the fool is angry at correction, and seeth not that it is for his life, until an arrow pierceth his liver.”This might indeed have been originally the meaning of the passage; but inasmuch as neither manuscripts nor old versions give any evidence of any other arrangement as having ever existed, the whole emendation retains only the value of a bold hypothesis.
Pro_7:23. Till an arrow pierceth his liver.—Since this clause plainly refers to the young man, and neither exclusively to the ox nor the fool, the two examples of a self-destroying folly which in the second and third clauses of Pro_7:23 are compared with him, its position is parenthetical (Umbreit, Elster, Bertheau, etc.); for in the following clause still another example is added to the two mentioned before,—that of the bird hastening to the snare. The “liver” stands here as the representative of the vitals in general (comp. Lam_2:11) as in some instances the heart or again the reins (Ps. 16:27; Psa_73:21; Pro_23:16, etc.). According to Delitzsch, Bibl. Psychol., pp. 275 sq., the liver is here made prominent as the seat of sensual desire. Since the ancient Greeks, Arabians and Persians in fact connected this idea with the organ under consideration, and since modern Oriental nations also predicate of the liver what we say of the heart as the seat of the feelings and sensibilities (e.g., the Malays in Java, see Ausland, 1863, p. 278), this view may be received as probably correct. By no means is the designation of the liver in the passage before us to be regarded as a purely arbitrary poetical license or as a mere accident.—And knoweth not that his life is at stake, literally, “that it is for his soul;” the expression בְּנַפְשׁוֹ signifies “at the price of his life,” comp. Num_17:3.
6. Pro_7:24-27. Concluding exhortation introduced by “and now,” like the corresponding final epilogue, Pro_8:32; comp. also Pro_5:7.
Pro_7:25. And stray not, אַל תֵּתַע, [a dehortative] from תָּעָה, to go roaming about, comp. שָׁגָה Pro_5:20.
Pro_7:26. And all her slain are many. עֲצֻמִים, meaning “strong” (Bertheau), is nevertheless on account of the parallelism with רַבִּים in the first member to be taken in the sense of “numerous, many,” comp. Psa_25:18; Joe_1:5. [Hold., Noyes, Muensch., De W., K., agree with our author; Stuart and Words., like the E. V., keep closer to the original idea of strength, “many strong men” have been her victims.—A.] With the expression in the first member comp. Jdg_9:40.
Pro_7:27. Ways of hell—her house. “Her house” is the subject, having here a plural predicate connected with it, as Pro_16:25; Jer_24:2.—Chambers of death. Comp. “depths of death” or “of hell,” Pro_9:18 : and with reference to the general sentiment of the verse, Pro_2:18; Pro_5:5.
DOCTRINAL, ETHICAL, HOMILETIC AND PRACTICAL
From the earlier and copious warnings against adultery the one now before us is distinguished by the fact, that while chap. 5 contrasted the blessing of conjugal fidelity and chaste marital love with unregulated sexual indulgence, and Pro_6:20-35 particularly urged a contending against the inner roots and germs of the sin of unchastity,—our passage dwells with special fullness upon the temptations from without to the transgression of the sixth commandment. It also sets forth the folly and the ruinous consequences of yielding to such temptations, by presenting an instructive living example. What elements in this vivid moral picture stand forth as ethical and psychological truths to be taken especially to heart, has been already indicated by us in the detailed interpretation. Aside from the fact that it is nocturnal rambling, that delivers the thoughtless, heedless and idling youth into the hands of temptation (Pro_7:9), and aside from the other significant feature, that after a first brief and feeble opposition he throws himself suddenly and with the full energy of passion into his self-sought ruin (Pro_7:22; comp. Jam_1:15), we have to notice here chiefly the important part played by the luxurious and savory feast of the adulteress as a coöperating factor in the allurement of the self-indulgent youth (see Pro_7:14 sq.). It is surely not a feature purely incidental, without deeper significance or design, that this meal is referred to as preceding the central and chief sin; for, that the tickling of the palate with stimulating meats and drinks prepares the way for lust and serves powerfully to excite sexual desire, is an old and universal observation, comp. Exo_32:6 (1Co_10:17). “The people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play:” as also similar passages from classical authors, e.g. Euripides, Alcestis, 788; Plautus, Miles gloriosus, III., 1, 83; Arrian, Anab. Alex., II., 5, 4; and the well-known Roman proverb from Terence (Eunuch., IV., 5, 6; comp. Appul., Metam., II., 11), “Sine Cerere et Libero friget Venus” [without Ceres (food) and Bacchus (wine) Venus (love) is cold]: and finally Tertulian, de jejun. adv. Psychicos, c. Proverbs 1 : “Lust without gluttony would indeed be deemed a monstrosity, the two being so united and conjoined that, if they could by any means be parted, the sexual parts would first refuse to be attached to the belly. Consider the body; the region is one, and the order of the vices conforms to the arrangement of the members; first the belly, and all other sensuality is built immediately upon gluttony; through indulgence in eating sensual desire ensues,” etc.
In the homiletic treatment we are naturally not to dwell too long upon these details, lest the entire impression produced by the picture of the young man ensnared by the adulteress be unduly weakened. An analysis of the chapter into several texts for sermons is inadmissible on account of the closely compacted unity of the action. At the most, the five introductory verses may be separated as a special text (comp. Starke); yet even these would better be connected closely with the whole, and all the more since they conform very nearly in expression and contents to similar introductory paragraphs of a somewhat general nature, of which there have already been several (see exeget. notes, No. 2).
The homily that should comprehend the entire chapter might therefore present some such theme as this: How the dangers from temptation to unchastity are to be escaped. Answer: 1) By avoiding idleness as the beginning of all vice (Pro_7:6, sq.); 2) By shunning all works of darkness (Pro_7:9); 3) By subduing the sensual nature, and eradicating even the minor degrees of evil appetite (Pro_7:14 sq.); 4) By the serious reflection, that yielding to the voice of temptation is the certain beginning of an utter fall from the grace of God, and of eternal ruin (Pro_7:21; Pro_7:27).—Comp. Starke: Sin is like a highway robber, that at first joins our company in an altogether friendly way, and seeks to mislead us from the right path, that it may afterwards slay us (Rom_7:11).—Imaginary pleasure and freedom in the service of sin are like gilded chains with which Satan binds men. Though the tempter is deeply guilty, he who suffers himself to be tempted is not for that reason excused. Let every one therefore flee from sin as from a serpent (Sir_21:2).—Comp. M. Geier: Be not moved by the flattering enticements of the harlot, the world, false teachers (that betray into spiritual adultery and abandonment of God), or of Satan himself. Close thine ears against all this, i.e. refuse in genuine Christian simplicity and faithful love to the Lord to hearken to any solicitation to disobedience. Follow not Eve’s example, but Joseph’s, Gen_39:8, etc.—[Trapp: (Pro_7:9) Foolish men think to hide themselves from God by hiding God from themselves.—(Pro_7:22). Fair words make fools fain].
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv2–3apple . . . eye--pupil of eye, a custody…
apple . . . eye--pupil of eye, a custody (Pro 4:23) of special value.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv1–4A FURTHER EXHORTATION TO FILIAL OBEDIENCE AND THE CULTIVATION…
A FURTHER EXHORTATION TO FILIAL OBEDIENCE AND THE CULTIVATION OF WISDOM, AND TO WALK IN THE PATHS OF PURITY, Pro_7:1-27.
Such is the importance of the subject discussed in the latter part of the last chapter, as also in the second and fifth chapters, that the teacher continues, with increasing earnestness, to warn his pupils against the seductive wiles of dissolute women. Therefore, after an exhortation, such as we have before met with, to cleave lovingly to wisdom as a preservative against such sins, (Pro_7:1-5,) he paints in vivid colors the character of an impudent adulteress in her too successful efforts to ensnare an unsophisticated youth. (Pro_7:6-21.) The fatal consequences are exhibited in the subsequent verses.
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1. Keep… lay up my commandments — Treasure them up in thy mind, as in a storehouse. For similar forms see Pro_1:18; Pro_2:1; Pro_6:20.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv1–41. The LXX. add at the end of this…
1. The LXX. add at the end of this verse,
“My son, fear the Lord and thou shalt be strong,
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And beside him, fear none other.”
Pro_7:1-4] Compare the similar exhortations Pro_1:8-9, Pro_2:1-5, Pro_3:1; Pro_3:3; Pro_3:21-22, Pro_4:20-21, Pro_6:20-23.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn v3(m). Thirteenth Discourse:—Also Against Adultery (Proverbs 7).
VII.
(m). Thirteenth Discourse:—Also Against Adultery (Proverbs 7).
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(3) Bind them upon thy fingers.—See above on Pro_3:3. The thong of the phylactery or fillet for the left arm was wound seven times round it, and as many times round the middle finger.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv1–4Vers. 1-27. Thirteenth admonitory discourse, containing a warning against…
Vers. 1-27. Thirteenth admonitory discourse, containing a warning against adultery, treated under a different aspect from previous exhortations, and strengthened by an example. In this chapter and the following a contrast is drawn between the adulteress and Wisdom.
My son, keep my words. The teacher enjoins his pupil, as in Pro_2:1, to observe the rules which he gives. Lay up, as a precious treasure. (see on Pro_2:1, Pro_2:7) The LXX adds here a distich which is not in the Hebrew or in any other version, and is not germane to the context, however excellent in itself: "My son, honour the Lord, and thou shalt be strong, and beside him feat no other." With this we may compare Luk_12:5 and Isa_8:12, Isa_8:13.
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Vers. 1-3. Keeping the commandments.
We are all familiar with the expression, "keeping the commandments." But do we all fully comprehend what this involves? Let us consider some of the requisites.
I REMEMBER THE COMMANDMENTS. "Lay up my commandments with thee." The Law was treasured in the ark. It is important that great principles should be so impressed upon our minds as to perpetually haunt our memories, and recur to our vision in critical moments. The school task of committing the ten commandments to memory will not be enough. The text does not refer to the Law of Moses, but to parental instruction. Great Christian principles are what we need to treasure up.
II LET NOTHING TAMPER WITH THE COMMANDMENTS. "Keep my law as the apple of thine eye." We cannot bear the smallest speck of dust in the eye. The slightest wound is most painful. Let us beware of allowing the least injury to the healthy condition of the law within us. Moral scepticism is most dangerous.
III BRING THE COMMANDMENTS TO BEAR ON DAILY LIFE. "Bind them upon thy fingers." Thus they will be always before us, and brought into contact with practical affairs. It is useless to keep the Law only in the closet. It must be carried with us to the workshop, the marketplace, the senate house. How many people"s religion never reaches their fingers! Like men with feeble circulation, they have cold extremities.
IV CHERISH THE COMMANDMENTS AFFECTIONATELY. "Write them upon the table of thine heart." This means impressing them upon the whole being understanding, memory, affection. The secret of feeble circulation at the extremities is defective action of the heart. If we are to obey the Law we must pray that God will "incline our hearts to keep" it.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON Vers. 1-27. A tragedy of temptation.
This is a fine piece of dramatic moral description, and there is no reason why it should not be made use of, handled with tact and delicacy, with an audience of young men.
I THE PROLOGUE. (Vers. 1-5) On ver. 1, see Pro_1:8 Pro_2:1 Pro_6:20. On ver. 2, see on Pro_4:4. Here an expression not before used occurs. "Keep my doctrine as thine eye apple;" literally, "the little man in thine eye." It is an Oriental figure for what is a treasured possession. (Deu_32:10 Psa_17:8) On ver. 3, see on Pro_3:3 Pro_6:21. "Bind them on thy fingers," like costly rings. Let Wisdom be addressed and regarded as "sister," Prudence as "intimate friend" (ver. 4). On ver. 5, see on Pro_2:16 Pro_6:24. On the prologue as a whole, remark
(1) it is intense in feeling,
(2) concentrated in purpose, and hence
(3) exhaustive in images of that which is precious and desirable before all else. It is an overture which gives the theme of the drama with the deepest impressiveness.
II THE FIRST ACT. (Vers. 6-9) The teacher looked through a grated loophole, or eshnab, and saw among the silly fools, the simple ones, who passed by or stood chatting, one simpleton in particular, who attracted his notice. He watched him turn a corner (hesitating, and looking around a moment, according to Ewald"s explanation), and pass down a street. The Hebrew word finely shows the deliberacy, the measured step, with which he goes; he has made up his mind to rush into sin. It was late in the eveningdark, dark, dark," says the writer, with tragic and suggestive iteration dark in every sense. The night is prophetic.
