Deeper Commentary
Pro 7:1 My son, keep my words. Lay up my commandments within you-
Proverbs contains a number of Samson allusions (16:32; 25:28). But the
most powerful are in 7:1,5,22,25-27, where the young Israelite is commended
to God's word, because this will keep him from falling to the wiles of the
Gentile woman, who throws down strong men into the way of miserable death.
Solomon evidently writes with allusion to Samson; that here was the man who
loved God's word, and yet went so astray with women. And tragically enough,
Solomon himself did just the same! He realized and lamented the tragedy of
Samson, as a lover of the word who fell for the Gentile woman; and then,
with all his wisdom, he did the very same thing! Here, for all to see, is
the crucial difference between knowledge and faith.
Solomon seems to allude to David hiding God's word in his heart (Ps. 119:11) by asking his son to hide his word in his heart (s.w. Prov. 2:1; 7:1). Again Solomon is putting his own words in the place of God's words. Whilst his wisdom was inspired by God, I detect something wrong here. He is effectively playing God, and not directing people to God's word but rather to his own words, true and inspired as they might be. This came to full term in Solomon's attitude that personal loyalty to himself was loyalty to God- even when Solomon was far from God in his ways. And the same trap is fallen into by those who hold parts of 'God's truth'; they can come to thereby play God and demand personal loyalty to themselves rather than to God.
Solomon's prophetic sonship of David was conditional upon him preserving or observing Yahweh's ways (1 Kings 2:4; 1 Chron. 22:13; 2 Chron. 7:17); but he didn't preserve of observe them (1 Kings 11:10,11); despite David praying that Solomon would be given a heart to observe them (1 Chron. 29:19). We can pray for God to work upon the hearts of others, but He will not force people against their own deepest will and heart position. Solomon stresses overmuch how God would keep or preserve the righteous (Prov. 2:8; 3:26), without recognizing the conditional aspect of this. Why did Solomon go wrong? His Proverbs are true enough, but he stresses that obedience to his wisdom and teaching would preserve his hearers (Prov. 4:4; 6:22; 7:1; 8:32; 15:5), preservation was through following the example of the wise (Prov. 2:20); rather than stressing obedience to God's ways, and replacing David his father's simple love of God with a love of academic wisdom: "Yahweh preserves all those who love Him" (Ps. 145:20).
Pro 7:2 Keep my commandments and live! Guard my teaching as the apple of
your eye-
David so often talks about God's "law", using the word
torah. But Solomon so often speaks of his own torah, and
that of his wife, the mother of "my son" (s.w. Prov. 1:8; 3:1; 4:2; 6:20;
7:2; 13:14; 31:26). Yet elsewhere in the Bible, the well over 200
occurrences of torah are always about God's law. Solomon
applies the word to his own teachings and that of his wife, and thereby
plays God. whilst it could be argued that Solomon's teachings were
Divinely inspired, all the same he ought surely to have spoken of them as
God's torah rather than his own torah. This kind of
playing God is seen so often in the teachers of God's people.
David had taught his children with the words: “Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord” (Ps. 34:11- did David say this to his children every evening?). And Solomon uses just the same words, even whilst disobeying God’s law at the same time in his own life. He repeats these very words of David when teaching his own son: “My son, keep [retain] my words… keep my commandments and live” (Prov. 7:1,2). The idea of keeping commandments in order to live is a reference back to the many Deuteronomy passages where Moses pleads with Israel to keep God’s commands and live. But Solomon came to perceive his father David’s commands as those of God, and in his generation he watered this down in his own mind until he assumed that his commands to his children were to be treated by them as the law of God- no matter how far he had strayed himself from God’s law. It’s a gripping, frightening psychology.
Pro 7:3 Bind them on your fingers, write them on the tablet of your heart-
Often in Proverbs Solomon uses the language of the blessings for
keeping God’s law and turns them into the blessings for keeping his
law; e.g. “My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with
thee. Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine
eye. Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart”
(Prov. 7:1-3 AV). And we all do the same in essence, whenever we assume
that our consciences are effectively the will of God; when we ‘play God’
by allowing our words and will to count as if they are His word.
