Proverbs 7:14
in Proverbs 7“I have made my peace offerings; today I have paid my vows.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Sacrifices of peace-offerings are with me; This day have I paid my vows.
KJV
I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows.
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This verse in Proverbs 7
Commentary
9 notes on this verseI have peace offerings with me,.... Meaning at her house. These peace offerings were of the eucharistic kind; they were offered by way of thanksgiving for favours received; the greatest part of which, all excepting the fat on the kidneys, the rump of the sheep, the breast and right shoulder, which were the priest's, were returned to the offerers to feast upon with their friends, and were to be eaten the same day, Lev 7:
This site's exposition
with the attire of a harlot
on Proverbs 7:10-15
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.
This site's exposition
I have made my peace offerings
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.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
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.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
(2.) Her profession of piety. She had been to-day at the temple, and was as well respected there as any that worshipped in the courts of the Lord. She had paid her vows, and, as she thought, made all even with God Almighty, and therefore might venture upon a new score of sins.
Offerings - I have paid my peace-offerings which I had vowed. Whereby she signifies, that she had plentiful provisions at her house for his entertainment.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
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.
I have peace-offerings with me - More literally, “the sacrifices of the peace-offerings are with me.” Peace-offerings Mymlv shelamim, were offerings the spiritual design of which was to make peace between God and man, to make up the breach between them which sin had occasioned; see the notes on Leviticus 7 (note), where every kind of sacrifice offered under the law is explained.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
This pretence of a religious feast gives us an insight into some strange features of popular religion under the monarchy of Judah. The harlot uses the technical word Lev 3:1 for the “peace-offerings,” and makes them the starting-point for her sin. They have to be eaten on the same day that they are offered Lev 7:15-16, and she invites her victim to the feast. She who speaks is a “foreigner” who, under a show of conformity to the religion of Israel, still retains her old notions (see Pro 2:16 note), and a feast-day to her is nothing but a time of self-indulgence, which she may invite another to share with her. If we assume, as probable, that these harlots of Jerusalem were mainly of Phoenician origin, the connection of their worship with their sin would be but the continuation of their original “cultus.”
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
I had to bring peace offerings I prepared a great feast, for today I sacrificed my vows and my peace offering.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 6 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| זִבְחֵ֣י | zivchei | sacrifices of | H2077 → | 162 times |
| שְׁלָמִ֣ים | shelamim | peace offerings | H8002 → | |
| עָלָ֑י | ʾalai | [are] on me | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| הַ֝יּ֗וֹם | haiyom | this day | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| שִׁלַּ֥מְתִּי | shilamti | I have paid | H7999 → | 116 times |
| נְדָרָֽי׃ | nedarai | vows my | H5088 → | 60 times |
זִבְחֵ֣יsacrifices of
zivcheiH2077 →162 times
שְׁלָמִ֣יםpeace offerings
shelamimH8002 →
עָלָ֑י[are] on me
ʾalaiH5921 →5755 times
הַ֝יּ֗וֹםthis day
haiyomH3117 →2304 times
שִׁלַּ֥מְתִּיI have paid
shilamtiH7999 →116 times
נְדָרָֽי׃vows my
nedaraiH5088 →60 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Proverbs 17:1Better a dry morsel in quietness than a house full of feasting with strife.
it leads to
- Proverbs 15:17
Better a dish of vegetables where there is love than a fattened ox with hatred.
- Psalms 37:16
Better is the little of the righteous than the abundance of many who are wicked.
- Proverbs 21:19
Better to live in the desert than with a contentious and ill-tempered wife.
- Proverbs 21:9
Better to live on a corner of the roof than to share a house with a quarrelsome wife.
- Proverbs 15:17
Through
Proverbs 15:8The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is His delight.
it leads to
- Proverbs 15:29
The LORD is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous.
- 1 Chronicles 29:17
I know, my God, that You test the heart and delight in uprightness. All these things I have given willingly and with an upright heart, and now I have seen Your people who are…
- Proverbs 21:27
The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable—how much more so when brought with ill intent!
- Proverbs 28:9
Whoever turns his ear away from hearing the law, even his prayer is detestable.
- Proverbs 15:29
About Proverbs
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ambrose of Milan, On Cain and Abel; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.