III THE SECOND ACT. (Vers. 10-20. A woman attire of a harlot" (as if she were nothing but a piece of dress), with a heart full of wiles, meets him. She was excitable, noisy, uncontrollable, gadding now in the streets, now in the markets, now at every corner (vers. 11, 12). Her characteristics have not changed from ancient times. And so with effrontery she seizes and kisses the fool, and solicits him with brazen impudence. Thank offerings had "weighed upon" her in consequence of a vow; but this day the sacrificial animal has been slain, and the meat which, according to the Law, must be consumed within two days, has been prepared for a feast. And she invites him to the entertainment, fires his fancy with luxurious descriptions of the variegated tapestries and the neat perfumes of her couch, and the promise of illicit pleasures. She alludes with cool shamelessness to her absent husband, who will not return till the day of the full moon (ver. 20). "This verse glides smoothly, as if we could hear the sweet fluting of the temptress"s voice." But it is as the song of birds in a wood before an awful storm.
IV THE THIRD ACT. (Vers. 21-23) Her seductive speech, the "fulness of her doctrine," as the writer ironically says, and the smoothness of her lips, overcome the yielding imagination of her victim. Ver. 22 implies that he had hesitated; but "all at once," passion getting the better of reflection, he follows her like a brute under the dominion of a foreign will driven to the slaughter house. He is passive in the power of the temptress, as the fool who has got into the stocks. "Till a dart cleave his liver the supposed seat of passion. Hastening like a bird into the net, he knows not that his life is at stake.
V THE EPILOGUE. (Vers. 24-27) On ver. 24, see on Pro_5:7. "Let not thy heart turn aside to her ways, and go not astray on her paths." Properly, "reel not" (shagah), as in Pro_5:20. Beware of that intoxication of the senses and fancy which leads to such an end. For she is a feller of men, a cruel murderess (ver. 26). Her house is as the vestibule of hell, the facilis descensus Averni the passage to the chambers of death. see on Pro_2:18 Pro_5:5)
LESSONS.
1. Folly and vice are characteristically the same in every age. Hence these scenes have lost none of their dramatic power or moral suggestion.
2. Only virtue is capable of infinite diversity and charm. The pleasures of mere passion, violent at first, pass into monotony, thence into disgust.
3. The character of the utter harlot has never been made other than repulsive (even in French fiction, as Zola"s "Nana") in poetry. What exists in practical form is mere dregs and refuse.
4. The society of pure and refined women is the best antidote to vicious tastes. For to form a correct taste in any matter is to form, at the same time, a distaste for coarse and spurious quality. Perhaps reflections of this order may be more useful to young men than much declamation. J.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON Vers. 1-27. The two ways.
Here we have
I THE WAY OF SIN AND DEATH. This is:
1. The way of thoughtlessness. It is the "simple ones," the "young men void of understanding" (ver. 7), those who go heedlessly "near the corner," "the way to the house" of the tempter or the temptress (ver. 8). It is those who "do not consider," who do not think who they are, what they are here for, whither they go, what the end will be; it is these who go astray and are found in the way of death.
2. The way of darkness. (Ver. 9) Sin hates the light; it loves the darkness. It cannot endure the penetrating glance, the reproachful look, of the good and wise man. It prefers to be where it can better imagine that it is unseen of God.
3. The way of shame. (Vers. 10-20) The result of habitual sin is to rob woman of her native purity, to make her impudent and immodest. How sad, beyond almost everything, the effect of guilt that will put shameful thoughts into a woman"s mind, shameless words into a woman"s lips! If sin will do this what enormity of evil will it not work?
4. The way of falsehood, of pretence, of imposture. (Vers. 14, 15)
5. The way of weakness and defeat. (Vers. 21, 22) A man, under the power of sin, yields himself up; he is vanquished, he surrenders his manliness, he has to own to himself that he is miserably beaten. The strong man is slain by sin, the wounded is cast down (ver. 26). He who has gained victories on other fields, and won trophies in other ways, is utterly defeated, is token captive, is humiliated by sin.
6. The way of death and damnation. (Ver. 27)
II THE WAY OF RIGHTEOUSNESS AND LIFE. (Vers. 1-5) This is:
1. The way of attention. The will of God must first be heeded and understood.
2. The way of holy love. We must take Divine wisdom to our heart, and love it as that which is near and dear to us (ver. 4).
3. The way of wise culture. (Vers. 1-3) We are to take the greatest pains to keep God"s thought in our remembrance, before the eyes of our soul. We are to take every needful measure to keep it intact, whole, flawless in our heart. We are to find it a home in the inmost chamber, in the sacred places of our spirit. Then will this path of righteousness prove to us to be:
4. The path of life. Keeping his commandments, we shall "live" (ver. 2). We shall live the life of virtue, escaping the snares and wiles of the vicious (ver. 5). We shall live the life of piety and integrity, beloved of God, honoured of man, having a good conscience, cherishing a good hope through grace of eternal life. C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn v1My son keep my words, and lay up my…
Pro_7:1
My son keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.
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Parental precepts
Lay up. Hebrew, hide. A metaphor from treasure not left open in the house, but looked up in chests unseen, lest it should be lost, or got away.
I. Children must remember parents words.
1. Their words of instruction.
2. Of charge or command.
3. Of commendation, for that is a great encouragement to do well.
4. Of consolation, which revives the spirit of good children in their troubles.
5. Of promise.
6. Of prohibition.
7. Of reprehension.
8. Of commination.
The spring of parents words is love--yea, when they chide. The end and result of all their speeches is their childrens good.
II. The heart is the receptacle for godly precepts. There they must be laid up.
1. They are very precious in themselves. Common things lie about the house. Choice things are locked up.
2. They are very profitable to us, and such things easily creep into our hearts.
3. The heart is the secretest place to lodge them in.
4. It is the safest place. Good precepts should be as ready in our thoughts as if we had them in our eyes. (Francis Taylor, B. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary1892 · Public DomainOn v1Pro_7:2. Apple of the eye, the “pupil,” literally the…
CRITICAL NOTES.
Pro_7:2. Apple of the eye, the “pupil,” literally the “little man” of the eye, referring to the reflected image of a man seen in that organ.
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Pro_7:3. Bind them “refers to rings with large signets, upon which maxims were inscribed” (Stuart).
Pro_7:4. Kinswoman, rather, “an acquaintance, a familiar friend.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH—Pro_7:1-4
THE SOURCE OF TRUE LIFE, ETC
I. The true life of man depends upon his relation to the Word of God. “Keep my commandments, and live” (Pro_7:2). The life which is given to man upon his entrance into this world is not life in its highest sense, but an existence in which he is to obtain life. “It is not all of life to live.” Those who do not keep God’s commandments are living existences, but in the moral signification of the word they are dead. It was said by the highest authority—by the Son of God Himself—that “it had been good for Judas Iscariot if he had not been born” (Mat_26:24). Existence is not a blessing, oftentimes a curse, unless a man is “born again,” “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (Joh_1:13). Christ taught the same truth when He said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God” (Luk_4:4). Man is not flesh and blood only, he has not a mere animal existence, but moral capabilities and needs, which must be nourished by the thoughts of God. If this is not done, he has no life worth the name.
II. The relation that a man should have to the Word of God is like that which a rich man has to his banked money. “Lay up my commandments with thee.” The best place for money which the merchant wishes to use constantly is a safe bank, from which he can draw out at any time of need. So the Word of God must be laid up in the mind ready for constant use. The Word of God must “dwell in us” (Col_3:16). It must be stored up to furnish us with encouragement and admonition in the unceasing warfare with temptation which we are called upon to wage. It must be at hand at the moment of need.
III. It is to be guarded with the same care as the eye is guarded by the eyelid. “As the apple of thine eye.” The eye is carefully protected by nature because it is the organ of a most precious sense—of a sense of which we stand in the greatest need—without which we walk through the world in darkness. The revelation of God in the Holy Scriptures is the only light which enlightens us amid the darkness of ignorance and mystery by which we are surrounded. Without it all our future would be darkness indeed. Hence its preciousness, and hence the value we ought to set upon it.
IV. It is to hold to us a relation like that of a pure, and tender, and beloved sister. “Say unto Wisdom, Thou art my sister.” The Word of God is the highest wisdom. The relationship of brother and sister, where it is what God intended it to be, is a very tender and pure relationship, involving willingness to undergo self-denial for the sake of her who is loved, to listen to her advice, to seek her welfare. In this light we must regard the wisdom of God as revealed in the word of God if existence is to become life to us. We must exercise self-denial for her sake. “I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried: I hoped in Thy word” (Psa_119:147).
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro_7:2. As God would have us keep His law as the apple of our eye, so He keeps His people (Deu_32:10), in answer to their prayer, as the apple of His eye (Zec_2:8). We guard the eye as our most precious and tender member from hurt, and prize it most dearly. As we guard the pupil of the eye from the least mote, which is sufficient to hurt it, so God’s law is so tender and holy a thing that the least violation of it in thought, word, or deed, is sin; and we are so to keep the law as to avoid any violation of it. The law resembles the pupil of the eye also in its being spiritually the organ of light, without which we should be in utter darkness.—Fausset.
The instruction of the Word is the same to the soul which the eye is to the body. For as the body without the sight of the eyes runneth upon many things that hurt it, and falleth at every little stumbling-block, so the soul most fearfully runneth into sins if it want the light and direction of the Word.—Muffet.
Men are off and on in their promises: they are also slow and slack in their performances. But it is otherwise here: the very “entrance of Thy Word giveth light” (Psa_119:130), and the very onset of obedience giveth life. It is but “Hear, and your soul shall live” (Isa_55:3). Sin is homogeneous, all of a kind, though not all of the same degree. As the least pebble is a stone as well as the hugest rock, and as the drop of a bucket is water as well as the main ocean, hence the least sins are in Scripture reproached by the names of the greatest. Malice is called manslaughter, lust, adultery, etc. Concupiscence is condemned by the law; even the first motions of sin, though they never come to consent (Rom_7:7). Inward bleeding may kill a man. The law of God is spiritual, though we be carnal. And as the sunshine shows us atoms and motes that till then we discerned not, so doth the law discover and censure smallest failings. It must therefore be kept curiously, even “as the apple of the eye,” that cannot be touched, but will be distempered. Careful we must be, even in the punctilios of duty. Men will not lightly lose the least ends of gold.—Trapp.
In some bodies, as trees, etc., there is life without sense, which are things animated, but not so much with a soul as with a kind of animation; even as the wicked have some kind of knowledge from grace, but are not animated by it. Or rather the wicked do not live, indeed, for life consisteth in action, and how can he be said truly to live whose words are dead? But keep God’s commandments, and live indeed, live cheerfully with the comfort of this life, which makes life to be life; live happily in the life of glory hereafter, which is the end for which this life is lent us.—Jermin.
Pro_7:4. Since, O youth, thou delightest in the intimacy of fair maidens, lo! here is by far the loveliest one, Wisdom.—Cartwright.
Wisdom has been represented as a wife, and here she is called a sister. As Didymus says (in Catenâ, p. 104), “Wisdom is called a mother, a sister, and a wife.” She is a mother, because, through her, we are children of Christ; she is a wife, because, by union with her, we ourselves become parents of that which is good; she is our sister, because our love to her is chaste and holy, and because she, as well as ourselves, is the offspring of God. Such is the love of Christ, who is the true Wisdom, and who is all in all to the soul. Compare His own words, applied to every faithful and obedient soul: “The same is my brother, and my sister, and mother” (Mar_3:35). “Do thou love the true faith with sisterly love, it shall keep thee from the impure love of the strange women of false doctrine” (Bede).—Wordsworth.
Holiness is positive. Sin is negative. The one is to love God, and also our neighbour. The other is not to love God or our neighbour. The one shows itself in a positive delight in the abstract holiness; the other not in a positive delight in the opposite, viz., in an abstract sin, but a delight in women, a delight in money, a delight in praise, a delight in everything except moral purity, and therefore a delight in things which are innocent when in limits, and that are only guilty when the soul is let in upon them without curb of superior affection. If a man calls Wisdom his kinswoman, then he may love wine or love without moral danger.—Miller.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible1900 · Public DomainOn v1From Solomon’s observation we learn:—
Pro 7:6
From Solomon’s observation we learn:—
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I. The special perils of great cities. (1) The vastness and multitudinousness of many of our modern cities provide a secrecy which is congenial to vice. This enormously adds to the power of temptation, that you may pluck the poisonous fruit unobserved. Only keep the inward monitor quiet, and you may run undetected and unchallenged into every excess. (2) In all great towns, solicitations to vice abound as they do not elsewhere. Every passion has a tempter lying in wait for it.
