Proverbs 7

My son, keep my words. Lay up my commandments within you.

Keep my commandments and live! Guard my teaching as the apple of your eye.

Bind them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your heart.

Tell wisdom, “You are my sister.” Call understanding your relative,

that they may keep you from the strange woman, from the foreigner who flatters with her words.

For at the window of my house, I looked out through my lattice.

I saw among the simple ones. I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding,

passing through the street near her corner, he went the way to her house,

in the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the middle of the night and in the darkness.

Behold, there a woman met him with the attire of a prostitute, and with crafty intent.

She is loud and defiant. Her feet don’t stay in her house.

Now she is in the streets, now in the squares, and lurking at every corner.

So she caught him, and kissed him. With an impudent face she said to him:

“Sacrifices of peace offerings are with me. Today I have paid my vows.

Therefore I came out to meet you, to diligently seek your face, and I have found you.

I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry, with striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt.

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

Come, let’s take our fill of loving until the morning. Let’s solace ourselves with loving.

For my husband isn’t at home. He has gone on a long journey.

He has taken a bag of money with him. He will come home at the full moon.”

With persuasive words, she led him astray. With the flattering of her lips, she seduced him.

He followed her immediately, as an ox goes to the slaughter, as a fool stepping into a noose.

Until an arrow strikes through his liver, as a bird hurries to the snare, and doesn’t know that it will cost his life.

Now therefore, sons, listen to me. Pay attention to the words of my mouth.

Don’t let your heart turn to her ways. Don’t go astray in her paths,

for she has thrown down many wounded. Yes, all her slain are a mighty army.

Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the rooms of death.

Chapter overviewAI-generated

Overview. This chapter warns against the dangers of sexual immorality, particularly the seductive enticement of the "strange woman" (the adulteress), using vivid imagery and a narrative example to impress upon the hearer the urgency of heeding parental wisdom and clinging to God’s commandments as essential for life.

Flow.

The father begins with a solemn appeal to internalize his teachings as protective wisdom (vv. 1–5).
He then recounts a vision of a naïve young man being lured into destruction by a promiscuous woman (vv. 6–23).
The scene unfolds from observation to seduction to irreversible consequences, culminating in the youth’s spiritual and physical ruin.
The passage closes with a renewed exhortation to avoid her paths, grounded in the deadly outcome of her ways (vv. 24–27).

Connections. Following chapter 6, which emphasized diligence, honesty, and the seven abominations, including adultery (WCF 7.3), this chapter expands on the danger of sexual immorality as a specific and deadly snare. It continues the didactic method of contrasting paths—wisdom and folly—introduced earlier in the book (e.g., ch. 5–6), and prepares for chapter 8, where wisdom is personified positively as a life-giving guide, offering a clear alternative to the seductive but deadly "foreign woman" of chapter 7.

What it teaches. True wisdom preserves life by guarding the heart and senses against the subtle but deadly enticements of sin, especially sexual immorality, which promises pleasure but leads to death (Prov. 14:12; HC LD 11). The commandments are not mere rules but vital protection, to be internalized and remembered (Deut. 6:6–7; WCF 19.1). The adulteress exemplifies the broader principle that sin often flatters and conceals its end (HC Q/A 113), while the path of obedience leads to life (Prov. 3:2; WCF 16.6). Her house, leading to Sheol, is the antithesis of the way of life upheld in God’s law (Prov. 12:28; LC 105).

Apply. Hold fast to God’s word in the heart so that in the moment of temptation, it speaks louder than the voice of sin.

AI-generated. Not a substitute for Scripture, your pastor, or the confessions.