1 My son, keep my words, And treasure my commands within you. 2 Keep my commands and live, And my law as the apple of your eye. 3 Bind them on your fingers; Write them on the tablet of your heart. 4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” And call understanding your nearest kin, 5 That they may keep you from the immoral woman, From the seductress who flatters with her words. 6 For at the window of my house I looked through my lattice, 7 And saw among the simple, I perceived among the youths, A young man devoid of understanding, 8 Passing along the street near her corner; And he took the path to her house 9 In the twilight, in the evening, In the black and dark night. 10 And there a woman met him, With the attire of a harlot, and a crafty heart. 11 She was loud and rebellious, Her feet would not stay at home. 12 At times she was outside, at times in the open square, Lurking at every corner. 13 So she caught him and kissed him; With an impudent face she said to him: 14 “I have peace offerings with me; Today I have paid my vows. 15 So I came out to meet you, Diligently to seek your face, And I have found you. 16 I have spread my bed with tapestry, Colored coverings of Egyptian linen. 17 I have perfumed my bed With myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. 18 Come, let us take our fill of love until morning; Let us delight ourselves with love. 19 For my husband is not at home; He has gone on a long journey; 20 He has taken a bag of money with him, And will come home on the appointed day.” 21 With her enticing speech she caused him to yield, With her flattering lips she seduced him. 22 Immediately he went after her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, Or as a fool to the correction of the stocks, 23 Till an arrow struck his liver. As a bird hastens to the snare, He did not know it would cost his life. 24 Now therefore, listen to me, my children; Pay attention to the words of my mouth: 25 Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways, Do not stray into her paths; 26 For she has cast down many wounded, And all who were slain by her were strong men. 27 Her house is the way to hell, Descending to the chambers of death.
Commentary
Vs. 1-5 1 My son, keep my words, And treasure my commands within you. 2 Keep my commands and live, And my law as the apple of your eye. 3 Bind them on your fingers; Write them on the tablet of your heart. 4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” And call understanding your nearest kin, 5 That they may keep you from the immoral woman, From the seductress who flatters with her words.
Solomon continues his exhortation to his sons to keep his words and treasure his commands, and so through him we have an appeal from God in heaven appealing to all men to do the same, to keep His law as the apple of our eye (vs. 2), that is we are to keep it as our principal desire and focus, to bind them on our fingers, so that we have His Word always close at hand, and to write His commandments on the tablet of our heart, where they cannot be lost or be taken away by anyone (vs. 3). For just as the Ten Commandments were written on two tablets of stone by the finger of God so should we write His Word and its truths on our own hearts. In other words, memorize the Scriptures, verses, passages, proverbs etc., whenever His Word speaks to you commit it to your memory, or at the very least keep the intent or command of it in your heart, so that it will keep and guide you in your life. For by doing so you will be embracing wisdom as your beloved sister and calling understanding your nearest kin (vs. 4). For again Solomon knowing the vulnerabilities and naivety and susceptibility of young men to the immoral woman, to the seductress who flatters men with her words, he does not ant to see his sons, nor does God want to see us as His sons fall victim to her, and ruin our own lives, witness and faith as well.
Vs. 6-20 6 For at the window of my house I looked through my lattice, 7 And saw among the simple, I perceived among the youths, A young man devoid of understanding, 8 Passing along the street near her corner; And he took the path to her house 9 In the twilight, in the evening, In the black and dark night. 10 And there a woman met him, With the attire of a harlot, and a crafty heart. 11 She was loud and rebellious, Her feet would not stay at home. 12 At times she was outside, at times in the open square, Lurking at every corner. 13 So she caught him and kissed him; With an impudent face she said to him: 14 “I have peace offerings with me; Today I have paid my vows. 15 So I came out to meet you, Diligently to seek your face, And I have found you. 16 I have spread my bed with tapestry, Colored coverings of Egyptian linen. 17 I have perfumed my bed With myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. 18 Come, let us take our fill of love until morning; Let us delight ourselves with love. 19 For my husband is not at home; He has gone on a long journey; 20 He has taken a bag of money with him, And will come home on the appointed day.”