II. We learn from this passage the evil of late hours. The devil, like the beast of prey, stalks forth when the sun goes down. Midnight on earth is hell’s midnoon.
III. The next warning in the text is the danger of foolish company. The word "simple" means in the Book of Proverbs silly, frivolous, idle, abandoned. You could almost predict with certainty the future of one who selected such society. "He that walketh with wise men shall be wise; but the companion of fools shall be destroyed."
IV. No man’s understanding can be called thoroughly sound till it has been brought under the power of the truth as it is in Jesus. Your only security against the perils of the city, of the dark night and of evil company, is a living faith in God, a spiritual union with Christ.
J. Thain Davidson, The City Youth, p. 3.
References: Pro 8:4.—R. M. McCheyne, Memoir and Remains, p. 325. Pro 8:10.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 197. Pro 8:11.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xi., p. 86. Pro 8:12.—A. Mursell, Christian World Pulpit, p. 406. Pro 8:13.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 200.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow1909 · Public DomainOn v1The Bad Woman
The Bad Woman
A picture drawn from life of the enticing of a young man by a wicked woman.
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2. The apple] lit. 'the little man' of the eye, so called because an image is reflected from the pupil of the eye. It is a figure for the most precious and delicate things (Deu_32:10; Psa_17:8).
3. The Jews wear a long leather band twisted round the arm and fingers during prayer. Passages of Scripture written on parchment and enclosed in a small leather box are at the same time worn on the forehead.
4. My sister] the title by which bride and wife are addressed (Son_4:9).
6. The window is the opening; the casement is the lattice-work filling it, looking through which one may see and remain unseen.
9. Twilight ends suddenly, and is followed by dense darkness.
11. Stubborn] or 'wilful'; an epithet applied to an unruly beast which has shaken off the yoke (Hos_4:16).
14. Lev_7:16-18 shows that such sacrifices were followed by a feast: the blood and the fat of the intestines were offered to God; the rest of the animal was consumed by the offerer, his family and guests. The woman is therefore inviting to a sumptuous feast.
19, 20. The husband is a merchant, who is absent on a long journey, as is evident from his having taken with him his purse. He will not be home till the 'full moon' (RV).
26. Read, 'Yea, many are those she has slain.'
27. The chambers of death are the many diverse receptacles supposed to be in the under-world: cp. Joh_14:2.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein1922 · Public DomainOn v1The entire chapter is a continuation of the strange…
CHAPTER 7
The entire chapter is a continuation of the strange woman and the warning against her. The Word and the law of the Lord will keep the obedient son from her. If Solomon had obeyed the Word of God, not to multiply wives (Deu 17:17) his end would not have been spent in the degrading fellowship with the harlots of other nations. The description is very graphic. What the word pictures is as prominent in the great centers of Christendom as it was thousands of years ago in Babylon and Egypt. And so it is still true:
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She hath cast down many wounded;
Yea, many strong men have been slain by her.
Her house is the way to hell,
Going down to the chambers of death.
But think of Solomon after having received these inspired descriptions and warnings, that he should have been forgetful of them all.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann1924 · Public DomainOn v1Condemnation of Fornication and Adultery.
Condemnation of Fornication and Adultery.
On account of the terrible devastation wrought by sins of adultery and by every gratification of sexual desires outside of holy wedlock, affecting not only the sinners themselves, but the entire social body, Solomon continues his warning in this entire chapter in a very concrete and effective manner, the subject being introduced with the usual impressive admonitions to heed and follow true wisdom.
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v. 1. My son, keep my words, observing his sayings, and lay up my commandments with thee, like a precious treasure, to be used with discretion.
v. 2. Keep my commandments and live, true life following the exercise of true wisdom, and my law as the apple of thine eye, literally, "as the little man of thine eye," emblem of a very precious possession, guarded with the greatest care.
v. 3. Bind them upon thy fingers, like an ornament or ring, to serve as a constant reminder; write them upon the table of thine heart, for the remembering was to be not only in the mind, but in the heart, in true and eager love.
v. 4. Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister, with whom he should be united in the bonds of confidential fellowship; and call understanding thy kinswoman, in order to enjoy her counsel always, no mere distant acquaintance being sufficient, but a familiarity of relationship which would be of real value,
v. 5. that they may keep thee from the strange woman, the harlots in Israel being originally foreigners, from the stranger which flattereth with her words, her object being to allure and seduce with smooth speeches. The author now brings an illustration from life in order to substantiate his argument.
v. 6. For at the window of my house I looked through my casement, through the lattice-work found on Oriental windows which face the street,
v. 7. and beheld among the simple ones, those inexperienced in matters of this life, in the ways of men, I discerned among the youths, the youngsters, those in the dangerous age when they resent instruction, a young man void of understanding, clearly lacking in judgment,
v. 8. passing through the street near her corner, where harlots were accustomed to linger for the purpose of accosting; and he went the way to her house, the very slow sauntering, strolling, or pacing being a sign of imprudence,
v. 9. in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night, the heaping of expressions fitting the actions of the young man as belonging to the works of darkness;
v. 10. and, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, the Hebrew expression referring either to indecent exposure or to a decorating of the bosom to draw attention to its charms, and subtile of heart, hypocritical and two-faced, simulating faithfulness and love in the presence of her husband, but flattering strange men in wanton abandonment. (v. 11. She is loud, stormily excited, and stubborn, ungovernable; her feet abide not in her house, where her duty to her husband should have kept her;
v. 12. now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner, her progress from before her own door to the street and then to the intersection of streets being graphically portrayed. )
v. 13. So she caught him and kissed him, such kisses being the very essence of unchastity, and with an impudent face said unto him, literally, "she put on a bold face in inviting him,"
v. 14. I have peace-offerings with me; this day have I paid my vows, that is, she had, on the day which was just coming to a close or had closed with sundown, brought a thank-offering to the Lord, the rule being that the flesh must be eaten at a sacrificial meal on the second day, at the latest, Lev 7:16. It was this meal which she wanted the young man to share with her, in the privacy of her own chambers.
v. 15. Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, the flattery consisting in her singling out this victim, as though he alone had been in her thoughts, whereas practically any other man would have answered her purpose just as well, and I have found thee.
v. 16. I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with beautiful and costly upholstering and pillows, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt, that is, with variegated coverlets of Egyptian linen.
v. 17. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon, sprinkling it with sweet-smelling spices.
v. 18. Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning; let us solace ourselves with loves, the intoxicating quality of illicit love being brought out very strongly.
v. 19. For the goodman, of whom the wife speaks in a cold and distant manner, is not at home, he is gone a long journey, the implication being that he is far enough away and they need fear no discovery;
v. 20. he hath taken a bag of money with him, this showing that his business was important and took some time, and will come home at the day appointed, he had named the day of the next full moon as the day of his return. In this way the wanton woman met all possible objections of her victim in advance.
v. 21. With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, she brought him around, she broke down his resistance, with the flattering of her lips she forced him, the young man being no match for the skilful and enticing rhetoric which the adulteress knew to employ.
v. 22. He goeth after her straightway, at once, with passionate promptness, the text indicating that this is always the case in similar situations, as an ox goeth to the slaughter or as a fool to the correction of the stocks, that is, as one who has lost his right mind is caught and fettered,
v. 23. till a dart strike through his liver, an arrow dividing his vital organs; as a bird hasteth to the snare and knoweth not that it is for his life, the young man of the story and all victims like him not realizing that their life, their soul’s welfare, is at stake.
v. 24. Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth, this exhortation receiving added weight on account of the story to which it is attached.
v. 25. Let not thine heart decline to her ways, those of the harlot, go not astray in her paths.
v. 26. For she hath cast down many wounded, many are those who have fallen victims to her wiles; yea, many strong men have been slain by her, both in body and soul.
v. 27. Her house is the way to hell, literally, "ways of hell her house," going down to the chambers of death. That is the inevitable consequence of an immoral life: eternal destruction in the abyss of hell.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv1, 4keep my words
keep my words
Here keeping represents obeying. AT: "obey my words" (See: Metaphor)
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store up my commands within yourself
Here God's commands are spoken of as if they were objects that someone could put into a storeroom. AT: "memorize my commands" (See: Metaphor)
keep my instruction
Here keeping represents obeying. AT: "obey my instructions" (See: Metaphor)
as the apple of your eye
The apple of the eye is the pupil inside the eye, which people normally instinctively protect when an object flies at their face. Here "the apple of the eye" represents whatever a person values and protects the most. AT: "as your most valuable possession" (See: Idiom)
Tie them on your fingers
Possible meanings are 1) that the writer wanted his son to engrave certain commands from God on a ring and wear it, or 2) that the writer wanted his son to always remember God's commands, as if he always wore a certain ring. (See: Metaphor)
write them on the tablet of your heart
Here the heart represents a person's mind, and remembering something well is spoken of as if the person were writing it on a stone tablet. See how you translated this in Proverbs 3:3. AT: "remember my commands well as if you were writing them in stone" (See: Metaphor)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v2 By this diversity of words, he meaneth that nothing…
By this diversity of words, he meaneth that nothing ought to be so dear unto us as the word of God, nor that we look on anything more nor mind anything so much.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–4 Pro 7:1 My son, keep my words, and lay…
Pro 7:1 My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.
Ver. 1. My son, keep my words.] Aristotle hath observed, and daily experience makes it good, that man shows his weakness no way more than about moderating the pleasure ef his tasting and touching, forasmuch as they belong to him, not as a man, but as a living creature. Now therefore as where the hedge is lowest, there the beast leaps over soonest, so Satan will be sure to assault us where we are least able to withstand him. And whereas old men {a} have no cause to be secure - (David was old when he went in to Bathsheba, and Lot not young when he deflowered his two daughters; - of the Brabonts it is said, that quo magis senescunt eo magis stultescunt, The older the more foolish; and the heathen sages say, Metuendam esse senectam, quod non veniat sola, that old age is to be feared, as that which comes not alone, but being itself a disease, it comes accompanied with many diseases both of body and mind); - young men {b} especially, whom the Greeks call ηιθεοι of αθω, to be hot, and Aιζηοι of Zεω, to boil, and who think they have a licence helluari, scortari, fores effringere, to drink and drab, which they count and call a trick of youth, have but more than need to be constantly and carefully cautioned and called upon, as here they are, to "flee fornication," {1Co 6:8} to "flee youthful lusts," {2Ti 2:22} with posthaste to flee them, to "abstain from fleshly lusts" tanquam a mellito veneno, "which war against the soul." {1Pe 2:11} The body cannot be so wounded with weapons as the soul is with lusts. Holy Timothy - so temperate a young man that St Paul was fain to prescribe him medicine, bidding him no longer to drink water, but "a little wine for his stomach’s sake and his often infirmities," {1Ti 5:23} contracted happily by his too much abstinence, for the better keeping under his body, and bringing it into subjection - is in the same chapter by the same apostle exhorted to exhort the younger women with all purity; {1Ti 5:2} whereby is intimated, that through the deceit of his heart, and the slipperiness of his age, even while he was pressing those young women to purity, some impure motion might press in upon him; which, though but a stranger to Timothy - as Peter Martyr and others observe out of that passage in Nathan’s parable, {2Sa 12:5} that lust was to David - yet might prove a troublesome inmate if not suddenly ejected. It is no marvel, therefore, that the wise man is so exceedingly earnest with his son about the business of abhorring harlotry, the hatefulness whereof he now paints out in a parable, setting it forth in liveliest colours.
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{a} Turpe est senescere aetatem, non tamen senescere lasciviam. - Nazianz.
{b} Contra πρεσβυτηρ α πυρ et σβεω: et senex quasi seminex.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv2–4 And live, i.e. thou shalt live. A promise in…
And live, i.e. thou shalt live. A promise in the form of a command, as Pro 3:25.
As the apple of thine eye; with all possible care and diligence, as men guard that part from all dangers, yea, even from the least mote. The eye is a most noble and necessary, and therefore highly esteemed and beloved, part of the body, and the apple thereof is the most honourable, and beautiful, and useful part of that part, and it is a most tender part, easily hurt, or destroyed, and therefore needs to be diligently watched.
