Proverbschapter 7
27 verses · Solomon and others · 10th to 5th century BC · Wisdom and poetry
Then a woman came out to meet him, with the attire of a harlot and cunning of heart.
Introduction
Solomon and others, Wisdom and poetry, Proverbs Overview.
This chapter belongs to the father's lessons that open Proverbs, and the book's heading gives it to Solomon. Its hearers were young men walking the streets of a trading city after dark. It is the book's fullest story, told by a teacher who watches from his own window as the light fails. Listen for how the woman's invitation borrows the language of worship and of wealth. Notice what the young man lacks before he ever reaches her corner. The pictures at the close come from the altar and the hunter's snare. Read it as the father's warning brought to life.
Context
- Who
- Young men out walking after dark in a merchant town
- What
- A father's story of a young man without sense who is drawn into an adulteress's house at dusk, told as a warning to keep his teaching close.
- Where
- A street and a wealthy house in a trading city, watched through the lattice of an upper window at twilight.
- When
- The reign of Solomon, about 970 to 931 BC, by the heading at Proverbs 1:1; the book reached its final form later, since Proverbs 25:1 names the men of Hezekiah as copyists.
- Why
- To show a son how seduction works step by step and to press him to guard his heart before he wanders near her path.
Historical context
The scene is watched through a lattice, a wooden screen set in a window opening so that a person inside could see out and the street could not see in. Houses had flat roofs, narrow alleys, and shared corners, and the teacher is describing what he actually saw from an upper room as the light failed.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The woman's opening line is a religious one: "I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows." The peace offering was the one sacrifice the worshipper ate, and the Law required the meat to be finished within a day or two. So she really does have fresh roast meat and wine at home tonight, and she is using the temple calendar as the invitation.
Her bedroom is described as an expensive room: coverings of tapestry, carved work, fine Egyptian linen, and perfumed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. Every one of those came up the caravan roads from Egypt, Arabia, and further east. This is a wealthy household in a trading capital.
The husband's absence is precise. He "is gone a long journey: he hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed", a merchant on a buying trip, back at the new or full moon. She knows the calendar, which means she has planned this.
Significance
First hearers watched a young man walk into an ambush that was baited with religion, luxury, and a schedule. Nothing about it looked like danger from the street.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The closing image is a slaughterhouse, an ox led to the killing, a bird into a snare. To a listener who had led animals to the altar himself, that comparison did something no lecture could do.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
No part of this chapter is read in the synagogue year. The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed parashot total 0 and haftarah uses total 0 for Proverbs, and no festival reading.
The corpus joins the chapter to four weekly portions through Midrash Tanchuma. Under the second verse it carries Eikev 4:1 and Mishpatim 12:2, under the sixth Ki Tisa 14:2, and under the twenty-second the Buber edition at Balak 10:1. Eikev, Mishpatim, Ki Tisa and Balak stand in the site's table of portions.
How it is read
Rashi is the commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. The chapter is the book's longest scene with the strange woman, and Rashi reads it on two levels at once. The corner where the young man passes is "The corner of the harlot and of the pagan house of worship" (Rashi on Proverbs 7:8:1). The woman who meets him is read as the verse says, and by another explanation as one of the enticers (Rashi on Proverbs 7:10:1). Wisdom, by contrast, is to be called sister and drawn near (Rashi on Proverbs 7:4:1).
The woman's speech he reads through the second level. The peace offerings she has paid are a great feast, since she sacrificed her vows that day (Rashi on Proverbs 7:14:1). Her words that the man of the house is away become the enticer's argument about God. "You have seen that the Holy One, blessed be He, has removed His Shechinah and has given all good to the pagans" (Rashi on Proverbs 7:19:1). The bag of money he took with him means that God has slain the righteous among them (Rashi on Proverbs 7:20:1). Rashi's reading puts in the enticer's mouth the argument that God has left His people.
