Set to dark modeSet to dark modeProverbs 7 Commentary
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Using familiar phrasing and powerful illustrations, Solomon encourages us to be intimately connected to wisdom.
Solomon tells a parable about a young man flirting with the adulteress and tempted by the way of wickedness.
The seduction of the adulteress is a master class in temptation, full of lies and clearing the way into sin. The young man yields.
The story of the seduced young man ends in the path of wickedness. The result is his destruction.
Throughout the first seven chapters, Solomon addresses his audience as "my son" to invoke a familial bond. He takes a new strategy in chapters 8-18. In this last of the "my son" chapters, Solomon reminds the reader that intimacy is needed to make wisdom a true path in our lives.
He uses other familial language—father, mother, sister, friend—to show the close relationship we need to have with wisdom. He reminds us of some of his most frequent pleadings, such as "write it on the tablet of your heart," to emphasize how important and all-encompassing wisdom needs to be in our lives.
As Chapter 7 unfolds, Solomon tells a mini-drama about a hypothetical naïve youth. The kind that make up his primary audience. The story is a parable, meant to be read as a cautionary tale.
In one of the most honest, straightforward, and terrifying illustrations of seduction throughout all of Scripture, Solomon tells a story about a young man he watched "from his window." This young man could be anyone. Solomon watches as the young man first decides to linger in the area of the adulteress. Then Solomon watches as she works her deception on him quickly and to devastating effect.
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