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Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 These verses are an introduction to his warning against…
These verses are an introduction to his warning against fleshly lusts, much the same with that, Pro 6:20, etc., and ending (Pro 7:5) as that did (Pro 6:24), To keep thee from the strange woman; that is it he aims at; only there he had said, Keep thy father's commandment, here (which comes all to one), Keep my commandments, for he speaks to us as unto sons. He speaks in God's name; for it is God's commandments that we are to keep, his words, his law. The word of God must be to us, 1. As that which we are most careful of. We must keep it as our treasure; we must lay up God's commandments with us, lay them up safely, that we may not be robbed of them by the wicked one, Pro 7:1. We must keep it as our life: Keep my commandments and live (Pro 7:2), not only, "Keep them, and you shall live;" but, "Keep them as you would your life, as those that cannot live without them." It would be death to a good man to be deprived of the word of God, for by it he lives, and not by bread alone. 2. As that which we are most tender of: Keep my law as the apple of thy eye. A little thing offends the eye, and therefore nature has so well guarded it. We pray, with David, that God would keep us as the apple of his eye (Psa 17:8), that our lives and comforts may be precious in his sight; and they shall be so (Zac 2:8) if we be in like manner tender of his law and afraid of the least violation of it. Those who reproach strict and circumspect walking, as needless preciseness, consider not that the law is to be kept as the apple of the eye, for indeed it is the apple of our eye; the law is light; the law in the heart is the eye of the soul. 3. As that which we are proud of and would be ever mindful of (Pro 7:3): "Bind them upon thy fingers; let them be precious to thee; look upon them as an ornament, as a diamond-ring, as the signet on thy right hand; wear them continually as thy wedding-ring, the badge of thy espousals to God. Look upon the word of God as putting an honour upon thee, as an ensign of thy dignity. Bind them on thy fingers, that they may be constant memorandums to thee of thy duty, that thou mayest have them always in view, as that which is graven upon the palms of thy hands." 4. As that which we are fond of and are ever thinking of: Write them upon the table of thy heart, as the names of the friends we dearly love, we say, are written in our hearts. let the word of God dwell richly in us, and be written there where it will be always at hand to be read. Where sin was written (Jer 17:1) let the word of God be written. It is the matter of a promise (Heb 8:10, I will write my law in their hearts), which makes the precept practicable and easy. 5. As that which we are intimately acquainted and conversant with (Pro 7:4): "Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister, whom I dearly love and take delight in; and call understanding thy kinswoman, to whom thou art nearly allied, and for whom thou hast a pure affection; call her thy friend, whom thou courtest." We must make the word of God familiar to us, consult it, and consult its honour, and take a pleasure in conversing with it. 6. As that which we make use of for our defence and armour, to keep us from the strange woman, from sin, that flattering but destroying thing, that adulteress; particularly from the sin of uncleanness, Pro 7:5. Let the word of God confirm our dread of that sin and our resolutions against it; let it discover to us its fallacies and suggest to us answers to all its flatteries.
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John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–4 My son, keep my words,.... Doctrines and instructions; which,…
My son, keep my words,.... Doctrines and instructions; which, as a father to a son, or a master to his scholars, he had delivered; these he would have him observe and attend to;
and lay up my commandments with thee: as a treasure in his heart, to be brought out upon occasion; to be kept as valuable, and made use of as an antidote against and a preservative from sinning; see Psa 119:11. The Septuagint and Arabic versions add, what is not in the Hebrew text,
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"son, honour the Lord, and thou shalt be strong;''
the Arabic adds,
"and he shall strengthen thee; and fear none besides him.''
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John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1–4 An exhortation to cleave to wisdom, as a preservative…
An exhortation to cleave to wisdom, as a preservative from strange women, ver. 1-5. The snares they lay for unwary young men, ver. 6-23. A serious caution against coming near them, ver. 24-37.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–4 A farther exhortation to acquire wisdom, in order to…
CHAPTER VII
A farther exhortation to acquire wisdom, in order to be
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preserved from impure connections, 1-5.
The character of a harlot, and her conduct towards a youth who
fell into her snare, 6-23.
Solemn exhortations to avoid this evil, 24-27.
NOTES ON CHAP. VII
Verse 1. My son, keep my words] See Pr 2:1.
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Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v2 Pro 7:2-4. Keep my commandments, and live — That…
Pro 7:2-4. Keep my commandments, and live — That is, thou shalt live. It is a promise in the form of a command, as Pro 3:25. And my law as the apple of thine eye — With all possible care and diligence, as men guard that most noble and necessary, and therefore highly-esteemed and beloved part of the body from all danger, yea, even from the least mote. Bind them upon thy fingers — As a ring which is put upon them, and is continually in a man’s eye. Constantly remember and meditate upon them. Write them, &c. — Fix them in thy mind and affection: see on Pro 3:3. Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister — The name of sister is a name of friendship, often used between the husband and wife, and denotes the chaste love which he should have to wisdom. Call understanding thy kinswoman — The LXX. render it, την δε φρονησιν γνωριμον περιποιησαι σεαυτω, Acquire to thyself prudence for an acquaintance; while other foolish young men seek wanton mistresses, whom they frequently call sisters, or kinswomen, let wisdom be thy mistress; acquaint and delight thyself with her. Say to her, Thou art my sister, my spouse, my beloved: let her have the command of thy heart, and the conduct of thy life.
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Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On v1 The harlot adulteress of an Eastern city is contrasted…
The harlot adulteress of an Eastern city is contrasted with the true feminine ideal of the Wisdom who is to be the “sister” and “kinswoman” Pro 7:4 of the young man as he goes on his way through life. See Prov. 8 in the introduction.
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Charles Bridges 1846 · Public Domain On v1 THE study of wisdom in the word of God…
THE study of wisdom in the word of God is here commended to us with affectionate earnestness, and with a beautiful variety of imagery. Let us ponder these valuable rules for practical application.
Let the whole mind and heart be occupied with it. Keep it as the daily means of life. (Pro 3:2122 ; Pro 4:4, Pro 4:13 . Isa 55:2-3 . Jer 22:15 .) Sir Matthew Hale told his children — ’If I omit reading a portion of Scripture in the morning, it never goes well with me through the day.’ Lay it up (Pro 10:14 . Deu 11:18 . Luk 2:19, Luk 2:51 ) carefully, not on our shelves, but on our hearts. Let the whole Word of God be our precious treasure. Receive the promises from his grace with simple affiance, and the commandments from his holiness with ready obedience. Stand with your eye in the land of promise; but with your feet "in the land of uprightness." (Psa 143:10 .)
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Maintain a jealous regard for the law. What care is necessary to keep the apple of the eye — that most tender part of the most tender member! (Deu 32:10 . Psa 17:8 . Zec 2:8 .) With the same care preserve the integrity of the law. Let every part of it have its full weight. To explain it away, or to lower its requirements, breaks down the barrier, and gives an easy entrance to temptation. The sensual sinner is often a covert infidel.
Let it be at hand for constant use. Bind them upon thy fingers (Pro 3:3 . Deu 6:8 ; Deu 11:18 ); that, being always in sight, they may be always ready for the present moment. And for their practical influence, write them upon the table of thine heart. Oh! my God! this is thy Almighty work (Isa 26:12 . 2Co 3:3 .) But thou hast engaged to do it for thy people (Jer 31:33 .) I "take hold of thy covenant." Lord! Seal thy promised grace.
Let it be the object of tender affection — as our sister — our kinswoman. It is her embrace that throws the harlot’s beauty into the shade. Man must have his object of delight. If wisdom is not loved, lust will be indulged. The Bible therefore — not merely read, but the cherished object of familiar intercourse — proves a sacred exorcist to expel the power of evil. (Pro 2:10, Pro 2:16 ; Pro 6:23-24 ; Pro 23:26-27 .)
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Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v1 Words. As dangerous temptations always threaten, the same instructions…
Words. As dangerous temptations always threaten, the same instructions are frequently inculcated. (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 13. New admonition to chastity, with a reference to…
13. New admonition to chastity, with a reference to the warning example of a youth led astray by a harlot
Pro_7:1-27
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1 My son, keep my words,
and treasure up my commandments with thee.
2 Keep my commandments and thou shalt live—
and my instruction as the apple of thine eye.
3 Bind them to thy fingers,
write them on the tablet of thine heart.
4 Say to wisdom “Thou art my sister!”
and call understanding “acquaintance,”
5 that they may keep thee from the strange woman,
from the stranger that flattereth with her words.—
6 For through the window of my house,
through my lattice I looked out,
7 and I saw among the inexperienced ones,
discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding.
8 He passed along the street near her corner,
and sauntered along the way to her house,
9 in the twilight, in the evening of the day,
in the midst of the night and darkness.
10 And lo, a woman cometh to meet him,
in the attire of a harlot, and subtle in heart.
11 Boisterous was she, and ungovernable;
her feet would not tarry in her house;
12 now in the street, now in the market places,
and at every corner did she watch.
13 And she laid hold upon him, and kissed him,
put on a bold face and said to him,
14 “Thankofferings were (binding) upon me,
to-day have I redeemed my vows;
15 therefore came I out to meet thee,
to seek thy face, and I have found thee.
16 Tapestries have I spread upon my couch,
variegated coverlets of Egyptian linen;
17 I have sprinkled my couch
with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon.
18 Come, let us sate ourselves with love till morning,
and enjoy ourselves in love!
19 For the man is not at home,
he has gone a long journey;
20 the purse he has taken with him;
not till the day of the full moon will he return.”
21 She beguiled him with the multitude of her enticements,
by the allurements of her lips she led him astray.
22 He followed her at once,
as an ox goeth to the slaughter,
and as fetters (serve) for the correction of fools—
23 till an arrow pierceth his liver:—
as a bird hasteneth to the snare,
and knoweth not that his life is at stake.—
24 And now, ye children, hearken to me,
and observe the words of my mouth!
25 Let not thine heart incline to her ways,
and stray not into her paths.
26 For many slain hath she caused to fall
and all her slain are many.
27 Ways of hell (is) her house
going down to the chambers of death.
GRAMMATICAL AND CRITICAL
Pro_7:7. [אָבִינָה, the ו consec. omitted, as is sometimes the case, the form resembling a simple Intentional. Gesen. Lehrgeb. p. 874., Bött. § § 969, 6; 973, 5. Stuart (comm. in loc.) seems to be in error in regarding this a real voluntative, and rendering “that I might see among the simple, and observe, etc.”—A.].
Pro_7:8. [For the form פִּנָּהּ instead of the full form פִּנָּתָהּ (with the ordinary form of fem, nouns with suff.), see Bött. § 724, b. Comp. however Exegetical notes in regard to the proper reading.—A.].
Pro_7:11. [יִשְׁכְנוּ, used of repeated recurrence in the past—Fiens multiplex præteriti according to the terminology of Bött. § 949, f.—A.]
Pro_7:13. In the verb הֵעֵזָה (lit., she made hard, corroboravit) the doubling of the 2d radical is omitted, as in הֵחֵלָה, Jdg_20:40. [Given by Bött. § 500, 5, as an example of the simplifying of that which is usually doubled, to express the idea of the permanent, gradual or gentle. See also § 1123, 3. Comp. Green, § 141, 1; Stuart, § 66, 11.—A.].
Pro_7:15. [Stuart’s rendering of the last clause as final, “that I might find, etc.,” is unnecessary; it is rather a simple consecutive.—A.].
Pro_7:18. [נִתְעַלְּסַה, the cohortative use of the Intentional. Bött., § 965, 2.—A.].
EXEGETICAL
1. From the preceding warnings against unchastity and adultery (Pro_2:16-19; chap. 5; Pro_6:20-35) the one now before us is distinguished by the fact, that the poet, after a preliminary general introduction (Pro_7:1-5; comp. Pro_6:20-24), for the sake of delineating more clearly the repulsiveness and various consequences of intercourse with wanton women, depicts in narrative form the example of a single adulterous woman, who by her lascivious arts betrays a foolish youth into adultery. This is therefore a didactic narrative, with a purpose of earnest warning, here presented as a conclusion to the second larger group of admonitory discourses. It is not possibly an allegory, for nothing whatsoever in the text points to such a conception of the adulteress, by virtue of which she might be regarded as introduced as a personification of the abstract idea of folly (in contrast with that of wisdom personified). Not till we come to Pro_9:13 sq. do we find such a presentation of folly under the image of a wanton, adulterous woman.—In contrast with the expositors of the ancient church, most of whom gave allegorical interpretations, the correct view is found as early as M. Geier, Vatablus, Mercerus, Egard, Hansen, Michaelis, Starke, and also in nearly all the moderns except Von Gerlach. The view of several of those named, especially that of Starke, that the whole narration is to be regarded a true history, an actual experience of the poet, lacks sufficient support in the style and form of the delineation. The history may just as well be imaginary as the contents of many narrations of Christ,—e.g., that of the good Samaritan, of the prodigal son, etc.