The rest are close glosses. The apple of the eye is the pupil, dark like the night (Rashi on Proverbs 7:2:1). The coverings of her couch are garments of freedom and beauty, and he points to the same word in the last chapter of the book (Rashi on Proverbs 7:16:1). On the perfuming of her bed he gives his own reading, a fanning of the scent downward, and reports that Dunash read the word as smoking (Rashi on Proverbs 7:17:1). The young man goes like a bird to a snare, not knowing it was spread for its life (Rashi on Proverbs 7:23:1).
The corpus carries nine further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. Six stand cited and unquoted at Ibn Ezra on Proverbs 7:3:1, 7:5:1, 7:6:1, 7:12:1, 7:13:1 and 7:18:1. Two are further notes of Rashi, at Proverbs 7:1:1 and 7:24:1, and one stands at Metzudat David on Proverbs 7:9:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited here rather than quoted. On the first verse it holds Shemot Rabbah 27:9, and on the second Shemot Rabbah 30:21 with Midrash Tanchuma at Eikev 4:1 and Mishpatim 12:2. On the third it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan 23:4 and Ein Yaakov, Kiddushin 1:16. On the fourth, wisdom as a sister, it holds Berakhot 57a:4 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Eiruvin 5:14.
The young man's walk draws the next run. On the seventh verse the corpus holds Avot DeRabbi Natan 1:4 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Numbers 25:1:1. On the eighth it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 9:1, and on the ninth Berakhot 3b:20. On the tenth it holds Bereshit Rabbah 87:1 and Jerusalem Talmud Shabbat 5:2:4. On the eleventh it holds Midrash Mishlei 25:1, and on the twelfth Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 38:15:2.
The feast and the snare carry the rest. On the eighteenth verse the corpus holds Menachot 66b:4, and on the twentieth Chullin 92a:18 and 92a:19. On the twenty-second it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 20:11. On the twenty-fifth it holds Kohelet Rabbah 1:16:1 and Midrash Mishlei 7:1, and on the twenty-sixth Avodah Zarah 19b:4. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Proverbs 7:2:1 to 7:23:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY, and Rashi on Proverbs 7:1:1 and 7:24:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Proverbs 7:3:1, 7:5:1, 7:6:1, 7:12:1, 7:13:1 and 7:18:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Proverbs 7:9:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/proverbs/7.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion, no Haftarah and no festival reading for this book, with Eikev, Mishpatim, Ki Tisa and Balak in its PARASHOT table.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Bind My Commandments Upon Thy Fingers
Proverbs 7:1-5
My son, keep my words: The father's appeal opens as it did in chapters 2, 3 and 6. Calling wisdom “my sister” and understanding “your kinsman” makes the safeguard a kinship. Verse 5 states the purpose, “that they may keep you from the adulteress,” and all that follows makes the case for the guard.
Proverbs 7:1
“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.”
the apple of your eye: The apple of the eye is the pupil, and Clarke notes that sight depends on it and the smallest thing injures it. The son is to guard his father's teaching with the same care. Keeping the commandments is life.
Proverbs 7:2
“As the apple of thine eye - As the pupil of the eye, which is of such essential necessity to sight, and so easily injured.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Tie them to your fingers: Deuteronomy 6:8 told Israel to tie the commandments as reminders on the hands, and here the father's words go on the fingers and the heart. What the son sees on his hand and carries in his heart becomes his armour against the stranger of verse 5. Both places are claimed.
Proverbs 7:3
“Bind them on your fingers, etc. On your fingers, means in actions; on the tablets of your heart, in the breadth of thought. Indeed, another translation says: Inscribe it on the breadth of your heart.”
Bede · written before 735 · Commentary on Proverbspatristic
3 more voices on this verse
Proverbs 7:3
“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. xvii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Proverbs 7:3
These articles of our faith were not composed out of human opinion but are the principal points collected out of the whole of Scripture to complete a single doctrinal formulation of the faith. And in like manner as the mustard seed contains numbers of branches-to-be within its tiny grain, so also this creed embraces in a few phrases all the religious knowledge contained in the Old and New Testaments together. Look now, brethren, and "hold the traditions," which are now being imparted to you, and "write them on the table of your hearts."