The idea is that devotion to the covenant should be externally visible as well as in the heart. But the New Testament emphasizes that it is God who writes upon the table of the human heart by His Spirit (2 Cor. 3:3). Solomon assumes that by intellectual effort, man can do this to himself. There could be the implication that Solomon considered that his Proverbs had now replaced the tables of the covenant; the same word is used. See on Prov. 3:1,2.
Pro 7:4 Tell wisdom, You are my sister. Call understanding your relative-
"Relative" translates a Hebrew word which occurs only in Ruth 2:1
about a relative who has the power to redeem. Solomon misses the point
that redemption is by grace through faith, as explained on Prov. 6:35. He
thinks that the mere possession of intellectual truth, what he terms
"wisdom", will be enough to redeem a person. This attitude to Divine truth
led him to personal spiritual disaster, as it has so many.
Pro 7:5 that they may keep you from the strange woman, from the foreigner
who flatters with her words-
The blindness of Solomon is driven home time and again; he knew
Divine truth, but the more he knew it, the more he lived the very
opposite, failing to grasp the deeply personal relevance of truth to
himself. A whole string of passages in Proverbs warn of the "strange"
woman (Prov. 2:16; 5:20; 6:24; 7:5; 20:16; 23:27; 27:13). Yet the very same
word (translated "outlandish", AV) is used in Neh. 13:26 concerning
the women Solomon married. The antidote to succumbing to the wicked woman
was to have wisdom- according to Proverbs. And Solomon apparently had
wisdom. Yet he succumbed to the wicked woman. He was writing Song of
Solomon at the same time as Proverbs. The reason for this must be that
Solomon didn't really have wisdom. Yet we know that he was given it in
abundance. The resolution of this seems to be that Solomon asked for
wisdom in order to lead Israel rather than for himself, he used
that wisdom to judge Israel and to educate the surrounding nations. But
none of it percolated to himself. As custodians of true doctrine- for
that is what we are- we are likely to suffer from over familiarity with
it. We can become so accustomed to 'handling' it, as we strengthen each
other, as we preach, that the personal bearing of the Truth becomes
totally lost upon us, as it was totally lost upon Solomon.
Solomon here argues as if mere intellectual assent to the truths he was teaching would keep a man safe from sexual temptation. But Solomon himself possessed all this truth and failed miserably in this area (see on :21).
Pro 7:6 For at the window of my house I looked out through my lattice-
Solomon here claims that he had come to his conclusions by his
observations, although one wonders if he is speaking literal truth about
the incident he claims to be reporting. It is perhaps significant that he doesn't claim
this to be part of the package of Divine wisdom given to him; rather he
says he worked this out from his own observations. He does the same in
Prov. 24:30-32, where his conclusions [see notes there] were not correct.
We may conclude that in this anthology he is mixing Divine wisdom with his
own pet issues.
Solomon in Prov. 7:6 likens himself to a wise man looking out through his lattice window and noticing a man going astray with a woman. But the precise figure is used in Song 2:9 for how his illicit, paganic Gentile girlfriend found his doing this to be so attractive, if not somehow erotic. The connection shows how totally confused Solomon was in his personal spirituality.
Pro 7:7 I saw among the simple ones. I discerned among the youths a young
man void of understanding-
This singles out a particular "young man" [s.w. "child"] who was
lacking in "heart", whose folly stood out from that of the other "simple
ones". These may well refer to the 200 'simple ones' who went with Absalom
in his rebellion against David (2 Sam. 15:11). One of them was
particularly singled out here by Solomon as being foolish. And it's no
accident that David calls Absalom "the young man [s.w. "child"] Absalom"
(2 Sam. 14:21; 18:5,12,29,32). "Young man" was perhaps David's term of
endearment for Absalom. The same "young man" [s.w. "child"] may be in view
also in Prov. 22:15- see notes there.
Pro 7:8 passing through the street near her corner, he went the way to her
house-
The idea is of furtive movement; and she herself lurked at the
corners (:12). The impression is that he met her on the corner, and they
arranged to meet later at her house that evening.
Pro 7:9 in the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the middle of the
night and in the darkness-
Solomon is therefore claiming that he made these observations
throughout a period of many hours, stretching from evening to midnight
(:6).
Pro 7:10 Behold, there a woman met him with the attire of a prostitute,
and with crafty intent-
AV "subtil of heart". This is a phrase used positively a heart which
keeps to God's word (Ps. 119:69; Prov. 3:1; 4:23; 23:26 etc.). The idea is
being developed that this sinful woman is a parody of the righteous woman
called wisdom.