2. Pro_7:1-5 : Introduction in a general form, in which Pro_7:1 reminds us of Pro_1:8; Pro_2:1; Pro_6:20; so Pro_7:2 of Pro_4:4; Pro_7:3 of Pro_3:3; Pro_6:21; Pro_7:5 of Pro_2:16; Pro_6:24.
Pro_7:2. And my teaching as the apple of thine eye, lit. “as the little man in thine eye.” The same figurative description is found in Arabic and Persian (see Umbreit on this passage). Comp. also the Greek κόρη, κοράσιον (=בַּת־עַיִן [the daughter of the eye] Lam_2:18) and the Latin pupa, pupilla. The apple of the eye is also in Deu_32:10; Psa_17:8 : Zec_2:12, the emblem of a precious possession guarded with peculiarly watchful care.
Pro_7:3. Bind them to thy fingers, not precisely as an amulet, as Umbreit thinks, but as an ornament, a costly decoration, like a ring; comp. Song Son_8:6, and the observations on Pro_3:3—Without adequate reason Hitzig regards the verse as spurious, on account of its partial correspondence with Deu_6:8; Deu_11:18. As though the figures here employed, especially that in the first clause, did not occur very frequently within the sphere of the Old Testament, and that in every instance with a form somehow slightly modified! Comp. e.g., Exo_13:9; Exo_13:16; Jer_22:24; Hag_2:23.
Pro_7:4. “Thou art my sister!” Comp. Job_17:14; Job_30:29; Wis_8:2. The parallel “acquaintance” in the 2d clause corresponds with the Hebrew expression מוֹדָע, which denotes knowledge, acquaintance, and then (abstract for the concrete, as occurs, e.g., also in the use of the French connaisance [and the English “acquaintance”]) one well known, a friend, familiaris. The same expression is found also in Rth_2:1 as the K’ri. Comp. P. Cassel on this passage, who however both for that passage and the one before us gives the preference to the K’thibh מְיֻדָּע (comp. Psa_55:14; Psa_88:9) as the more primitive reading.
3. Pro_7:6-9. The foolish young man.—Through my lattice I looked out. Comp. the quite similar representation in the song of Deborah, Jdg_5:28. אֶשְׁנָב denotes as it does there a latticed aperture, an arrangement for the circulation of fresh air (Hitzig).
Pro_7:7. And I saw among the inexperienced; literally, among the νηπίοις, the simple; comp. remarks on Pro_1:4, where the same expression פְּתָאִים is used, synonymous with נַעַר, boy, as here with בָּנִים. It is not necessary, with Arnoldi, Bertheau and Hitzig, to explain the expression in exact accordance with the Arabic by juvenes [young men].
Pro_7:8. Near a corner.—The Masoretic punctuation פִּנָּהּ with mappik in the ה (comp. מִדָּהּ, Job_11:9) represents the corner as hers, i.e., the corner of the adulteress, the corner of her house,—and many recent expositors, e.g., Umbreit and Hitzig, translate and explain accordingly. But inasmuch as according to Pro_7:12 (which Hitzig, without any reason, pronounces spurious), the adulteress is accustomed to watch “at every corner,” therefore at street corners in general, it is not quite needful to refer the corner here mentioned to her dwelling. All the ancient versions moreover have read only the simple פִּנָּה (LXX: παρὰ γωνίαν; Vulg.: juxta angulum, etc.).—And sauntered along the way to her house.—Psychologically it is pertinent to depict the young man predisposed to sin as strolling before the house of the adulteress, and this as the beginning of his imprudence, so far forth as he thus plunges himself into temptation. The verb צָעַד is fairly chosen, as it always expresses a certain care and intention in his going. We say substantially “he measures his steps; he paces before her door” (Umbreit).
Pro_7:9. In the twilight, in the evening of the day.—The accumulation of the expressions is explained by the fact that it was fitting to characterize the action and conduct of the young man as belonging to the works of darkness, the deeds of night. Comp. Luk_22:53; Rom_13:12; 1Th_5:4-7, etc. There is furthermore no contradiction between the notation of time in the first clause and that in the second; for נֶשֶׁף strictly signifies not the first evening twilight, but the later period of evening darkness, from 9 o’clock to 12 (see Job_7:4; Job_24:15), and so the time immediately bordering upon the true black night or midnight.—In the blackness of night—literally, “in the pupil of the night,” comp. Pro_20:20, K’ri. The tertium comparationis is to be found, doubtless in both, the blackness and the middle, and not in the first alone, as Umbreit holds. Comp. besides the phrase “heart of the night” in the poetic language of the Persians (see Umbreit on this passage).
4. Pro_7:10-20. The adulteress.—In the attire of a harlot.—שִׁית זוֹנָה, dress of a harlot (comp. with respect to שִׁית, dress, apparel, Psa_73:16), stands here with no connecting word in apposition to “woman;” a woman a harlot’s dress, as though the woman herself were nothing more than such a dress. Thus, and with good reason, Bertheau explains [and Words.], while Hitzig altogether artificially explains שִׁית by שְׁוִית (from שָׁוָה) as equivalent to דְּמוּת, likeness, and accordingly translates “with the outward appearance of a harlot;” in the same way also the LXX: εἶδος ἔχουσα πορνικόν.—Subtle in heart.—נְצֻרַת לֵב is strictly “one who is guarded in heart,” i.e., one whose heart is guarded and inaccessible, who locks up her plans and counsels deep in her breast, comp. Isa_65:4. Thus Chr. B. Michaelis (citing the French retenu), Umbreit, Bertheau, Elster, etc., and from earlier times at least the Vers. Veneta: πεφυλαγμένη τὴν καρδίαν. [With these Wordsw. is in substantial agreement; “her heart is like a walled fortress,” etc.]. The other ancient versions expressed the idea “one carrying away the heart of the young man,” as though they had read נֹצֶרֶת (so also recently Arnoldi). Ewald explains “of hardened heart, bold and confident;” Hitzig, in accordance with the Arabic and comparing the saucia in Virgil’s Æneid, iv. Proverbs 1 : “an arrow in her heart, wounded by love’s dart,” and therefore ardent and wanton—both of these being plainly altogether artificial and adventurous. [Fuerst, treating the adjective as fem. constr. from נָצוֹר, renders “watching (for hearts of young men”).—Boisterous was she and ungovernable.—With the first epithet (literally, shouting) comp. Pro_9:13; with the second, Hos_4:16, where the same word is used of a wild heifer that will not submit its neck to the yoke.
Pro_7:12. Now in the street, etc.—That we have only here a custom, a habit of the wanton woman described, while in the preceding verse we have delineated her condition in a single instance, is an entirely arbitrary assumption of Hitzig’s, which is altogether opposed by the use of the Imperfect in both cases (יִשְׁכְנוּ, Pro_7:11, and תֶּאֱרֹב , Pro_7:12). Therefore the argument that the verse is spurious, resting as it does mainly on this alleged difference in the substance and scope of the verse, is to be rejected (comp. above, remarks on Pro_7:8).
Pro_7:13. Put on a bold face.—Comp. Pro_21:29; Ecc_8:1.
Pro_7:11. Thank–offerings were binding upon me—that is, in consequence of a vow, as the second clause shows. She has therefore on the day that is hardly gone (“to-day”—the day is here represented as continuing into the night) slain a victim in sacrifice that had been vowed to the Lord for some reason or other, and has prepared for a meal the flesh of this animal, which in accordance with the law, Lev_7:16, must be eaten on the second day, at the latest. To this meal, which, to judge from the description of the luxurious furnishing of the chamber, in Pro_7:16 sq., is no simple affair, she now invites the young man.
Pro_7:16. Variegated coverlets of Egyptian linen.—חֲטֻבוֹת which the older translators nearly all interpret as “variegated coverlets,” the larger number derive from the Arabic ־َ״ָِ to be many colored (therefore tapetes versicolores s. picti, as it is found as early as the Vulgate); Bertheau, on the contrary, derives from =הטב הצב to cut, to make stripes or strips (therefore striped material); Hitzig finally derives from the Arab. ُ׃״ָ cotton, appealing to Pliny, H. N., XIX. 1, 2, according to whom cotton fabrics in great quantity were manufactured from native material. The first of these explanations, as the simplest and best attested, deserves the preference.—אֵטוּן is equivalent to the Ægypt. Athiouniau, linen, and is found in Greek also in the form ὀθόνη or ὀθόνιον. [The rendering of the E. V. “with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt” conforms too closely to the primary meaning of the verb חָטַב “to carve.” It cannot refer to any carved frame work of the bed, but rather to the embroidered figures which resemble carving—A.].
Pro_7:17. I have sprinkled my couch, etc.—Hitzig, who translates the verb by “I have perfumed,” has in mind a mere perfuming of the bed or of its apparel by means of the swinging of a censer filled with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. But while נוּף does properly signify to raise, to swing, yet the signification “sprinkle” is easily enough derived from this; and although the spices in question were not sprinkled precisely in the form of water holding them in solution, they still produced a satisfactory result if strewed upon the coverlets of the couch in little bits, fragments of the bark, fibres or scales. In no other way than this is it to be supposed that the same fragrant materials (with cassia) were employed, according to Psa_45:8, in perfuming the king’s robes of state; comp. also Song Son_3:6; Son_4:14.
Pro_7:18. Let us sate ourselves with love, etc.—Comp. Pro_5:19, and also the phrase שִׁכְרוּ דוֹדִים, Song Son_5:1.—Enjoy ourselves in love.—Instead of the meaning “enjoy” or “delight one’s self,” well attested by Job_20:18; Job_39:13, the old interpreters give to the verb in this instance the stronger meaning “to embrace passionately, to cohabit” (LXX: ἐγκυλισθῶμεν ἕρωτι; Aquila and Theodotion: συμπεριπλέκωμεν; so also Hitzig: “let us join in love’s indulgence!”). But it is plainly unnecessary to substitute an obscene import, artificially and with a possible appeal to the Arabic, for the simpler meaning, which is abundantly attested by the usus loquendi of the Old Testament.
Pro_7:19. The man is not at home.—Let it be observed with how cold and strange a tone the faithless wife speaks of her husband.—He has gone a long journey.—Lit., “upon a journey from afar;” the idea “from afar” is loosely appended to that of “journey” in order to represent not so much the way itself as rather the person traversing it as far removed.
Pro_7:20. The purse he hath taken with him—and therefore proposes extensive transactions at a distance from home, and will continue journeying a considerable time.—On the day of the full moon he will return.—In the Hebrew the כֶּסֶא (for which in Psa_81:4 we have the form כֶּסֶה) forms an alliteration with the כֶּסֶף in the first member, which is probably not undesigned; “the verse flows so smoothly along (comp. Pro_2:13) and one imagines that he hears the sweetly musical voice of the betrayer” (Hitzig). Furthermore the “day of the full moon” is not a designation of the full moon of the feast of tabernacles which was celebrated with peculiar festivities (Umbreit, Elster), but the expression plainly relates to the next succeeding full moon. Since now, according to Pro_7:9, the time to which the narrative relates must be about new moon, the cunning woman means to hint that her husband will not return for about a fortnight. See Hitzig on this passage.
5. Pro_7:21-23. The result of her enticing arts. Pro_7:21. With the multitude of her enticements.—לֶקַח, learning (Pro_1:5; Pro_9:9) is here ironically employed of the skilful and bewildering rhetoric which the adulteress has known how to employ.—With the expression “smoothness, of lips” comp. “smoothness of tongue,” Pro_6:24.