Cyril of Jerusalem · written before 386 · Catechetical Lecture 5:12patristic
Proverbs 7:3
“Bind them upon thy fingers - See on Pro 3:3 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Barnes sets Wisdom, the sister and kinsman of this verse, against the adulteress of the chapter as the true pattern of womanhood. Song of Solomon 4:9 uses sister of the bride. The son is to be spoken for before the stranger calls.
the stranger with seductive words: The stranger of this verse works by words, and her seductive speech fills verses 14 to 20. Henry reads her as sin itself, flattering in its approach and destroying in its end. Wisdom's words are the guard against hers.
Proverbs 7:5
“The strange woman - The prostitute, the adulteress.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 7:5
“23 Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life. Solomon here, to enforce the caution he had given against the sin of whoredom, tells a story of a young man that was ruined to all intents and purposes by the enticements of an adulterous woman.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Watched From a Window: the Young Man Void of Understanding
Proverbs 7:6-9
at the window of my house I looked: The father watches and names plainly: “a young man lacking judgment,” “crossing the street near her corner, strolling down the road to her house”. No one forces him onto that road, so the chapter charges the walking itself, and the failing it names is a lack of judgment.
Proverbs 7:6
“I looked through my casement - The casement is a small aperture in a large window, or a window opening on hinges. Here it means the lattice, for they had no glass windows in the East. And the latticed windows produced a double advantage 1. Making the apartments sufficiently private; and 2. Admitting fresh air to keep them cool.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 7:6
For--or, "Since," introducing an example to illustrate the warning, which, whether a narrative or a parable, is equally pertinent. window--or, "opening" looked--literally, "watched earnestly" (Jud 5:28). casement--or, "lattice."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
a young man lacking judgment: Barnes defines the simple as open to every impression of evil, empty in head and heart. Wisdom calls to the same simple ones at Proverbs 1:22 and 9:4. Folly calls them too.
Proverbs 7:7
“Simple - In the bad sense of the word (Pro 1:22 note); “open” to all impressions of evil, empty-headed and empty-hearted; lounging near the house of ill-repute, not as yet deliberately purposing to sin, but placing himself in the way of it at a time when the pure in heart would seek their home. There is a certain symbolic meaning in the picture of the gathering gloom Pro 7:9. Night is falling over the young man’s life as the shadows deepen.”
crossing the street near her corner: Proverbs 5:8 told the son to keep his path far from her and away from the door of her house. This young man strolls down the road to it. Her corner in this verse is where she lurks in verse 12.
Proverbs 7:8
“And walks towards her house. He who has turned from the way of truth, rightly appropriates the way to the house of the harlot or heretic; which is fittingly placed, as we have explained, both in the street and near the corner.”
Bede · written before 735 · Commentary on Proverbspatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 7:8
“He went the way to her house - She appears to have had a corner house sufficiently remarkable; and a way from the main street to it.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
at twilight: The time words stack up, twilight, the fading day and the dark of the night. Barnes reads the gathering gloom as a picture of night falling over the young man's life. Job 24:15 says the eye of the adulterer watches for twilight.
Proverbs 7:9
“In the twilight, in the evening - Some time after sun-setting; before it was quite dark. In the black and dark night - When there were neither lamps nor moon-shine.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Proverbs 7:9
“In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night.”
Proverbs 7:9
“In the twilight, in the evening of the day, etc. Because such a one, through the blindness of the heart, hastens to the darkness, both of sin and damnation.”
Bede · written before 735 · Commentary on Proverbspatristic
Proverbs 7:10-15
with the attire of a harlot: Her “attire of a harlot and cunning of heart” are named together. Her speech opens with religious cover: “I have made my peace offerings; today I have paid my vows”. A peace offering left meat the worshipper could eat and share, so piety itself becomes the pretext for the meeting.
