Wisdom · Chapter 7 of 31
Proverbs 7
The father again warns his son against the adulteress, urging him to keep wisdom as close as a sister. Then, watching from his window, he tells a vivid story: a young man void of understanding drifts toward her house at nightfall and is caught by her flattering, scented words. He follows like an ox to slaughter. Her house, Solomon warns, is the way to death.
What happens in Proverbs 7
Solomon presses his son to keep his commandments as the apple of his eye, to bind them on his fingers and write them on his heart, and to call wisdom his sister, so that she may keep him from the flattering stranger. Then the father narrates a scene he witnessed through his casement. Among the simple he spots a young man void of understanding passing near the corner of the strange woman's street in the twilight. A woman with the attire of a harlot and subtle of heart meets him, catches and kisses him, and speaks: she has peace offerings, a decked and perfumed bed, and a husband away on a long journey.
With much fair speech she makes him yield. He goes after her straightway, like an ox to the slaughter, until a dart strikes his liver. The father closes with the warning that her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.
Proverbs 7 in context
Chapter 7 belongs to the fatherly lectures of Proverbs 1 through 9 and forms the fullest of several warnings against the adulteress. Its power lies in its narrative technique: the teacher becomes an eyewitness, watching folly unfold step by step.
In its ancient setting the scene warns literally against sexual betrayal, while the whole section also uses the strange woman as an image of every seductive path away from wisdom and life.
Main themes of Proverbs 7
Proverbs 7 (KJV)
1My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee. 2Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye. 3Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart. 4Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman: 5That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words. 6For at the window of my house I looked through my casement, 7And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding, 8Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house, 9In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night: 10And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart. 11(She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house: 12Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.) 13So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him, 14I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows. 15Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee. 16I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt. 17I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. 18Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves. 19For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey: 20He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed. 21With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him. 22He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks; 23Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life. 24Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth. 25Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths. 26For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her. 27Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.
Verses to carry from Proverbs 7
“Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.”Proverbs 7:2
“And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.”Proverbs 7:10
“Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.”Proverbs 7:27
Thematic connection
How Proverbs 7 points to Jesus
The connection is thematic. The chapter's cure for seduction is to bind God's words on the heart and treasure wisdom as one's own kin (Proverbs 7:3); the New Testament reveals that wisdom, finally, is a person to be received and loved. The young man perishes because he does not know the true cost of his path; Jesus comes as the light that exposes the deeds of darkness and calls sinners out of the shadows before the dart strikes.
Where the adulteress offers a counterfeit feast that ends in death, Christ offers his own body and blood, a table that gives life. To keep his word in the heart is to be guarded from the flatterer, for greater is he that is in us. He turns the ox destined for slaughter into a son led home.
Questions about Proverbs 7
Why does the teacher tell this as a story he watched?
Narrative makes folly concrete. Instead of an abstract rule, we see a real young man, a real corner, a real dusk, and a step-by-step descent. The story slows down what happens fast in life, letting the listener feel the pull and the peril before ever facing them himself in the moment of temptation.
What made the young man vulnerable?
He is called void of understanding and simple. He wanders near her corner with no purpose or guard, at the very hour and place of danger. His problem is not only the temptation outside but the emptiness within. Wisdom kept in the heart, Solomon says, is what fills and protects that space against folly.
Reflection
Notice where your feet drift when you have no purpose. Folly often finds us idle, near its corner, at its hour. Which of God's words could you bind on your heart today so that when flattery comes you are already held by something truer? Keep wisdom close as a sister.
A prayer from Proverbs 7
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