Wisdom safeguards a person morally. The first part of this pericope shows how God protects (vv. 10-11; cf. vv. 7b-8). The last part presents the temptations one can overcome (vv. 12-15 and 16-19). When a person submits himself or herself to God and gains wisdom, the ways of the wicked will lose some of their attractiveness. The wise person will see that the adventuress who promises thrills is offering something she cannot deliver except in the most immediate sensual sense.
The "strange"woman (v. 16) is one "outside the circle of [a man's] proper relations, that is, a harlot or an adulteress."43The word does not necessarily mean that she was a foreigner. Probably she is a stranger to the conventions of Israel's corporate life.44
"If the evil man uses perversewords to snare the unwary [v. 12], the adulteress uses flatteringwords. Someone has said that flattery isn't communication, it is manipulation; it's people telling us things about ourselves that we enjoy hearing and wish were true."45
The "covenant"she has left (v. 17) seems to refer to her own marriage covenant (Mal. 2:14) rather than to the covenant law that prohibited adultery (Exod. 20:14).46The "land"(vv. 21-22) is the Promised Land of Canaan.
This chapter, like the previous one, ends by contrasting the ends of the wicked and the righteous (vv. 21-22; cf. 1:32-33). It is a long poem that appeals for wisdom and then identifies the benefits of following wisdom.
Chapter 2 emphasizes moral stability as a fruit of wisdom, and chapter 3 stresses serenity. As chapter 2, chapter 3 also has three sections.