Proverbs 7:10
“A woman with the attire of a harlot - It appears that sitting in some open place, and covering the face, or having a veil of a peculiar kind on, was the evidence of a harlot, Gen 38:14, Gen 38:15-19. No doubt, in Solomon’s time, they had other distinctions. In all other countries, and in all times. the show of their countenance did testify against them; they declared their sin as Sodom; they hid it not.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 7:10
“With a provocative movement of a prostitute, with a disrupted gait through delights, with wandering eyes, and with playful darting of her eyelids, she captures the precious souls of young men (for the eye of a prostitute is a snare of a sinner), and with doubtful perception, she accosts anyone passing by in the corner of her house, with charming words, causing the hearts of young men to flutter, restless at home, wandering in the streets, prodigal with kisses, cheap in modesty, rich in attire, painted cheeks.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Cain and Abelpatristic
She is loud and defiant: Clarke renders loud as never at rest, always stirred up, and defiant as turning aside from the right way. Her feet wander, and Clarke takes that restlessness as what first led her into this life. Her home cannot hold her.
Proverbs 7:11
“She is loud and stubborn - המיה homiyah, she is never at rest, always agitated; busily employed to gain her end, and this is to go into the path of error: סררת sorereth, “turning aside;” preferring any way to the right way. And, therefore, it is added, her feet abide not in her house, she gads abroad; and this disposition probably first led her to this vice.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
she lurks at every corner: the way the violent men of Proverbs 1:11 lie in wait for blood. Clarke pictures her always on show in the street and the squares, her gait telling what she wants. The young man walked into her ambush.
Proverbs 7:12
“Now is she without - She is continually exposing herself, and showing by her gait and gestures what she is, and what she wants. These two verses are a parenthesis, intended to show the character of the woman.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
she brazenly says to him: Clarke explains brazenly from the Hebrew, she strengthened her face, the boldest look she could put on. She seizes and kisses the young man before she speaks a word. Her words run from verse 14 to verse 20.
Proverbs 7:13
“So she caught him - Laid fast hold on him, and kissed him, to show that she was affectionately attached to him. And with an impudent face - העזה פניה heezzah paneyha, “she strengthened her countenance,” assumed the most confident look she could; endeavored to appear friendly and sincere.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 7:13
“The offerer retained part of the victim for a feast (Le 3:9, &c.). This feast she professes was prepared for him whom she boldly addresses as one sought specially to partake of it. 16, 17. my bed--or, "couch," adorned in the costliest manner.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Henry reads her as a woman who thinks her paid vows have settled her account with God and left room for new sin. Today she has paid, so today she may sin. The meat of the peace offerings will feed her guest.
I sought you, and I have found you: She tells him the feast was prepared for him alone, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note how boldly she makes him the one sought out. Any young man passing her corner would have heard the same words. The flattery is the hook.
Proverbs 7:15
“Therefore came I forth to meet thee,.... Having so much good cheer at home, and none to eat of it with her; and having so fond and affectionate a regard to this young man, as she pretended; he being the only person in her thoughts, whom she hoped to meet with, and whose company she desired, and his only; though, had she met any other, she would have said the same things to them.”
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 7:15
“Sinners take pains to do mischief, and are as the roaring lion himself; they go about seeking to devour, and yet pretend they are seeking to oblige. [2.] She would have it thought that Providence itself countenanced her choice of him for her companion; for how quickly had she found him whom she sought!”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Proverbs 7:16-20
I have decked my bed with coverings: Her speech turns to what the senses enjoy, “colored linen from Egypt” and a bed perfumed “with myrrh, with aloes, and with cinnamon”. Her closing argument is logistics, sold as calculated safety: “my husband is not at home,” and he “will not return till the moon is full”.
Proverbs 7:16
“I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry,.... Made use of by the ancients (o) for bed clothes: beautiful ornaments, as Gersom; and precious garments, as Jarchi.”
