Text -- Proverbs 7:1-17 (NET)

Admonition to Avoid the Wiles of the Adulteress

7:1 My child, keep my words and treasure up my commands in your own keeping. 7:2 Keep my commands so that you may live, and obey my instruction as your most prized possession. 7:3 Bind them on your forearm; write them on the tablet of your heart. 7:4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call understanding a close relative, 7:5 so that they may keep you from the adulterous woman, from the loose woman who flatters you with her words. 7:6 For at the window of my house through my window lattice I looked out 7:7 and I saw among the naive– I discerned among the youths– a young man who lacked wisdom. 7:8 He was passing by the street near her corner, making his way along the road to her house 7:9 in the twilight, the evening, in the dark of the night. 7:10 Suddenly a woman came out to meet him! She was dressed like a prostitute and with secret intent. 7:11 (She is loud and rebellious, she does not remain at home– 7:12 at one time outside, at another in the wide plazas, and by every corner she lies in wait.) 7:13 So she grabbed him and kissed him, and with a bold expression she said to him, 7:14 “I have fresh meat at home; today I have fulfilled my vows! 7:15 That is why I came out to meet you, to look for you, and I found you! 7:16 I have spread my bed with elegant coverings, with richly colored fabric from Egypt. 7:17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Pro 7:1

¹ sn The chapter begins with the important teaching of the father (1-5), then it focuses on the seduction: first of the victim (6-9), then the temptress (10-12), then the seduction (13-20), and the capitulation (21-23); the chapter concludes with the deadly results of consorting (24-27).

² tn Heb “my son.”

³ tn Heb “within you” (so NASB, NIV); KJV, ASV, NRSV “with you.” BDB 860 s.v. צָפַן Qal.1 suggests that “within you” means “in your own keeping.”

NET Notes: Pro 7:2

¹ tc Before v. 2 the LXX inserts: “My son, fear the Lord and you will be strong, and besides him, fear no other.” Although this addition has the precedent of 3:7 and 9 and harmonizes with 14:26, it does not fit here; the advice is to listen to the teacher.

² tn The construction of an imperative with the vav (ו) of sequence after another imperative denotes a logical sequence of purpose or result: “that you may live,” or “and you will live.”

³ tn The term “obey” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the parallelism; it is supplied for the sake of clarity and smoothness. Some English versions, in light of the second line of v. 1, supply “guard” (e.g., NIV, NCV, NLT).

⁴ tn Heb “the little man in your eye.” Traditionally this Hebrew idiom is translated into English as “the apple of your eye” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); a more contemporary rendering would be “as your most prized possession.” The word for “man” has the diminutive ending on it. It refers to the pupil, where the object focused on – a man – is reflected in miniature. The point is that the teaching must be the central focus of the disciple’s vision and attention.

NET Notes: Pro 7:3

¹ tn Heb “fingers” (so KJV and many other English versions). In light of Deut 6:8, “fingers” appears to be a metonymy for the lower part of the arm.

² sn This is an allusion to Deut 6:8. Binding the teachings on the fingers and writing them on the tablets here are implied comparisons for preserving the teaching in memory so that it can be recalled and used with ease.

NET Notes: Pro 7:4

¹ sn The metaphor is meant to signify that the disciple will be closely related to and familiar with wisdom and understanding, as close as to a sibling. Wisdom will be personified in the next two chapters, and so referring to it as a sister in this chapter certainly prepares for that personification.

NET Notes: Pro 7:5

¹ tn The infinitive construct with the preposition shows the purpose of associating closely with wisdom: Wisdom will obviate temptations, the greatest being the sexual urge.

² tn Heb “strange” (so KJV, ASV).

³ tn Heb “strange woman.” This can be interpreted as a “wayward wife” (so NIV) or an “unfaithful wife” (so NCV). As discussed earlier, the designations “strange woman” and “foreign woman” could refer to Israelites who stood outside the community in their lawlessness and loose morals – an adulteress or wayward woman. H. Ringgren and W. Zimmerli, however, suggest that she is also a promoter of a pagan cult, but that is not entirely convincing (Spruche/Prediger [ATD], 19).

⁴ tn The term “you” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness.