Pro_7:22. At once, Hebrew פִּתְאֹם, implies that he had at first hesitated, until this fear of his to take the decisive step was overcome by evil appetite, and he now with passionate promptness formed the vile purpose and executed it at once, to cut off all further reflection. Here is evidently a stroke in the picture of the profoundest psychological truth.—As an ox goeth to the slaughter.—Therefore following another, and with a brutish unconsciousness. Comp. the corresponding figure, which, however, is used with a purpose of commendation, in Isa_53:7. And as fetters (serve) for the correction of the fool.—With the fetters (עֶכֶם comp. Isa_3:18) we have here compared, of course, the adulteress who suddenly and by a single effort prevails upon the thoughtless youth,—and not, possibly, the young man himself (as Umbreit supposes, who finds the significance of the comparison in this, that the foolish and ensnared youth is represented first as a dumb beast, and then as a simply material physical thing, as a mere dead instrument. As the obstinate fool (אֱוִיל) who treads a forbidden path, is suddenly caught and held fast by the trap lying in it, so has the deceitful power of the adulteress caught the foolish young man. Thus, and with probable correctness, Elster, and long ago many of the older expositors, like Sol. Glass, Philol. Sacra, p. 738, and M. Geier on this passage (only that they unnecessarily explain by an hypallage: “as fetters for the correction of a fool,” in other words, “as the fool (comes) to the correction of fetters”). Somewhat differently Bertheau, and before him Luther, Starke, etc. [and recently Stuart]; “He comes as if to fetters, which are decreed for the correction of the fool;” but to supply before אֶל עֶכֶם from the preceding has the order and parallelism against it. [Fuerst regards the noun as an instrumental accus., and translates “and as in fetters, i.e., slowly, the fool is led to correction,”—but regards the evidence as all indicating a defective text. Noyes and Muenscher treat the noun as instrumental, but vary the construction of the other words: “as one in fetters to the chastisement of the fool.” Wordsw. suggests two or three renderings, of which that of Noyes is one, but indicates no preference. Zöckler’s rendering is brought, we think, with the least violence, into correspondence with the other two comparisons, where the idea is plainly that of a certain fate, notwithstanding unconsciousness of it. So fetters await the fool, though he may not be aware of it—A.] Many older interpreters, either failing to understand the figure, or judging it inconsistent with the context, have sought relief in more violent ways. The LXX, Peschito and Targums explain the עֶכֶם or some word substituted for this, as referring to a dog (LXX: ὤσπερ κύων ἐπὶ δεσμούς), which is here made a parallel to the ox and then the bird in the following verse; so also more recent commentators, like Michaelis, Köhler, etc. The Vulgate probably read כֶּבֶשׂ instead of עֶכֶם, since it translates “as a wanton and stupid lamb.” Others, as of the older class the LXX, Peschito, Targums, Arabic vers., etc. altered the אֱוִיל to אַיָּל stag, and connected it with Pro_7:23; so also more recently Schelling and Rosenmueller., e.g.; “and like a deer rushing into fetters.” Hitzig finally treats the passage with the greatest violence, since he transfers Pro_7:23, third clause, to the place of the 2d clause in Pro_7:22; in this line, by altering עכם to כּעם he changes the meaning to “for the fool is angry at correction;” he finally transposes the first and third clauses of Pro_7:23, so that the two verses have this general import:
Pro_7:22.“He followeth her at once, as an ox that goeth to, the slaughter, and as a bird hasteneth to the snare.Pro_7:23.For the fool is angry at correction, and seeth not that it is for his life, until an arrow pierceth his liver.”This might indeed have been originally the meaning of the passage; but inasmuch as neither manuscripts nor old versions give any evidence of any other arrangement as having ever existed, the whole emendation retains only the value of a bold hypothesis.
Pro_7:23. Till an arrow pierceth his liver.—Since this clause plainly refers to the young man, and neither exclusively to the ox nor the fool, the two examples of a self-destroying folly which in the second and third clauses of Pro_7:23 are compared with him, its position is parenthetical (Umbreit, Elster, Bertheau, etc.); for in the following clause still another example is added to the two mentioned before,—that of the bird hastening to the snare. The “liver” stands here as the representative of the vitals in general (comp. Lam_2:11) as in some instances the heart or again the reins (Ps. 16:27; Psa_73:21; Pro_23:16, etc.). According to Delitzsch, Bibl. Psychol., pp. 275 sq., the liver is here made prominent as the seat of sensual desire. Since the ancient Greeks, Arabians and Persians in fact connected this idea with the organ under consideration, and since modern Oriental nations also predicate of the liver what we say of the heart as the seat of the feelings and sensibilities (e.g., the Malays in Java, see Ausland, 1863, p. 278), this view may be received as probably correct. By no means is the designation of the liver in the passage before us to be regarded as a purely arbitrary poetical license or as a mere accident.—And knoweth not that his life is at stake, literally, “that it is for his soul;” the expression בְּנַפְשׁוֹ signifies “at the price of his life,” comp. Num_17:3.
6. Pro_7:24-27. Concluding exhortation introduced by “and now,” like the corresponding final epilogue, Pro_8:32; comp. also Pro_5:7.
Pro_7:25. And stray not, אַל תֵּתַע, [a dehortative] from תָּעָה, to go roaming about, comp. שָׁגָה Pro_5:20.
Pro_7:26. And all her slain are many. עֲצֻמִים, meaning “strong” (Bertheau), is nevertheless on account of the parallelism with רַבִּים in the first member to be taken in the sense of “numerous, many,” comp. Psa_25:18; Joe_1:5. [Hold., Noyes, Muensch., De W., K., agree with our author; Stuart and Words., like the E. V., keep closer to the original idea of strength, “many strong men” have been her victims.—A.] With the expression in the first member comp. Jdg_9:40.
Pro_7:27. Ways of hell—her house. “Her house” is the subject, having here a plural predicate connected with it, as Pro_16:25; Jer_24:2.—Chambers of death. Comp. “depths of death” or “of hell,” Pro_9:18 : and with reference to the general sentiment of the verse, Pro_2:18; Pro_5:5.
DOCTRINAL, ETHICAL, HOMILETIC AND PRACTICAL
From the earlier and copious warnings against adultery the one now before us is distinguished by the fact, that while chap. 5 contrasted the blessing of conjugal fidelity and chaste marital love with unregulated sexual indulgence, and Pro_6:20-35 particularly urged a contending against the inner roots and germs of the sin of unchastity,—our passage dwells with special fullness upon the temptations from without to the transgression of the sixth commandment. It also sets forth the folly and the ruinous consequences of yielding to such temptations, by presenting an instructive living example. What elements in this vivid moral picture stand forth as ethical and psychological truths to be taken especially to heart, has been already indicated by us in the detailed interpretation. Aside from the fact that it is nocturnal rambling, that delivers the thoughtless, heedless and idling youth into the hands of temptation (Pro_7:9), and aside from the other significant feature, that after a first brief and feeble opposition he throws himself suddenly and with the full energy of passion into his self-sought ruin (Pro_7:22; comp. Jam_1:15), we have to notice here chiefly the important part played by the luxurious and savory feast of the adulteress as a coöperating factor in the allurement of the self-indulgent youth (see Pro_7:14 sq.). It is surely not a feature purely incidental, without deeper significance or design, that this meal is referred to as preceding the central and chief sin; for, that the tickling of the palate with stimulating meats and drinks prepares the way for lust and serves powerfully to excite sexual desire, is an old and universal observation, comp. Exo_32:6 (1Co_10:17). “The people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play:” as also similar passages from classical authors, e.g. Euripides, Alcestis, 788; Plautus, Miles gloriosus, III., 1, 83; Arrian, Anab. Alex., II., 5, 4; and the well-known Roman proverb from Terence (Eunuch., IV., 5, 6; comp. Appul., Metam., II., 11), “Sine Cerere et Libero friget Venus” [without Ceres (food) and Bacchus (wine) Venus (love) is cold]: and finally Tertulian, de jejun. adv. Psychicos, c. Proverbs 1 : “Lust without gluttony would indeed be deemed a monstrosity, the two being so united and conjoined that, if they could by any means be parted, the sexual parts would first refuse to be attached to the belly. Consider the body; the region is one, and the order of the vices conforms to the arrangement of the members; first the belly, and all other sensuality is built immediately upon gluttony; through indulgence in eating sensual desire ensues,” etc.
In the homiletic treatment we are naturally not to dwell too long upon these details, lest the entire impression produced by the picture of the young man ensnared by the adulteress be unduly weakened. An analysis of the chapter into several texts for sermons is inadmissible on account of the closely compacted unity of the action. At the most, the five introductory verses may be separated as a special text (comp. Starke); yet even these would better be connected closely with the whole, and all the more since they conform very nearly in expression and contents to similar introductory paragraphs of a somewhat general nature, of which there have already been several (see exeget. notes, No. 2).
The homily that should comprehend the entire chapter might therefore present some such theme as this: How the dangers from temptation to unchastity are to be escaped. Answer: 1) By avoiding idleness as the beginning of all vice (Pro_7:6, sq.); 2) By shunning all works of darkness (Pro_7:9); 3) By subduing the sensual nature, and eradicating even the minor degrees of evil appetite (Pro_7:14 sq.); 4) By the serious reflection, that yielding to the voice of temptation is the certain beginning of an utter fall from the grace of God, and of eternal ruin (Pro_7:21; Pro_7:27).—Comp. Starke: Sin is like a highway robber, that at first joins our company in an altogether friendly way, and seeks to mislead us from the right path, that it may afterwards slay us (Rom_7:11).—Imaginary pleasure and freedom in the service of sin are like gilded chains with which Satan binds men. Though the tempter is deeply guilty, he who suffers himself to be tempted is not for that reason excused. Let every one therefore flee from sin as from a serpent (Sir_21:2).—Comp. M. Geier: Be not moved by the flattering enticements of the harlot, the world, false teachers (that betray into spiritual adultery and abandonment of God), or of Satan himself. Close thine ears against all this, i.e. refuse in genuine Christian simplicity and faithful love to the Lord to hearken to any solicitation to disobedience. Follow not Eve’s example, but Joseph’s, Gen_39:8, etc.—[Trapp: (Pro_7:9) Foolish men think to hide themselves from God by hiding God from themselves.—(Pro_7:22). Fair words make fools fain].
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–3 apple . . . eye--pupil of eye, a custody…
apple . . . eye--pupil of eye, a custody (Pro 4:23) of special value.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1–4 A FURTHER EXHORTATION TO FILIAL OBEDIENCE AND THE CULTIVATION…
A FURTHER EXHORTATION TO FILIAL OBEDIENCE AND THE CULTIVATION OF WISDOM, AND TO WALK IN THE PATHS OF PURITY, Pro_7:1-27.
Such is the importance of the subject discussed in the latter part of the last chapter, as also in the second and fifth chapters, that the teacher continues, with increasing earnestness, to warn his pupils against the seductive wiles of dissolute women. Therefore, after an exhortation, such as we have before met with, to cleave lovingly to wisdom as a preservative against such sins, (Pro_7:1-5,) he paints in vivid colors the character of an impudent adulteress in her too successful efforts to ensnare an unsophisticated youth. (Pro_7:6-21.) The fatal consequences are exhibited in the subsequent verses.
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1. Keep… lay up my commandments — Treasure them up in thy mind, as in a storehouse. For similar forms see Pro_1:18; Pro_2:1; Pro_6:20.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–4 1. The LXX. add at the end of this…
1. The LXX. add at the end of this verse,
“My son, fear the Lord and thou shalt be strong,
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And beside him, fear none other.”
Pro_7:1-4] Compare the similar exhortations Pro_1:8-9, Pro_2:1-5, Pro_3:1; Pro_3:3; Pro_3:21-22, Pro_4:20-21, Pro_6:20-23.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On v3 (m). Thirteenth Discourse:—Also Against Adultery (Proverbs 7).
VII.
(m). Thirteenth Discourse:—Also Against Adultery (Proverbs 7).
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(3) Bind them upon thy fingers.—See above on Pro_3:3. The thong of the phylactery or fillet for the left arm was wound seven times round it, and as many times round the middle finger.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–4 Vers. 1-27. Thirteenth admonitory discourse, containing a warning against…
Vers. 1-27. Thirteenth admonitory discourse, containing a warning against adultery, treated under a different aspect from previous exhortations, and strengthened by an example. In this chapter and the following a contrast is drawn between the adulteress and Wisdom.
My son, keep my words. The teacher enjoins his pupil, as in Pro_2:1, to observe the rules which he gives. Lay up, as a precious treasure. (see on Pro_2:1, Pro_2:7) The LXX adds here a distich which is not in the Hebrew or in any other version, and is not germane to the context, however excellent in itself: "My son, honour the Lord, and thou shalt be strong, and beside him feat no other." With this we may compare Luk_12:5 and Isa_8:12, Isa_8:13.
