Bible Commentaries

Proverbs 7:1-27. The longest and most elaborate description of the adulteress, the fate of her victim, and the value of wisdom as a safeguard.

Proverbs 7:1-5. General advice to the young man to observe the commandments and the torah of the sage, that he may be preserved from the adulteress.

Proverbs 7:3 b. cf. 2 Corinthians 3:3, and for the opposite thought Jeremiah 17:1.

Proverbs 7:4. kinswoman: lit. "one well known," "familiar friend," only in Ruth 2:1; Ruth 3:2 besides.

Proverbs 7:6-23. A vivid and dramatic representation of the capture of a young and foolish man by an adulteress.

Proverbs 7:6-9. The sage, looking through his lattice in the evening, sees a young man approach the corner where the adulteress lives. The LXX makes her look out of her window in search of prey, a more vivid reading than that of MT, and not necessarily incompatible with the next picture, in Proverbs 7:10, of her eager rush to meet him.

Proverbs 7:10-12. Description of the adulteress, her restlessness and boisterous heartiness of manner. The harlot or temple prostitute could probably be easily distinguished by her style of dress and manner, even if she did not wear a distinctive garment, or veil, as in Genesis 38:15 (cf. Ca. Proverbs 5:7).

Proverbs 7:13-20. Description of the adulteress's greeting and allurements.

Proverbs 7:13 b. i.e. "with brazen face" (cf. mg.).

Proverbs 7:14. Read mg. The shelmim, peace- or thank-offerings (p. 98, Leviticus 3*, Leviticus 7:11-34*), were probably common to the other Semitic cults; they are mentioned in the Marseilles temple tariff, c. fourth century B.C. Hence the woman need not be an Israelite. Vows (p. 105, Leviticus 7:16 f.*, Numbers 30) of course are frequently mentioned in the N. Semitic inscriptions.

Proverbs 7:15. carpets of tapestry: render "coverlets" (Proverbs 31:22).—striped cloths: perhaps correct. Some kind of covering is intended.

Proverbs 7:20. full moon: only here and Psalms 81:3. The husband's absence will extend from the beginning of the month (Proverbs 7:9 may indicate the absence of the moon) until the mid-month feast of full moon (p. 101).

Proverbs 7:22 c. The text is plainly corrupt (mg.). Toy's emendation, "like a calf to the stall," yields a good sense.

Proverbs 7:24-27. The fatal results of yielding to her wiles. The nature of the disaster is not explained, but early death seems to be implied, either by judicial penalty, by the vengeance of the husband, or by the physical decay resulting from excess.

Proverbs 7:27. chambers of death: may be a poetical synonym for Sheol, but if the section be late, it may imply divisions in the underworld (cf. "the treasuries" in 2 Esdras 7:32, where the same Gr. word is used as in the LXX of this verse).