⁵ tn Heb “she makes smooth her words.” This expression means “she flatters with her words.”

NET Notes: Pro 7:7

¹ tn Heb “sons.”

² tn Heb “lad” or “youth.”

³ tn Heb “heart.”

sn This young man who lacked wisdom is one of the simpletons, lacking keen judgment, one void of common sense (cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT) or understanding (cf. KJV, ASV). He is young, inexperienced, featherbrained (so D. Kidner, Proverbs [TOTC], 75).

NET Notes: Pro 7:8

¹ tn The verb צָעַד (tsa’ad) means “to step; to march.” It suggests that the youth was intentionally making his way to her house. The verb is the imperfect tense; it stresses continual action parallel to the active participle that began the verse, but within a context that is past time.

² tn Heb “way of her house.” This expression uses an adverbial accusative of location, telling where he was marching along. The term “house” is the genitive of location, giving the goal.

NET Notes: Pro 7:9

¹ tn Heb “in the evening of the day.”

² tn Heb “in the middle of the night, and dark”; KJV “in the black and dark night”; NRSV “at the time of night and darkness.”

NET Notes: Pro 7:10

¹ tn The particle וְהִנֵּה (vÿhinneh) introduces a dramatic sense of the immediate to the narrative; it has a deictic force, “and look! – there was a woman,” or “all of a sudden this woman….”

² tn Heb “with the garment of a prostitute.” The noun שִׁית (shith, “garment”) is an adverbial accusative specifying the appearance of the woman. The words “she was” are supplied in the translation to make a complete English sentence.

³ tn Heb “kept secret of heart”; cf. ASV, NRSV “wily of heart.” The verbal form is the passive participle from נָצַר (natsar) in construct. C. H. Toy lists the suggestions of the commentators: false, malicious, secret, subtle, excited, hypocritical (Proverbs [ICC], 149). The LXX has “causes the hearts of the young men to fly away.” The verb means “to guard; to watch; to keep”; to be guarded of heart means to be wily, to have secret intent – she has locked up her plans and gives nothing away (e.g., Isaiah 48:6 as well). Interestingly enough, this contrasts with her attire which gives everything away.

NET Notes: Pro 7:11

¹ tn Heb “her feet.” This is a synecdoche, a part for the whole; the point is that she never stays home, but is out and about all the time.

² tn Heb “dwell” or “settle”; NAB “her feet cannot rest.”

NET Notes: Pro 7:12

¹ tn The repetition of the noun “time, step,” usually translated “now, this time,” signifies here “at one time…at another time” (BDB 822 s.v. פַּעַם 3.e).

NET Notes: Pro 7:13

¹ tn Heb “she makes bold her face.” The Hiphil perfect of עָזַז (’azar, “to be strong”) means she has an impudent face (cf. KJV, NAB, NRSV), a bold or brazen expression (cf. NASB, NIV, NLT).

NET Notes: Pro 7:14

¹ tn Heb “with me.”

² tn Heb “I have peace offerings.” The peace offerings refer to the meat left over from the votive offering made at the sanctuary (e.g., Lev 7:11-21). Apparently the sacrificial worship meant as little to this woman spiritually as does Christmas to modern hypocrites who follow in her pattern. By expressing that she has peace offerings, she could be saying nothing more than that she has fresh meat for a meal at home, or that she was ceremonially clean, perhaps after her period. At any rate, it is all probably a ruse for winning a customer.

NET Notes: Pro 7:15

¹ tn Heb “to look diligently for your face.”

NET Notes: Pro 7:16

¹ tn Heb “with spreads.” The sentence begins with the cognate accusative: “with spreads I have spread my bed.” The construction enhances the idea – she has covered her bed.

² tn The feminine noun means “dark-hued stuffs” (BDB 310 s.v. חֲטֻבוֹת). The form is a passive participle from a supposed root II חָטַב (khatav), which in Arabic means to be of a turbid, dusky color mixed with yellowish red. Its Aramaic cognate means “variegated”; cf. NAB “with brocaded cloths of Egyptian linen.” BDB’s translation of this colon is unsatifactory: “with dark hued stuffs of yarn from Egypt.”