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Vers. 1-3. Keeping the commandments.
We are all familiar with the expression, "keeping the commandments." But do we all fully comprehend what this involves? Let us consider some of the requisites.
I REMEMBER THE COMMANDMENTS. "Lay up my commandments with thee." The Law was treasured in the ark. It is important that great principles should be so impressed upon our minds as to perpetually haunt our memories, and recur to our vision in critical moments. The school task of committing the ten commandments to memory will not be enough. The text does not refer to the Law of Moses, but to parental instruction. Great Christian principles are what we need to treasure up.
II LET NOTHING TAMPER WITH THE COMMANDMENTS. "Keep my law as the apple of thine eye." We cannot bear the smallest speck of dust in the eye. The slightest wound is most painful. Let us beware of allowing the least injury to the healthy condition of the law within us. Moral scepticism is most dangerous.
III BRING THE COMMANDMENTS TO BEAR ON DAILY LIFE. "Bind them upon thy fingers." Thus they will be always before us, and brought into contact with practical affairs. It is useless to keep the Law only in the closet. It must be carried with us to the workshop, the marketplace, the senate house. How many people"s religion never reaches their fingers! Like men with feeble circulation, they have cold extremities.
IV CHERISH THE COMMANDMENTS AFFECTIONATELY. "Write them upon the table of thine heart." This means impressing them upon the whole being understanding, memory, affection. The secret of feeble circulation at the extremities is defective action of the heart. If we are to obey the Law we must pray that God will "incline our hearts to keep" it.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON Vers. 1-27. A tragedy of temptation.
This is a fine piece of dramatic moral description, and there is no reason why it should not be made use of, handled with tact and delicacy, with an audience of young men.
I THE PROLOGUE. (Vers. 1-5) On ver. 1, see Pro_1:8 Pro_2:1 Pro_6:20. On ver. 2, see on Pro_4:4. Here an expression not before used occurs. "Keep my doctrine as thine eye apple;" literally, "the little man in thine eye." It is an Oriental figure for what is a treasured possession. (Deu_32:10 Psa_17:8) On ver. 3, see on Pro_3:3 Pro_6:21. "Bind them on thy fingers," like costly rings. Let Wisdom be addressed and regarded as "sister," Prudence as "intimate friend" (ver. 4). On ver. 5, see on Pro_2:16 Pro_6:24. On the prologue as a whole, remark
(1) it is intense in feeling,
(2) concentrated in purpose, and hence
(3) exhaustive in images of that which is precious and desirable before all else. It is an overture which gives the theme of the drama with the deepest impressiveness.
II THE FIRST ACT. (Vers. 6-9) The teacher looked through a grated loophole, or eshnab, and saw among the silly fools, the simple ones, who passed by or stood chatting, one simpleton in particular, who attracted his notice. He watched him turn a corner (hesitating, and looking around a moment, according to Ewald"s explanation), and pass down a street. The Hebrew word finely shows the deliberacy, the measured step, with which he goes; he has made up his mind to rush into sin. It was late in the eveningdark, dark, dark," says the writer, with tragic and suggestive iteration dark in every sense. The night is prophetic.
III THE SECOND ACT. (Vers. 10-20. A woman attire of a harlot" (as if she were nothing but a piece of dress), with a heart full of wiles, meets him. She was excitable, noisy, uncontrollable, gadding now in the streets, now in the markets, now at every corner (vers. 11, 12). Her characteristics have not changed from ancient times. And so with effrontery she seizes and kisses the fool, and solicits him with brazen impudence. Thank offerings had "weighed upon" her in consequence of a vow; but this day the sacrificial animal has been slain, and the meat which, according to the Law, must be consumed within two days, has been prepared for a feast. And she invites him to the entertainment, fires his fancy with luxurious descriptions of the variegated tapestries and the neat perfumes of her couch, and the promise of illicit pleasures. She alludes with cool shamelessness to her absent husband, who will not return till the day of the full moon (ver. 20). "This verse glides smoothly, as if we could hear the sweet fluting of the temptress"s voice." But it is as the song of birds in a wood before an awful storm.
IV THE THIRD ACT. (Vers. 21-23) Her seductive speech, the "fulness of her doctrine," as the writer ironically says, and the smoothness of her lips, overcome the yielding imagination of her victim. Ver. 22 implies that he had hesitated; but "all at once," passion getting the better of reflection, he follows her like a brute under the dominion of a foreign will driven to the slaughter house. He is passive in the power of the temptress, as the fool who has got into the stocks. "Till a dart cleave his liver the supposed seat of passion. Hastening like a bird into the net, he knows not that his life is at stake.
V THE EPILOGUE. (Vers. 24-27) On ver. 24, see on Pro_5:7. "Let not thy heart turn aside to her ways, and go not astray on her paths." Properly, "reel not" (shagah), as in Pro_5:20. Beware of that intoxication of the senses and fancy which leads to such an end. For she is a feller of men, a cruel murderess (ver. 26). Her house is as the vestibule of hell, the facilis descensus Averni the passage to the chambers of death. see on Pro_2:18 Pro_5:5)
LESSONS.
1. Folly and vice are characteristically the same in every age. Hence these scenes have lost none of their dramatic power or moral suggestion.
2. Only virtue is capable of infinite diversity and charm. The pleasures of mere passion, violent at first, pass into monotony, thence into disgust.
3. The character of the utter harlot has never been made other than repulsive (even in French fiction, as Zola"s "Nana") in poetry. What exists in practical form is mere dregs and refuse.
4. The society of pure and refined women is the best antidote to vicious tastes. For to form a correct taste in any matter is to form, at the same time, a distaste for coarse and spurious quality. Perhaps reflections of this order may be more useful to young men than much declamation. J.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON Vers. 1-27. The two ways.
Here we have
I THE WAY OF SIN AND DEATH. This is:
1. The way of thoughtlessness. It is the "simple ones," the "young men void of understanding" (ver. 7), those who go heedlessly "near the corner," "the way to the house" of the tempter or the temptress (ver. 8). It is those who "do not consider," who do not think who they are, what they are here for, whither they go, what the end will be; it is these who go astray and are found in the way of death.
2. The way of darkness. (Ver. 9) Sin hates the light; it loves the darkness. It cannot endure the penetrating glance, the reproachful look, of the good and wise man. It prefers to be where it can better imagine that it is unseen of God.
3. The way of shame. (Vers. 10-20) The result of habitual sin is to rob woman of her native purity, to make her impudent and immodest. How sad, beyond almost everything, the effect of guilt that will put shameful thoughts into a woman"s mind, shameless words into a woman"s lips! If sin will do this what enormity of evil will it not work?
4. The way of falsehood, of pretence, of imposture. (Vers. 14, 15)
5. The way of weakness and defeat. (Vers. 21, 22) A man, under the power of sin, yields himself up; he is vanquished, he surrenders his manliness, he has to own to himself that he is miserably beaten. The strong man is slain by sin, the wounded is cast down (ver. 26). He who has gained victories on other fields, and won trophies in other ways, is utterly defeated, is token captive, is humiliated by sin.
6. The way of death and damnation. (Ver. 27)
II THE WAY OF RIGHTEOUSNESS AND LIFE. (Vers. 1-5) This is:
1. The way of attention. The will of God must first be heeded and understood.
2. The way of holy love. We must take Divine wisdom to our heart, and love it as that which is near and dear to us (ver. 4).
3. The way of wise culture. (Vers. 1-3) We are to take the greatest pains to keep God"s thought in our remembrance, before the eyes of our soul. We are to take every needful measure to keep it intact, whole, flawless in our heart. We are to find it a home in the inmost chamber, in the sacred places of our spirit. Then will this path of righteousness prove to us to be:
4. The path of life. Keeping his commandments, we shall "live" (ver. 2). We shall live the life of virtue, escaping the snares and wiles of the vicious (ver. 5). We shall live the life of piety and integrity, beloved of God, honoured of man, having a good conscience, cherishing a good hope through grace of eternal life. C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v1 My son keep my words, and lay up my…
Pro_7:1
My son keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.
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Parental precepts
Lay up. Hebrew, hide. A metaphor from treasure not left open in the house, but looked up in chests unseen, lest it should be lost, or got away.
I. Children must remember parents words.
1. Their words of instruction.
2. Of charge or command.
3. Of commendation, for that is a great encouragement to do well.
4. Of consolation, which revives the spirit of good children in their troubles.
5. Of promise.
6. Of prohibition.
7. Of reprehension.
8. Of commination.
The spring of parents words is love--yea, when they chide. The end and result of all their speeches is their childrens good.
II. The heart is the receptacle for godly precepts. There they must be laid up.
1. They are very precious in themselves. Common things lie about the house. Choice things are locked up.
2. They are very profitable to us, and such things easily creep into our hearts.
3. The heart is the secretest place to lodge them in.
4. It is the safest place. Good precepts should be as ready in our thoughts as if we had them in our eyes. (Francis Taylor, B. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 Pro_7:2. Apple of the eye, the “pupil,” literally the…
CRITICAL NOTES.
Pro_7:2. Apple of the eye, the “pupil,” literally the “little man” of the eye, referring to the reflected image of a man seen in that organ.
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Pro_7:3. Bind them “refers to rings with large signets, upon which maxims were inscribed” (Stuart).
Pro_7:4. Kinswoman, rather, “an acquaintance, a familiar friend.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH—Pro_7:1-4
THE SOURCE OF TRUE LIFE, ETC
I. The true life of man depends upon his relation to the Word of God. “Keep my commandments, and live” (Pro_7:2). The life which is given to man upon his entrance into this world is not life in its highest sense, but an existence in which he is to obtain life. “It is not all of life to live.” Those who do not keep God’s commandments are living existences, but in the moral signification of the word they are dead. It was said by the highest authority—by the Son of God Himself—that “it had been good for Judas Iscariot if he had not been born” (Mat_26:24). Existence is not a blessing, oftentimes a curse, unless a man is “born again,” “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (Joh_1:13). Christ taught the same truth when He said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God” (Luk_4:4). Man is not flesh and blood only, he has not a mere animal existence, but moral capabilities and needs, which must be nourished by the thoughts of God. If this is not done, he has no life worth the name.
II. The relation that a man should have to the Word of God is like that which a rich man has to his banked money. “Lay up my commandments with thee.” The best place for money which the merchant wishes to use constantly is a safe bank, from which he can draw out at any time of need. So the Word of God must be laid up in the mind ready for constant use. The Word of God must “dwell in us” (Col_3:16). It must be stored up to furnish us with encouragement and admonition in the unceasing warfare with temptation which we are called upon to wage. It must be at hand at the moment of need.
III. It is to be guarded with the same care as the eye is guarded by the eyelid. “As the apple of thine eye.” The eye is carefully protected by nature because it is the organ of a most precious sense—of a sense of which we stand in the greatest need—without which we walk through the world in darkness. The revelation of God in the Holy Scriptures is the only light which enlightens us amid the darkness of ignorance and mystery by which we are surrounded. Without it all our future would be darkness indeed. Hence its preciousness, and hence the value we ought to set upon it.
IV. It is to hold to us a relation like that of a pure, and tender, and beloved sister. “Say unto Wisdom, Thou art my sister.” The Word of God is the highest wisdom. The relationship of brother and sister, where it is what God intended it to be, is a very tender and pure relationship, involving willingness to undergo self-denial for the sake of her who is loved, to listen to her advice, to seek her welfare. In this light we must regard the wisdom of God as revealed in the word of God if existence is to become life to us. We must exercise self-denial for her sake. “I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried: I hoped in Thy word” (Psa_119:147).
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro_7:2. As God would have us keep His law as the apple of our eye, so He keeps His people (Deu_32:10), in answer to their prayer, as the apple of His eye (Zec_2:8). We guard the eye as our most precious and tender member from hurt, and prize it most dearly. As we guard the pupil of the eye from the least mote, which is sufficient to hurt it, so God’s law is so tender and holy a thing that the least violation of it in thought, word, or deed, is sin; and we are so to keep the law as to avoid any violation of it. The law resembles the pupil of the eye also in its being spiritually the organ of light, without which we should be in utter darkness.—Fausset.
The instruction of the Word is the same to the soul which the eye is to the body. For as the body without the sight of the eyes runneth upon many things that hurt it, and falleth at every little stumbling-block, so the soul most fearfully runneth into sins if it want the light and direction of the Word.—Muffet.
