With her much enticement she beguiled him; with the smoothness of her lips she constrained him.
She talks, and he goes. The trap in this chapter closes by speech, not by force. So what makes such words so hard to refuse? And what keeps a person free of them?
Earlier in the chapter the son is warned against a woman who "flatters with her words" (ESV: "the adulteress with her smooth words"). One writer notes that the danger begins with the simple fact that she is a stranger seeking closeness.
This is how God works in His goodness. He keeps a person "from the strange woman, from the stranger that flatters with her words." She was a "stranger" who sought closeness. For any soul with the fear of God, that alone is enough. Man is made in such a way that this should always warn him of danger. When man was first made, there was no stranger. The woman was built out of the man to be his wife, his counterpart. The danger is far greater now that man has fallen. "The strange woman" throws off the modesty proper to a woman. She appeals with flattering words to the vanity, the pride, or the lusts of man!
Flattering words are not simply pleasant words. They are untrue words, and that is the point of them.
Accepting flattery is accepting falsehood, for flattery is actually deceit: it is not even honestly meant, nor is it sober, real fact. Satan is extremely skilled in such methods.
The same method shows up wherever people are led away from truth. Fine delivery is no proof of a safe message.
Already men were going about deceiving believers. Note carefully that they were doing so "with enticing words." Smooth, elegant, persuasive speech is the main tool of deceivers. How often have simple, unsuspecting people said of some campaigner, "Oh, but he must be all right: he spoke so well!" Then a little checking afterwards showed he was as far from all right as could be.
Persuasion here is not only attraction. Part of her speech is aimed at removing the one thing that might have stopped him.
She also calms the fears that might frighten even the most thoughtless and daring. She declares that her husband is away from home. He has gone on a long journey, he has plenty of money, and he will not return before full moon. It was not a Joseph who listened, but a match for Potiphar's wife who enticed. Who can wonder that the foolish youth surrendered, in spite of conscience!
Her fine speech began with talk of sacrifices offered and vows paid that very day. One writer reads that opening as the oldest excuse in the world.
The obvious meaning of this is: having carried out the religious formalities, we are now free to do as we like. The vow speaks of servile worship and obligation. The peace offering speaks of fellowship. This is where the mass of people have got to in Christendom. People take vows, fill offices, and carry on servile worship in a formal way. They think they are serving God this way. In this chapter all these things happened in the dark, and this is the root of the false worship of God today.
Commentators read this chapter on two levels — as a literal warning about immorality, and as a picture of corrupt religious systems that use the same technique.
Wisdom and understanding should be our closest relatives (v. 4), by which we are kept from the seductions of harlots, whether literal harlots or false religions that put on a beautiful appearance and flattering words to deceive their victims (v. 5).
She caught someone already unprotected, and already out at night.
In verse 7, Solomon tells us he noticed one going after this woman. He says he was a "simple one." When divine wisdom teaches us properly, we pass the simple stage — the babe stage. Then we can tell the difference between good and evil. If it was a simple one who went after her, it follows that a wise one would have avoided her. This happened in the dark. So it has always been. This woman loves darkness more than light, because her deeds are evil. She deceives those who walk in darkness. She will never deceive those who walk in the light. That is where our safety lies.
Against flattering words, the defence is a word of a different kind — one that exposes rather than pleases.
Only by this Word can anyone have full confidence. It lights the way in front of him, while unbelievers walk in darkness. At times we need the last phrase here: "Reproofs of instruction are the way of life." The light exposes everything that does not fit the truth. When we receive the light, we welcome the reproofs it brings with it. How vital this is as a power to keep us from the evil woman who knows how to seduce by flattery those who are not protected by the light of God. Such warnings are badly needed. Even the saints of God are not exempt from this temptation, as David's history shows. We depend continually on God's preserving grace.
- Words. She never lays a hand on him. Her speech does the whole work, appealing to vanity, pride and lust.
- Falsehood. Flattery is not kindness turned up high — it is deceit, and receiving it means receiving a lie.
- Cover. Her flattery opens with religion: formalities first, then freedom to do as she likes.
- Darkness. She catches a simple one at night; those walking in the light are never her victims.
- Light. The Word that reproves keeps a person free. Welcome its correction, and her smooth talk loses its grip.
He went after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, and as stocks [serve] for the correction of the fool;
A young man walks off with the woman whose words have just won him over. Solomon compares him to an ox on its way to the butcher. The picture asks the question the whole chapter turns on: how does a person walk into his own ruin without seeing it coming?
The verse turns on a word of timing: he follows her at once. One writer lists what he never stopped to think about.
But oh, how moving are the words that describe him giving himself up to ruin of soul and body! "He goes after her suddenly." He does not dare to think of Jehovah, or of his own relation to Him. He does not dare to think of father and mother, of brothers or sisters. He does not dare to think of the wrong to the absent husband that can never be undone, or of his own sin and crime.
An ox walks to the slaughterhouse without alarm. That is the point of the image, and the same commentator draws out how much the young man had already been softened up before he moved.
She also makes sure to quiet the fears that might frighten even the most thoughtless and daring. She tells him that her husband is away from home. He has gone on a long journey, he has taken plenty of money, and he will not be back before the full moon... Who can wonder that the foolish young man gave in, despite his conscience!
The second half of the verse is hard to translate. The ESV reads "as a stag is caught fast." Older translations read "as a fool to the correction of the stocks." One Hebrew word lies behind the difference.
The Hebrew word ekes means 'fetter' or 'ankle band.' Isaiah 3:18 translates it 'tinkling ornaments' for the feet. There it is part of the dress of the proud daughters of Zion, who liked to make a tinkling noise when they walked. But God would bring all such ornaments to nothing. Translators render the same Hebrew word 'stocks' in Proverbs 7:22.
