Proverbs 7:1

"This chapter describes the way of an adulteress, contrasting with Proverbs 8 which sets forth the way of wisdom. It features an eye-witness account of the seduction of a young man by an adulteress. The account is realistic and needs only brief interpretation."[1]

"It is the fearful desolation which adultery causes that does not allow the author of Proverbs to abandon this theme which he has already discussed again and again. Here he reiterates the warning once more, reinforcing it with an illustration that he himself had witnessed."[2] "Here we see how helpless the young simpleton is under the skillful temptation that confronted him."[3] "This is the longest and most elaborate description of the adulteress in the Bible."[4] And this is indeed a classic!

WISDOM VS. THE STRANGE WOMAN (THE THIRTEENTH DISCOURSE)

Proverbs 7:1-5

"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 tablet of thy heart.

And say unto Wisdom, Thou art my sister;

And call Understanding thy kinswoman:

That they may keep thee from the strange woman,

From the foreigner that flattereth with her words."

"Lay up my commandments" (Proverbs 7:1). "The words, commandments and teachings here are the Torah. These are the words shared by the wisdom literature with the Pentateuch, Prophets and Psalms."[5]

"Keep ... my law, as the apple of thine eye" (Proverbs 7:2). "This is a proverbial expression for anything particularly precious and liable to be injured unless zealously guarded."[6]

"Write them upon the tablet of your heart" (Proverbs 7:3). This is not a reference to the prominent phylacteries ostentatiously paraded by the Pharisees. It simply means, "Whatever you do, do not forget these instructions."

"Say unto Wisdom, Thou art my sister" (Proverbs 7:4). Again we have Wisdom personified; and in this chapter she is presented in contrast to the strange woman in a dramatic challenge concerning which woman the youth will choose, whether Wisdom and life, or the strange woman and death. There is a New Testament counterpart to this. Jesus Christ is our Wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:30); "And Christ calls those who do God's will his brother and sister and mother (Matthew 12:50)."[7]

These first five verses set the stage for the confrontation and seduction of the youth next reported.