Men are off and on in their promises: they are also slow and slack in their performances. But it is otherwise here: the very “entrance of Thy Word giveth light” (Psa_119:130), and the very onset of obedience giveth life. It is but “Hear, and your soul shall live” (Isa_55:3). Sin is homogeneous, all of a kind, though not all of the same degree. As the least pebble is a stone as well as the hugest rock, and as the drop of a bucket is water as well as the main ocean, hence the least sins are in Scripture reproached by the names of the greatest. Malice is called manslaughter, lust, adultery, etc. Concupiscence is condemned by the law; even the first motions of sin, though they never come to consent (Rom_7:7). Inward bleeding may kill a man. The law of God is spiritual, though we be carnal. And as the sunshine shows us atoms and motes that till then we discerned not, so doth the law discover and censure smallest failings. It must therefore be kept curiously, even “as the apple of the eye,” that cannot be touched, but will be distempered. Careful we must be, even in the punctilios of duty. Men will not lightly lose the least ends of gold.—Trapp.
In some bodies, as trees, etc., there is life without sense, which are things animated, but not so much with a soul as with a kind of animation; even as the wicked have some kind of knowledge from grace, but are not animated by it. Or rather the wicked do not live, indeed, for life consisteth in action, and how can he be said truly to live whose words are dead? But keep God’s commandments, and live indeed, live cheerfully with the comfort of this life, which makes life to be life; live happily in the life of glory hereafter, which is the end for which this life is lent us.—Jermin.
Pro_7:4. Since, O youth, thou delightest in the intimacy of fair maidens, lo! here is by far the loveliest one, Wisdom.—Cartwright.
Wisdom has been represented as a wife, and here she is called a sister. As Didymus says (in Catenâ, p. 104), “Wisdom is called a mother, a sister, and a wife.” She is a mother, because, through her, we are children of Christ; she is a wife, because, by union with her, we ourselves become parents of that which is good; she is our sister, because our love to her is chaste and holy, and because she, as well as ourselves, is the offspring of God. Such is the love of Christ, who is the true Wisdom, and who is all in all to the soul. Compare His own words, applied to every faithful and obedient soul: “The same is my brother, and my sister, and mother” (Mar_3:35). “Do thou love the true faith with sisterly love, it shall keep thee from the impure love of the strange women of false doctrine” (Bede).—Wordsworth.
Holiness is positive. Sin is negative. The one is to love God, and also our neighbour. The other is not to love God or our neighbour. The one shows itself in a positive delight in the abstract holiness; the other not in a positive delight in the opposite, viz., in an abstract sin, but a delight in women, a delight in money, a delight in praise, a delight in everything except moral purity, and therefore a delight in things which are innocent when in limits, and that are only guilty when the soul is let in upon them without curb of superior affection. If a man calls Wisdom his kinswoman, then he may love wine or love without moral danger.—Miller.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 From Solomon’s observation we learn:—
Pro 7:6
From Solomon’s observation we learn:—
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I. The special perils of great cities. (1) The vastness and multitudinousness of many of our modern cities provide a secrecy which is congenial to vice. This enormously adds to the power of temptation, that you may pluck the poisonous fruit unobserved. Only keep the inward monitor quiet, and you may run undetected and unchallenged into every excess. (2) In all great towns, solicitations to vice abound as they do not elsewhere. Every passion has a tempter lying in wait for it.
II. We learn from this passage the evil of late hours. The devil, like the beast of prey, stalks forth when the sun goes down. Midnight on earth is hell’s midnoon.
III. The next warning in the text is the danger of foolish company. The word "simple" means in the Book of Proverbs silly, frivolous, idle, abandoned. You could almost predict with certainty the future of one who selected such society. "He that walketh with wise men shall be wise; but the companion of fools shall be destroyed."
IV. No man’s understanding can be called thoroughly sound till it has been brought under the power of the truth as it is in Jesus. Your only security against the perils of the city, of the dark night and of evil company, is a living faith in God, a spiritual union with Christ.
J. Thain Davidson, The City Youth, p. 3.
References: Pro 8:4.—R. M. McCheyne, Memoir and Remains, p. 325. Pro 8:10.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 197. Pro 8:11.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xi., p. 86. Pro 8:12.—A. Mursell, Christian World Pulpit, p. 406. Pro 8:13.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 200.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Bad Woman
The Bad Woman
A picture drawn from life of the enticing of a young man by a wicked woman.
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2. The apple] lit. 'the little man' of the eye, so called because an image is reflected from the pupil of the eye. It is a figure for the most precious and delicate things (Deu_32:10; Psa_17:8).
3. The Jews wear a long leather band twisted round the arm and fingers during prayer. Passages of Scripture written on parchment and enclosed in a small leather box are at the same time worn on the forehead.
4. My sister] the title by which bride and wife are addressed (Son_4:9).
6. The window is the opening; the casement is the lattice-work filling it, looking through which one may see and remain unseen.
9. Twilight ends suddenly, and is followed by dense darkness.
11. Stubborn] or 'wilful'; an epithet applied to an unruly beast which has shaken off the yoke (Hos_4:16).
14. Lev_7:16-18 shows that such sacrifices were followed by a feast: the blood and the fat of the intestines were offered to God; the rest of the animal was consumed by the offerer, his family and guests. The woman is therefore inviting to a sumptuous feast.
19, 20. The husband is a merchant, who is absent on a long journey, as is evident from his having taken with him his purse. He will not be home till the 'full moon' (RV).
26. Read, 'Yea, many are those she has slain.'
27. The chambers of death are the many diverse receptacles supposed to be in the under-world: cp. Joh_14:2.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 The entire chapter is a continuation of the strange…
CHAPTER 7
The entire chapter is a continuation of the strange woman and the warning against her. The Word and the law of the Lord will keep the obedient son from her. If Solomon had obeyed the Word of God, not to multiply wives (Deu 17:17) his end would not have been spent in the degrading fellowship with the harlots of other nations. The description is very graphic. What the word pictures is as prominent in the great centers of Christendom as it was thousands of years ago in Babylon and Egypt. And so it is still true:
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She hath cast down many wounded;
Yea, many strong men have been slain by her.
Her house is the way to hell,
Going down to the chambers of death.
But think of Solomon after having received these inspired descriptions and warnings, that he should have been forgetful of them all.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 Condemnation of Fornication and Adultery.
Condemnation of Fornication and Adultery.
On account of the terrible devastation wrought by sins of adultery and by every gratification of sexual desires outside of holy wedlock, affecting not only the sinners themselves, but the entire social body, Solomon continues his warning in this entire chapter in a very concrete and effective manner, the subject being introduced with the usual impressive admonitions to heed and follow true wisdom.
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v. 1. My son, keep my words, observing his sayings, and lay up my commandments with thee, like a precious treasure, to be used with discretion.
v. 2. Keep my commandments and live, true life following the exercise of true wisdom, and my law as the apple of thine eye, literally, "as the little man of thine eye," emblem of a very precious possession, guarded with the greatest care.
v. 3. Bind them upon thy fingers, like an ornament or ring, to serve as a constant reminder; write them upon the table of thine heart, for the remembering was to be not only in the mind, but in the heart, in true and eager love.
v. 4. Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister, with whom he should be united in the bonds of confidential fellowship; and call understanding thy kinswoman, in order to enjoy her counsel always, no mere distant acquaintance being sufficient, but a familiarity of relationship which would be of real value,
v. 5. that they may keep thee from the strange woman, the harlots in Israel being originally foreigners, from the stranger which flattereth with her words, her object being to allure and seduce with smooth speeches. The author now brings an illustration from life in order to substantiate his argument.
v. 6. For at the window of my house I looked through my casement, through the lattice-work found on Oriental windows which face the street,
v. 7. and beheld among the simple ones, those inexperienced in matters of this life, in the ways of men, I discerned among the youths, the youngsters, those in the dangerous age when they resent instruction, a young man void of understanding, clearly lacking in judgment,
v. 8. passing through the street near her corner, where harlots were accustomed to linger for the purpose of accosting; and he went the way to her house, the very slow sauntering, strolling, or pacing being a sign of imprudence,
v. 9. in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night, the heaping of expressions fitting the actions of the young man as belonging to the works of darkness;
v. 10. and, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, the Hebrew expression referring either to indecent exposure or to a decorating of the bosom to draw attention to its charms, and subtile of heart, hypocritical and two-faced, simulating faithfulness and love in the presence of her husband, but flattering strange men in wanton abandonment. (v. 11. She is loud, stormily excited, and stubborn, ungovernable; her feet abide not in her house, where her duty to her husband should have kept her;
v. 12. now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner, her progress from before her own door to the street and then to the intersection of streets being graphically portrayed. )
v. 13. So she caught him and kissed him, such kisses being the very essence of unchastity, and with an impudent face said unto him, literally, "she put on a bold face in inviting him,"
v. 14. I have peace-offerings with me; this day have I paid my vows, that is, she had, on the day which was just coming to a close or had closed with sundown, brought a thank-offering to the Lord, the rule being that the flesh must be eaten at a sacrificial meal on the second day, at the latest, Lev 7:16. It was this meal which she wanted the young man to share with her, in the privacy of her own chambers.
v. 15. Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, the flattery consisting in her singling out this victim, as though he alone had been in her thoughts, whereas practically any other man would have answered her purpose just as well, and I have found thee.
v. 16. I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with beautiful and costly upholstering and pillows, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt, that is, with variegated coverlets of Egyptian linen.
v. 17. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon, sprinkling it with sweet-smelling spices.
v. 18. Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning; let us solace ourselves with loves, the intoxicating quality of illicit love being brought out very strongly.
v. 19. For the goodman, of whom the wife speaks in a cold and distant manner, is not at home, he is gone a long journey, the implication being that he is far enough away and they need fear no discovery;
v. 20. he hath taken a bag of money with him, this showing that his business was important and took some time, and will come home at the day appointed, he had named the day of the next full moon as the day of his return. In this way the wanton woman met all possible objections of her victim in advance.
v. 21. With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, she brought him around, she broke down his resistance, with the flattering of her lips she forced him, the young man being no match for the skilful and enticing rhetoric which the adulteress knew to employ.
v. 22. He goeth after her straightway, at once, with passionate promptness, the text indicating that this is always the case in similar situations, as an ox goeth to the slaughter or as a fool to the correction of the stocks, that is, as one who has lost his right mind is caught and fettered,
v. 23. till a dart strike through his liver, an arrow dividing his vital organs; as a bird hasteth to the snare and knoweth not that it is for his life, the young man of the story and all victims like him not realizing that their life, their soul’s welfare, is at stake.
v. 24. Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth, this exhortation receiving added weight on account of the story to which it is attached.
v. 25. Let not thine heart decline to her ways, those of the harlot, go not astray in her paths.
v. 26. For she hath cast down many wounded, many are those who have fallen victims to her wiles; yea, many strong men have been slain by her, both in body and soul.
v. 27. Her house is the way to hell, literally, "ways of hell her house," going down to the chambers of death. That is the inevitable consequence of an immoral life: eternal destruction in the abyss of hell.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4 keep my words
keep my words
Here keeping represents obeying. AT: "obey my words" (See: Metaphor)
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store up my commands within yourself
Here God's commands are spoken of as if they were objects that someone could put into a storeroom. AT: "memorize my commands" (See: Metaphor)
keep my instruction
Here keeping represents obeying. AT: "obey my instructions" (See: Metaphor)
as the apple of your eye
The apple of the eye is the pupil inside the eye, which people normally instinctively protect when an object flies at their face. Here "the apple of the eye" represents whatever a person values and protects the most. AT: "as your most valuable possession" (See: Idiom)
Tie them on your fingers
Possible meanings are 1) that the writer wanted his son to engrave certain commands from God on a ring and wear it, or 2) that the writer wanted his son to always remember God's commands, as if he always wore a certain ring. (See: Metaphor)
write them on the tablet of your heart
Here the heart represents a person's mind, and remembering something well is spoken of as if the person were writing it on a stone tablet. See how you translated this in Proverbs 3:3. AT: "remember my commands well as if you were writing them in stone" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
word
command
life
heart
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1–4 7:1-27 This is the last of four sections in…
7:1-27 This is the last of four sections in chs 1–9 that warn against the dangers of promiscuous women (see also 2:16-22; 5:1-23; 6:20-35).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.