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 7:16
“I have decked my bed - ערשי arsi, “my couch or sofa;” distinguished from משכבי mishcabi, “my bed,” Pro 7:17, the place to sleep on, as the other was the place to recline on at meals. The tapestry, מרבדים marbaddim, mentioned here seems to refer to the covering of the sofa; exquisitely woven and figured cloth. חטבות אטון chatuboth etun, the Targum translates painted carpets, such as were manufactured in Egypt; some kind of embroidered or embossed stuff is apparently meant.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
with myrrh, with aloes, and with cinnamon: Barnes reads the love of perfumes as a sign of luxurious vice, as at Isaiah 3:24. He notes that the Hebrew word for cinnamon is the English word, a name carried from the far East. She perfumed her bed to entice.
Proverbs 7:17
“The love of perfumes is here, as in Isa 3:24, a sign of luxurious vice. Cinnamon - The Hebrew word is identical with the English. The spice imported by the Phoenician traders from the further East, probably from Ceylon, has kept its name through all changes of language.”
let us take our fill of love till morning: Henry grieves that the name of love is spent on lust, and he calls true love a gift from heaven. Her offer runs only till morning. By verse 23 the cost is his life.
Proverbs 7:18
“Come, let us take our fill of love - נרוה דדים nirveh dodim, “Let us revel in the breasts;” and then it is added, “Let us solace ourselves with loves,” נתעלסה באהבים nithallesah boohabim; “let us gratify each other with loves, with the utmost delights.” This does not half express the original; but I forbear.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 7:18
“Of lust she means, brutish lust; but it is a pity that the name of love should be thus abused. True love is from heaven; this is from hell. How can those pretend to solace themselves and love one another who are really ruining themselves and one another?”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
my husband is not at home: The Hebrew reads only the man, and Barnes hears scorn in her refusal to call him her husband. He also suspects that the whole story of his travels is a blind. Every detail is meant to calm the young man.
Proverbs 7:19
“For the good man is not at home,.... Or, "for the man is not in his house" (y). She does not say, "my man", or "my husband"; though the Septuagint.”
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 7:19
The reference to the husband is probably a blind. The use of the word “goodman” is due to the wish of the English translators to give a colloquial character to this part of their Version. The Hebrew is merely “the man.” A touch of scorn may be noticed in the form of speech: not “my husband,” but simply “the man.”
The Hebrew names a fixed day, and Clarke reports the Vulgate read it as the full moon, the Targum as the day of the assembly. Clarke takes the husband for a traveling merchant with his bag of money. She knows the calendar.
Proverbs 7:20
“He hath taken - Literally, “The money bag he hath taken in his hand.” He is gone a journey of itinerant merchandising. This seems to be what is intended. And will come home at the day appointed - ליום הכסא leyom hakkase, the time fixed for a return from such a journey. The Vulgate says, “at the full moon.” The Targum, “the day of the assembly.” In other words, He will return by the approaching festival.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 7:21-23
With her great persuasion she entices him: “He follows her on impulse, like an ox going to the slaughter,” an animal walking toward its death with no power to read the sign. The line “until an arrow pierces his liver” names a wound, and the liver was held to be the seat of the passions.
Proverbs 7:21
“Fair speech - The Hebrew word is usually translated “doctrine,” or “learning” Pro 1:5; Pro 4:2; Pro 9:9; possibly it is used here in keen irony.”
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 7:21
“Wisdom's maidens, who plead her cause, and have reason on their side, and true and divine pleasures to invite men to, have a deaf ear turned to them, and with all their rhetoric cannot compel men to come in, but such is the dominion of sin in the hearts of men that its allurements soon prevail by falsehood and flattery.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
like an ox going to the slaughter: The Berean pictures an ox going to the slaughter and a deer bounding into a trap. Barnes calls the Hebrew of the last line hard, and he reports that the Greek reads a dog enticed by food going to the chain. Each follows on impulse.
Proverbs 7:22
“As a fool ... - literally, “As a fetter to the correction of a fool,” the order of which is inverted in the King James Version The Septuagint, followed by the Syriac Version, has another reading, and interprets the clause: “As a dog, enticed by food, goes to the chain that is to bind him, so does the youth go to the temptress.” None of the attempts of commentators to get a meaning out of the present text are in any degree satisfactory.”
until an arrow pierces his liver: Gill calls the liver the fountain of the blood, so an arrow there costs a man his life. He names the hand that might strike, God, the magistrate or the jealous husband, as when Phinehas pierced Zimri and Cozbi. The bird knows too late.
