Proverbs 7:25-27

7:25 Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways –

do not wander into her pathways;

7:26 for she has brought down many fatally wounded,

and all those she has slain are many.

7:27 Her house is the way to the grave,

going down to the chambers of death.


tn Heb “she has caused to fall.”

tn Heb “numerous” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT) or “countless.”

tn The noun “Sheol” in parallelism to “the chambers of death” probably means the grave. The noun is a genitive of location, indicating the goal of the road(s). Her house is not the grave; it is, however, the sure way to it.

tn The Qal active participle modifies “ways” to Sheol. The “road,” as it were, descends to the place of death.

tn “Chambers” is a hypocatastasis, comparing the place of death or the grave with a bedroom in the house. It plays on the subtlety of the temptation. Cf. NLT “Her bedroom is the den of death.”