Proverbs 7

My son, keep my words, and store up my commands inside you.

1My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.

Note"My son" is the standard opening of ancient instruction literature, in Israel and in Egypt and Mesopotamia before it. A teacher addressed his pupil as a son, so the phrase need not mean a literal father speaking to his own child. Chapters 1–9 of Proverbs are built as a series of these speeches.

2Keep my commands and you will live. Guard my teaching as carefully as you guard your own eyes.

2Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.

Note"The apple of thine eye" translates a Hebrew phrase meaning the pupil of the eye, literally "the little man of the eye," from the tiny reflection you see of yourself in someone else's pupil. It stands for something both precious and easily damaged, which you shield instinctively. "Apple" here is the old English word for the pupil and has nothing to do with fruit.

3Tie them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your heart.

3Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.

NoteTying words on the fingers refers to the practice of wearing a written text on the body as a reminder you cannot put down. The "table" (tablet) is a writing surface of stone, clay or wax, the ordinary place a permanent record was kept. In Hebrew, the heart is not the seat of feeling but of thought, memory and decision; "write them on your heart" means fix them in your mind and your will.

4Say to wisdom, "You are my sister," and call understanding your close relative.

4Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman:

NoteCalling wisdom "my sister" claims her as family. Kin were bound to protect one another, so the image is of a relative who will stand between you and harm. "Sister" was also a common term of endearment for a beloved woman in the love poetry of the region, which sets up the contrast with the woman in the rest of the chapter.

5Then they will keep you away from another man's wife, away from the stranger whose words are smooth and flattering.

5That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.

NoteThe KJV's "strange woman" and "stranger" do not mean an odd woman or a foreigner passing through. The two Hebrew words describe a woman who is outside the bounds, outside your own marriage and household. Verse 19 makes plain that she has a husband, so what is being described is adultery, an offense that carried the death penalty in Israelite law.

6One day I stood at the window of my house and looked out through the wooden lattice,

6For at the window of my house I looked through my casement,

NoteA "casement" is a lattice: a screen of crossed wooden strips set in a window opening, since windows had no glass. It let air and light through and let someone inside watch the street while staying unseen from below.

7and among the young men who had no experience I noticed one in particular, a young man with no sense at all.

7And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding,

Note"The simple ones" translates a Hebrew word for the untaught and inexperienced rather than the stupid. The word describes someone whose mind is still wide open and who has not yet learned to tell a good argument from a bad one, exactly the person this book says it is written for.

8He was crossing the street near her corner, and he took the road that led to her house,

8Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house,

9in the twilight, as evening came on, in the black dark of the night.

9In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night:

10And there was a woman coming out to meet him. She was dressed like a prostitute, and her heart was full of tricks.

10And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.

NoteClothing marked out a prostitute in the ancient world, though the text does not say what the marks were. "Subtil of heart" renders a Hebrew phrase meaning guarded or hidden of heart: her intentions are kept out of sight. "Subtil" in 1611 English meant crafty, not delicate.

11She is loud and she will not be told what to do. Her feet never stay at home.

11(She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:

Note"Loud and stubborn" describes a woman who is boisterous in public and refuses to be governed. The remark that her feet do not stay at home would have carried weight in a society where a respectable married woman's sphere of activity was the household; a wife regularly out in the streets at night was, by that standard, already outside her place.

12One moment she is outdoors, the next she is in the streets, and she waits at every corner for someone to pass.

12Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.)

Note"Without" in 1611 English means outdoors, outside the house. The streets and the open squares were the public spaces of a walled town, and corners were where roads met and people had to pass.

13So she grabbed hold of him and kissed him, and with a bold face, showing no shame, she said to him:

13So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him,

14"I had fellowship offerings to make, and today I paid what I promised.

14I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows.

NoteA peace offering (also called a fellowship offering) was a sacrifice in which only part of the animal was burned; the worshiper took the bulk of the meat home and had to eat it within a day or two. So her words announce that there is fresh roast meat waiting at her house, a feast, since meat was rare in an ordinary diet. "I have paid my vows" means she had promised God a sacrifice in return for something and has now made good on the promise. She is invoking a religious duty properly discharged, and using it as the invitation.

15So I came out to meet you. I looked everywhere for your face, and now I have found you.

15Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.

16I have made up my bed with tapestry covers, with cloth of many colors, with fine linen from Egypt.

16I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.

NoteImported Egyptian linen was a luxury good, the finest cloth available. The Hebrew word the KJV renders "carved works" is uncertain; it most likely refers to colored or striped material, though some read it as a kind of woven or embroidered pattern.

17I have sprinkled my bed with perfume: myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

17I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

NoteMyrrh and aloes are aromatic resins from trees, and cinnamon is a bark; all three had to be carried in by caravan from Arabia, east Africa or further east. They were among the most expensive substances a household could buy, normally used in small amounts. Sprinkling them over bedding is deliberate extravagance.

18Come, let us drink our fill of love until morning. Let us enjoy each other all night.

18Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.

19The man of the house is not home. He has gone on a long trip.

19For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:

Note"Goodman" is 1611 English for the master of a household, here, her husband. In the Hebrew she does not say "my husband" but simply "the man," a coolly distancing way to refer to him.

20He took a bag of money with him, and he will not come home until the day he has set."

20He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed.

NoteMoney was weighed metal rather than coin at this period, carried in a pouch; taking the bag means he has funds for a long absence and no reason to turn back early. The Hebrew for "the day appointed" most likely means the full moon, that is, a fixed date some weeks off: she is telling the young man exactly how much time they have.

21With all her smooth talk she wore him down. With her flattering lips she pushed him into going.

21With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.

Note"She forced him" translates a Hebrew verb meaning to drive or push along, as one drives an animal. It describes the pressure of persuasion wearing down his resistance, not physical compulsion; the point of the chapter is that he goes willingly.

22He went after her right away, like an ox walking to the butcher, or like a fool marched off to be locked in wooden stocks and punished,

22He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks;

NoteStocks were a wooden frame that clamped the feet or neck, holding an offender fast in public while he was beaten. The Hebrew of this line is damaged and disputed: the traditional text yields something like "as a fetter to the discipline of a fool," while the ancient Greek and Syriac translations read it as "like a stag bounding into a noose," which fits the animal images on either side. Modern translations differ for this reason.

23until an arrow goes through his liver. He is like a bird rushing into a trap, not knowing that it will cost him his life.

23Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.

NoteThe liver was regarded as a vital organ and, in the ancient Near East, as a seat of life and strong feeling. An arrow through it is a killing wound, not a wounding one, the man is already dead and does not know it.

24So listen to me now, my sons, and pay attention to the words I speak.

24Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth.

25Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways. Do not wander off onto her paths.

25Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths.

26She has brought down many victims. The men she has killed are a large crowd.

26For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her.

NoteThe language is that of a battlefield report: she has laid low a great number of casualties, and her slain are a mighty host. The picture is of a single victor and a field of bodies.

27Her house is the road to the place of the dead, going down to the rooms of death.

27Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.

Note"Hell" here translates Sheol, the Hebrew name for the underworld where all the dead were thought to go, good and bad alike. It is the realm of the grave, not the place of punishment that the English word "hell" came to mean centuries later. "Chambers" are the inner rooms of a house, the image deliberately turns her house into the house of the dead.