Pro 7:11 She is loud and defiant. Her feet don’t stay in her house-
Just as the woman wisdom "loudly" proclaims her truths on the
streets. This woman is a conscious parody of the righteous woman. We note
that Solomon considered that the wise woman does stay in her house,
whereas the sinful woman doesn't. This appears to be Solomon's chauvinism
rather than true wisdom. For he then presents the woman wisdom as being
publically on the streets pleading with men to turn in to her wisdom.
Pro 7:12 Now she is in the streets, now in the squares, and lurking at
every corner-
See on :8,11. "Lie in wait" is the word for ambush. Solomon often uses
the word, as if it is for him a major characteristic of sinners (Prov.
1:11,18; 7:12; 12:6; 23:28; 24:15). But it's a rather specific word to use
so often. It's as if Solomon is consciously alluding to his father's
experiences at the hands of the house of Saul (s.w. Ps. 10:9; 59:3), whom
Solomon considered a threat to his own kingship. And so he seems to rather
like using the term about sinners, as if using his wisdom to have a dig at
his immediate opposition.
Pro 7:13 So she caught him, and kissed him. With an impudent face she said
to him-
See on :27. She catches him in parody of how the good woman wisdom
takes hold of righteous men (as in Phil. 3:12). Likewise "impudent" is the
word for 'to strengthen', used in Ecc. 7:19 of how wisdom strengths the
wise.
Pro 7:14 Sacrifices of peace offerings are with me. This day I have paid
my vows-
Her references to her obedience to the Mosaic law are understandable
once we perceive how she is a parody of the wise woman "wisdom" (see on
:11,13,15-17,19,20; Prov. 9:17). Her attraction is because she claims to be obedient
to the requirements of Israel's God. I will note throughout the Song of
Solomon that Solomon likewise sees his idolatrous, Gentile girlfriend as
righteous, presenting her in the terms of Israel; when her heart was far
from it. And this was what finally led the young man Solomon to his
destruction. Again and again, we see Solomon going the way of the foolish
which he laments and points out at such length. He failed to personalize
wisdom, to see the conditional nature of his standing before God, and his
possession of theoretical truth led him to never examine himself.
Pro 7:15 Therefore I came out to meet you, to diligently seek your face,
and I have found you-
This again parodies the way wisdom seeks and finds wise men (s.w.
Prov. 8:17); or rather they seek and find her.
Pro 7:16 I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry, with striped
cloths of the yarn of Egypt-
This woman Solomon warns of appears to want to serve Yahweh, and
presents herself in the very language of the tabernacle (Prov.
7:14,16,17). And yet Solomon goes and falls for just such a woman. One can
only conclude that the more true spiritual knowledge we have, the more
prone we are to do the very opposite. Such is our nature.
Pro 7:17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon-
The Proverbs so frequently refer to the dangers of the house of the
Gentile woman; yet the Song shows the Egyptian girl dearly wishing that
Solomon would come with her into her house. And Solomon, just like the
foolish young man he wrote about, went right ahead down the road to
spiritual disaster he so often warned others about. He warns the young man
of the dangers of the Egyptian woman who perfumes her bed with myrrh
(Prov. 7:16,17)- and then falls for just such a woman (Ps. 45:8).
Pro 7:18 Come, let’s take our fill of loving until the morning. Let’s
solace ourselves with loving-
The whore offers her "love" to the man, whereas Solomon presents the
wise woman wisdom as only loving those who first love her (Prov. 8:17; see
on :15). Again, Solomon has it all wrong. It is not man's search for
intellectual truth about God which is the initial spark in the
Divine-human encounter. The opposite is the case. It is not that we loved
God first, but rather that God first loved us (1 Jn. 4:19).
Pro 7:19 For my husband isn’t at home. He has gone on a long journey-
Verse 11 has described the woman as not staying at home. Solomon's
idea is that the woman who has no husband at home will go out of her home
to look for sex. This could reflect a rather crude chauvinism. Perhaps he
ignored the Biblical warnings that women would turn away his heart from
God because he considered that women had no real power. He built houses
for his wives and made them stay at home. The man who goes away on a long
journey is used by the Lord for the basis of His parables of the man who
goes to a far country (Mt. 21:33; 25:14). This continues the theme
developed in earlier verses, that this woman is a parody of true
spirituality. But there is a twist; see on :20.