Proverbs 7:23
“Till a dart strike through his liver,.... The fountain of blood, and so of life; which, being pierced through and poured out, is certain death, Lam 2:11; the meaning is, till he is slain either by the hand of God, or by the civil magistrate, or by the jealous husband; and be thrust through by him, as Zimri and Cozbi were by Phinehas.”
2 more voices on this verse
Proverbs 7:23
“The "cemphus" is a kind of wild sea-bird, which has so immoderate an impulse to sexual enjoyment, that its eyes seem to fill with blood in coition; and it often blindly falls into snares, or into the hands of men. To this, therefore, he compares the man who gives himself up to the harlot on account of his immoderate lust; or else on account of the insensate folly of the creature, for he, too, pursues his object like one senseless.”
Hippolytus of Rome · written before 235 · Hippolytus Exegetical Fragmentspatristic
Proverbs 7:23
“The ox thinks he is led to the pasture when he is led to the slaughter; the fool (that is, the drunkard, for, of all sinners, drunkards are the greatest fools) is led to the correction of the stocks, and is not sensible of the shame of it, but goes to it as if he were going to a play.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Her House Is the Way to Sheol
Proverbs 7:24-27
Now, my sons, listen to me: The father widens the address from one son to “my sons,” and one man's story becomes a warning for every reader who has watched it. The chapter closes on “Her house is the road to Sheol, descending to the chambers of death,” the choice between life and death.
Proverbs 7:24
“3 Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart. 4 Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman: 5 That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words. These verses are an introduction to his warning against fleshly lusts, much the same with that, ch. vi.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verse
Proverbs 7:24
“The inferential admonition is followed (Pr 7:26, 27), by a more general allegation of the evils of this vice. Even the mightiest fail to resist her deathly allurements.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Proverbs 7:24
“Hearken unto me now, therefore, O ye children - Ye that are young and inexperienced, seriously consider the example set before your eyes, and take warning at another’s expense.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
do not stray into her paths: The warning begins in the heart and then reaches the feet. The young man of verse 8 took his first steps down her road before he ever met her, placing himself in the way of sin. Her paths end at the chambers of death in verse 27.
Proverbs 7:25
“If thou goest in her paths, in any of the paths that lead to this sin, thou goest astray, thou art out of the right way, the safe way; therefore take heed, go not astray, lest thou wander endlessly." 2. "Take fair warning when it is given you." (1.) "Look back, and see what mischief this sin has done.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
her slain are many in number: Clarke notes that the word for slain can also mean men of war, and that the many brought down can be read as mighty men. Her slain are soldiers and heroes. Her house is their battlefield.
Proverbs 7:26
“For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her - That is, such like women have been the ruin of many. חללים chalalim, which we render wounded, also signifies solsliers or men of war; and עצמים atsumim, which we render strong men, may be translated heroes. Many of those who have distinguished themselves in the field and in the cabinet have been overcome and destroyed by their mistresses. History is full of such examples.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 7:26
“Herein, perhaps, he has an eye especially to Samson, who was slain by this sin, and perhaps to David too, who by this sin entailed a sword upon his house, though so far the Lord took it away that he himself should not die.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
the road to Sheol: Henry sets her richly decked bed and perfumed rooms against the true plan of her house, a staircase descending to the chambers of death. Sheol is the grave, the place of the dead. The road to it starts at her door.
Proverbs 7:27
“Her house is the way to hell - שאול sheol, the pit, the grave, the place of the dead, the eternal and infernal world. And they who, through such, fall into the grave, descend lower, into the chambers of death; the place where pleasure is at an end, and illusion mocks no more.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 7:27
“Her house, though richly decked and furnished, and called a house of pleasure, is the way to hell; and her chambers are the stair-case that goes down to the chambers of death and everlasting darkness.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.