He thinks he is walking toward pleasure. The word says he is walking into chains.
The trap closed suddenly, but he had been drifting toward it long before. One writer looks back past the temptation itself to the man's conscience.
The young man who lacked sense went — note the way to her house. He did not plan it, as verse 21 shows. But the path of wisdom and her teaching would never have led him there... He was not walking in that light in which a man does not stumble. The conscience is never truly good there. It is not a bad conscience as such, but a good conscience always stays in the presence of God... Here were passions ready for the trap, with nothing to guard them, and a conscience that liked darkness better than light.
Willpower is not what keeps a man out of this trap. One writer points to what does.
The soul that does not watch and pray — that is not filled with wisdom's ways and wisdom's thoughts, kept by God's presence — will meet temptation somewhere... Human strength is not what resists temptation and passion. Such temptation has ruined many who were mighty in this world, and even mighty in character.
Another writer turns to verse 26, quoted here from an older translation, and finds the danger inside the strength itself.
"She has cast down many wounded, and all who were slain by her were strong men" (v. 26). Their strength itself becomes a hidden snare. Strong men think they are strong enough to walk into bad company and come away unharmed.
Scripture does not soften this, and neither should those who teach it.
Again and again, and yet again, Solomon warns his son against immoral women. His language is solemn and earnest. He warns him of their attractions, and shows clearly how completely ruined a man is if he falls... To agree together to stay silent on these delicate subjects is not wise, and it is certainly not what the Bible does.
- Drift — He did not set out to sin. Wisdom would never have led him near her door. Idleness and a conscience that liked the dark did.
- Flattery — She removed every fear before he moved: the husband is away, well supplied with money, and not back until the full moon. Words spring the trap, not force.
- Suddenly — Then the fall is instant. He gives no thought to God, to his parents, to the wronged husband, or to his own crime. He passes over everything that should have stopped him.
- Fetters — The word behind "stocks" means an ankle-band. He thinks he is walking free; he is walking into chains. The ox does not know the yard it is entering.
- Strong men — Strength is no defence; it is the snare. The men who think they can visit evil and walk away are the ones counted among her slain. That is why the warning is repeated, and why silence is not wisdom.
till an arrow strike through his liver as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for its life.
The verse is the last line of a story: an adulterous woman has talked a young man into following her, and the writer now tells us what the young man does not know. Two pictures carry the point: an arrow through the liver and a bird flying into a trap both say the damage is done before he knows the price.
One commentator maps the chapter: two appeals, and a long picture between them that ends at our verse.
Chapter 7 opens with a fresh appeal from a father to his "son" individually (vv. 1-5). Then comes the vivid picture of a young man with no understanding, drawn into the worst corruption by an adulterous woman (vv. 6-23). The chapter closes with a call to the "sons" as a group — a brief, earnest, and solemn warning (vv. 24-27) of the same kind, but deeper still.
The arrow does not simply wound him. It reaches an organ where a wound is fatal.
The large and heavy gland that produces the bile. A wound in the liver is fatal. Prov. 7:23. A liver poured out is a symbol of deep anguish. Lam. 2:11: cf. Job 16:13.
The verse says he does not know. One commentator names what he never lets himself consider.
But how moving are the words that describe him giving himself up to the ruin of soul and body! "All at once he follows her." He does not dare to think of Jehovah, or of his own relation to Him. He does not think of father and mother, of brothers or sisters. He does not think of the wrong done to the absent husband, which can never be put right. He does not think of his own sin and crime — let alone of giving himself to so vile a lover, or of the insult to society, degraded and godless as it is.
The bird rushes in because it sees food, not wire. One writer explains the design of a snare, and what Satan uses for bait.
A snare must stay hidden to work. It is useless to set a net where a bird can see it, Prov. 1:17; in the same way the hook in fishing is always hidden. The baits that Satan uses are things that men like. They are not always moral evils in themselves — riches, honour, and so on. But they may end in the loss of the soul. 1 Tim. 3:7; 1 Tim. 6:9; 2 Tim. 2:26. "The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death." Prov. 14:27.
The verse names the price as his life. One writer weighs that price against what it buys.
These verses speak so plainly that there is no need to comment on them. But let every reader think carefully about this: evil can be so attractive that great numbers of people are deceived by it, and so take the road to the chambers of death and hell. How dreadful an end for the sake of a few moments of lustful pleasure!
Solomon returns to this warning more than once, and he does not soften the outcome.
Again and again, and yet again, Solomon warns his son against immoral women. In solemn and earnest language he warns him of their attractions, and shows plainly how completely ruined a man is if he falls.
The same book that shows a bird rushing into a snare also says a net spread in a bird's sight is useless. That second picture points to safety, and to what keeps a person in it.
A bird in the tree above with the snare on the ground is like a Christian walking in the Spirit; he is safe for the time being. But wisdom's children need to be kept up there after they have been carried up. They should not only "pray without ceasing"; they should also watch the movements of the enemy with care. Satan is not entirely ignorant of our tendencies, and we ought not to be ignorant of his schemes. Notice how crafty the bird-catcher is! See how carefully he spreads his net, and how he hides himself so that he is neither seen nor heard. And he is not content with catching those who were already seeking their portion here below; he tries to lure away even those in flight.
- Hidden — a snare works only while it stays out of sight, and Satan baits it with things people like, which need not be evils in themselves.
- Hurried — he follows her all at once, without daring to think of God, of family, of the wrong done to the absent husband, or of his own sin.
- Struck — the arrow reaches the liver, where a wound is fatal. The damage is done, not threatened.
- Unaware — he does not know the price, so the writer names it for him: his life.
- Escapable — a net in a bird's sight catches nothing, so watch the enemy's movements and keep praying.