Pro 7:20 He has taken a bag of money with him; he will come home at the
full moon-
I suggested on :19 that the Lord in His parables of the man taking a
journey was as it were deconstructing the language here, to confirm that
the woman is a fake believer. In His stories, the man doesn't take his
money with him, but rather gives it to his servants to manage (Mt. 25:14).
The woman gives the impression that her husband has taken money with him
to enjoy himself, perhaps with other women, and again the Lord may have
this in mind in the construction of the parable of the prodigal son who
likewise leaves his home with money. The promise that he will return "at
the full moon" suggests this family is observant of the Mosaic feasts.
Again, the woman gives the impression of spirituality and devotion to the
Mosaic law, externally. See on :14.
Pro 7:21 With persuasive words she led him astray-
"Persuasive words" is the word usually translated doctrine or
teaching, always used about the teaching of wisdom (Prov. 1:5; 4:2; 9:9;
16:21 etc.). Again, the woman is presented as the antithesis of the wise
woman wisdom. They both teach, but the whore's teaching leads astray. This
contrast between such women is found in Revelation, where the whore is the
antithesis of the bride of Christ. "Led him astray" is the very term used
of how Solomon's wives turned his heart astray from God (1 Kings 11:4,9).
The more Solomon knew Divine truth, the more he seems to have considered
himself free to ignore it and in fact do the very opposite. He clearly
thought that mere possession of that truth was the basis for his
justification, and dismissed any idea of self examination or awareness
that he might in fact personally fail in obedience.
With the flattering of her lips, she seduced him-
Solomon in :5 argues as if mere intellectual assent to the truths he
was teaching would keep a man safe from sexual temptation and the flattery
of bad women. But Solomon himself possessed all this truth and failed
miserably in this area. The Hebrew literally refers to the smoothness of
her lips; and Solomon admired the smoothness of the lips of his illicit
Gentile girlfriend (s.w. Song 4:3,11; 7:9). Again we see Solomon doing the
exact opposite of the wisdom and theoretical truth he was blessed with.
Pro 7:22 He followed her immediately, as an ox goes to the slaughter, as a
fool stepping into a noose-
As explained on :21, this is exactly what happened to Solomon. AV "As
a fool to the correction of the stocks". Solomon has so much to say about
"correction" or instruction coming from the possession of wisdom (Prov.
8:10,33; 10:17; 12:1; 13:1,24; 15:5,10,32; 16:22; 19:20,27; 22:15;
23:12,13). But in the end he chastised or corrected his people by whipping
them (s.w. 1 Kings 12:11,14). Solomon initially asked for wisdom in order
to guide his people, but he ended up whipping / physically chastising them
into conformity with his wishes rather than allowing wisdom to correct.
Again, he was playing God; for it is God through His wisdom who chastises,
and not man. But Solomon thought he was effectively God to his people.
This is why Solomon argues that servants cannot be corrected by words
(Prov. 29:19 s.w.), and a child must be physically chastised (s.w. Prov.
19:18; 29:17 cp. Prov. 13:24; 23:13), regardless of his screams of pain.
This kind of thing is a denial of his claims elsewhere that it is Divine
wisdom which chastises / corrects, and such correction is from God and not
man. Solomon's final description of himself as an old and foolish king who
refuses to be admonished says it all (Ecc. 4:13); he admonishes others
(s.w. Ecc. 12:12), but refuses to be admonished or corrected by his own
wisdom. He failed to personalize it.
Pro 7:23 Until an arrow strikes through his liver, as a bird hurries to
the snare, and doesn’t know that it will cost his life-
The language of snares alludes to Solomon's father David, asking to
be saved from such snares (Ps. 141:9) and rejoicing that he and God's
people had been (Ps. 124:7). The initial reference may
have been to Saul laying snares for David through getting him to marry his
daughters and thereby seeking to kill him; and in Ps. 119:110 David is
proud he has not fallen into those snares. Solomon likewise is hinting
that the family of Saul, who were still his political opponents, were not
better than gentile whores, and he didn't want his own family to
intermarry with them. But Psalm 119 finishes with David saying bluntly that
he has "gone astray" (Ps. 119:176), as if to say that earlier he had far overrated his own obedience to God's law.