Therefore, Solomon in making this appeal now recalls a pitiful sight that he himself had observed. And so, he begins by telling how he looked out his window and there he saw amongst the simple and perceived amongst the youths, a man he perceived as one who was devoid of understanding. For as he watched, he saw this young man slyly taking the pathway to a known immoral woman’s house (vs. 6-8). Now he was doing this in the twilight in the evening night when it is black and dark for the light is dim and streets are vacant and people cannot readily observe one another (vs. 9). And so this was not a first encounter with her for him, but he was following a well established pattern, foolishly thinking that no one knew what he was doing, when Solomon could clearly see and understand what he was doing, how much more than does God see and understand when foolish men likewise deceive themselves and follow the same path to their own ruin. And so, it was there met him on the street a woman, dressed with the attire of a harlot, who had a crafty heart, indicating that she knew how to lure men (vs. 10).
Solomon then in describing her person and nature says that, “she was loud and rebellious, and her feet would not stay at home” (vs. 11). Thus, she is a boisterous and brazen woman who is unashamed of her words and her deeds, and so she will not receive instruction or correction from anyone. For she rejects a life of responsibility and civility, and instead chooses to live as a Godless and brazen seductress. Therefore, she boldly does whatever pleases her without regard for anyone but herself. Indeed, she is always somewhere, but never at home with her children rearing them, or managing the household while her husband works, or working at something honestly herself. No that’s to “mundane and boring” for her, instead she leaves her responsibilities, and worse her children to fend for themselves, while she herself “runs the streets”, looking for another illicit “lover”, as Solomon says, “At times she was outside, at times in the open square, Lurking at every corner.” Vs. 12 And so, in verses thirteen to twenty Solomon gives us a clear picture of how she seduces the man who himself went out to meet her, saying when she met him at their appointed rendezvous, that she caught him (told hold of him) and kissed him, and with an impudent face she said to him, 14 “I have peace offerings with me; Today I have paid my vows. 15 So I came out to meet you, Diligently to seek your face, And I have found you.” Vs. 14-15
And so first she makes him feel like he is all her desire, like he is so “loved” and desired by her. Then she seductively mentions that she has peace offerings with her, that she has paid her vows to God, which means she has both the means and the money so that they can now partake of a grand feast themselves before their night of “love.” Now peace offerings were to be a gift to God which the giver was to freely give to Him and then eat of the sacrifice after it had been offered. Obviously then she has no interest in honoring God with them, or with her vowed offering, instead they are just become another means by which she can seduce him. Consider then that seductresses' are not just in the world, but sadly they also seek out and find their victims in houses of worship. She continues on by seductively saying to him that she has spread her bed with tapestry, with “Colored coverings of Egyptian linen. 17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.” (vs. 16-17). How enticing it all seems to him. Having then set the hook, she now brazenly says to him, “Come, let us take our fill of love until morning; Let us delight ourselves with love. 19 For my husband is not at home; He has gone on a long journey; 20 He has taken a bag of money with him, And will come home on the appointed day.” Vs. 18-20 And so her last move is to promise him a night of grand indulgence and sexual pleasure without any consequences to them, for her husband has gone away, and he will not come home until the appointed day, and so he will ever know she tells him. But God will!
Vs. 21-23 21 With her enticing speech she caused him to yield, With her flattering lips she seduced him. 22 Immediately he went after her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, Or as a fool to the correction of the stocks, 23 Till an arrow struck his liver. As a bird hastens to the snare, He did not know it would cost his life.
This then is the Scriptures sad commentary on that man, and every man who avails himself to her, saying that through her enticing speech she seduced him into her defiled bed of sin, and though the commentary is only on that, how many men have also been induced by her into doing all kinds of illegal or even violent or murderous deeds for her? That said he had a choice, and instead of rejecting her, and her lying overtures, he immediately went after her, just as the mindless ox goes to the slaughter, big and strong and confident in itself, before it too is taken down by its executioner. And so, such a man is also likened to the fool who goes to the correction of the stocks; that is the medieval device by which a man was bowed forward with his head and hands locked into it, which was a very painful and public humiliation is the point. “Till an arrow struck his liver” is again a very painful injury (as any blow to the liver is), and in this case with a lethal end. Finally, the Scripture says, “As a bird hastens to the snare, (not seeing the trap laid before it) so, he did not know it would cost his life!”
And so once again we are strongly exhorted to listen to God’s warnings and counsel given to us in His Word through His servant King Solomon, and not to go near her (vs. 24-25). “For she has cast down many wounded, And all who were slain by her were strong men. 27 Her house is the way to hell, Descending to the chambers of death.” Think about those last words then before you ever entertain thoughts about her, because an eternity in hell is not worth a few fleeting moments of pleasure with her (Mark 9:42-48).
Scripture Quotations
New King James (1982):Thomas Nelson.
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