The Warning Against Seduction and the Call to Guard the Heart.

Proverbs 7 is a vivid warning against sexual temptation and the deadly deception of adultery. The chapter begins by commanding the son to keep his father’s words close, not loosely, because wisdom must be treasured inwardly if it is to guard him outwardly. Solomon then describes a young man lacking understanding, drifting near the place of temptation, and being drawn in by flattering speech and sensual persuasion. What appears desirable for a moment is shown to end in bondage, shame, and death. The chapter teaches that sin is not merely an external trap but something the careless heart walks toward when it refuses the guarding power of wisdom.

Proverbs 7:1 – 7:27

  1 My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.
  2 Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.
  3 Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.
  4 Say unto wisdom, Thou [art] my sister; and call understanding [thy] kinswoman:
  5 That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger [which] flattereth with her words.
  6 For at the window of my house I looked through my casement,
  7 And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding,
  8 Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house,
  9 In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night:
  10 And, behold, there met him a woman [with] the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.
  11 (She [is] loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:
  12 Now [is she] without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.)
  13 So she caught him, and kissed him, [and] with an impudent face said unto him,
  14 [I have] peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows.
  15 Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.
  16 I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved [works], with fine linen of Egypt.
  17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
  18 Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.
  19 For the goodman [is] not at home, he is gone a long journey:
  20 He hath taken a bag of money with him, [and] will come home at the day appointed.
  21 With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.
  22 He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks;
  23 Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it [is] for his life.
  24 Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth.
  25 Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths.
  26 For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong [men] have been slain by her.
  27 Her house [is] the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.