In Proverbs, Solomon is continually alluding positively to his father's words. But in Ecc. 9:12 he alludes to those words cynically. Solomon seems to be cynically commenting that all men are finally snared in death. Earlier Solomon had warned about avoiding spiritual snares (Prov. 7:23; 22:5), but finally in Ecc. 9:12 he concludes that death is the unavoidable snare; and therefore all attempts to avoid being morally snared into sin are ultimately vain. He came to this perspective because he failed to fully grasp the hope of the resurrection of the body at the last day. He thought he would have the Kingdom now, and this led to his rejection of the Gospel of the Kingdom and its moral implications.
In Ecc. 9:12 he says that he suffered the fate of all
men in that soon he would die, he would suddenly be caught like a
bird in a snare, although he knew not his time. These are the
very ideas of Prov. 7:23 AV concerning the snaring of the
simple young man by the Gentile woman: "As a bird hasteth to the
snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life".
Pro 7:24 Now therefore, sons, listen to me. Pay attention to the words of
my mouth-
If we "attend" to God's word (Prov. 2:2; 4:1; 7:24), then He will
"attend" to our word, of prayer (Ps. 55:2 and often in the Psalms). There
is thereby a mutuality between God and man. Our attitude to His word
becomes reflected in His attitude to our words in prayer; for God and man
are in dialogue.
He spoke of his law as giving life and blessing, appropriating
the very terms of Deuteronomy about the blessings of obedience to
God’s law. Wisdom said: “Now therefore my sons, hearken unto me: for
blessed are they that keep my ways” (Prov. 8:32 RV). Yet these are the
very words Solomon uses when talking to his kids: “Now therefore my sons,
hearken unto me” (Prov. 5:7; 7:24). Conclusion? Solomon sees the woman
“Wisdom” as a personification of himself. It was really
Solomon's self-justification. He personally was wisdom, so he
thought. This is how self-exalted his possession of true wisdom made him.
And of course, his kids didn’t listen to wisdom’s way. In
passing, I have noted that those raised ‘in the truth’ often find it very
hard to take criticism in later life. They find tolerance of others’ views
hard; they perceive themselves to be right to an intolerant extent. Is
this not a little bit of the Solomon syndrome?
Pro 7:25 Don’t let your heart turn to her ways. Don’t go astray in her
paths-
The young man's heart was made to go astray because of her, and her
house led him to death (Prov. 7:27). Miss Egypt caused Solomon's heart
to go astray (1 Kings 11:1-4), he built her a house, and her house became
an idol temple which destroyed Solomon's faith. Yet Solomon warned the
young men of Israel all about this in Prov. 7; and he even pointed out
that such a woman would have all the outward trappings of Yahweh
worship; she would claim an enthusiasm for keeping peace offerings and
vows (Prov. 7:14). Solomon was the young man whose picture he was
painting.
Pro 7:26 for she has thrown down many wounded. Yes, all her slain are a
mighty army-
Solomon had seen many good men destroyed by bad women, a whole army
of them. And yet he went that same way. Knowledge of theoretical truth,
observation of the sad path of others... is all not enough. There must be
a humble personalization of wisdom, which only comes from throwing
ourselves upon God's grace, experiencing that grace, and wanting to
respond to it in a life and thought pattern in conformity to His will and
way. But Solomon hadn't known any of that.
Pro 7:27 Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the rooms of death-
Solomon's wisdom was given to him as a young man, and the book of Proverbs
appears to be collections of the various statements of that wisdom. But
about the same time, he also got involved with multiple Gentile women who
led him astray from God and to idolatry. The very warnings he gives
against the adulteress and Gentile woman were ignored by him; he became
the young man who went wrong with women. His girlfriend speaks in the very
language of the Gentile woman of Proverbs: "I found him whom my soul
loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into
my mother's house... into her chamber" (Song 3:4). Compare this with "She
caught him... come not near the door of her house... her house... the
chambers of death" (Prov. 7:13,27; 5:8). We see here the warning for all
time; that we can know God's ways in theory, whilst disobeying them in
practice, absolutely to the letter. Indeed it may be so that the more we
know them, the more strongly we are tempted by our nature to break them.
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