Read & explore together
Warnings about the Adulteress
Proverbs 7 warns that teaching must be kept close because persuasive, flattering words can draw a person onto a deadly path. The passage speaks as wisdom and dialogue, moving from instruction to observation to direct warning.
Understanding the passage
Listening in context
The passage first urges the listener to keep commandments, guard teaching, and treat wisdom and understanding like close family. It then describes what the speaker saw from his window: a young man lacking understanding, a bold woman’s invitation, and the danger of following her. It closes with a final appeal to listen.
Proverbs 7:1–27Main takeaway
Keeping wisdom close guards the heart from persuasive temptation that leads towards death.
Look closely at the words
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01Keep wisdom nearThe opening commands are urgent and personal. The listener is told to keep the speaker’s words, guard the teaching, bind them on the fingers, and write them on the heart.
Explanation
The opening commands are urgent and personal. The listener is told to keep the speaker’s words, guard the teaching, bind them on the fingers, and write them on the heart. Wisdom and understanding are described like close relatives, showing that they are meant to protect the listener from flattering words.
02A young man lacking understandingThe speaker reports what was seen from the window. Among the simple and the youths was a young man “void of understanding”.
Explanation
The speaker reports what was seen from the window. Among the simple and the youths was a young man “void of understanding”. The warning is shown not only in his description but also in his choices. He passes near her corner and goes toward her house, in darkness and late evening.
03Flattering speech hides dangerThe woman is described as loud, defiant, and present in public places. She seizes him and speaks boldly about offerings, her prepared bed, perfume, pleasure, and her husband’s absence.
Explanation
The woman is described as loud, defiant, and present in public places. She seizes him and speaks boldly about offerings, her prepared bed, perfume, pleasure, and her husband’s absence. Her words are persuasive and flattering. The passage presents that speech as seduction leading him astray, not as safety.
04The end of the pathThe young man follows at once, but the comparisons reveal the truth. He is like an ox going to slaughter and a bird rushing into a snare, unaware it will cost his life.
Explanation
The young man follows at once, but the comparisons reveal the truth. He is like an ox going to slaughter and a bird rushing into a snare, unaware it will cost his life. The speaker then urges the sons not to let their hearts turn to her ways, because her house leads to Sheol and death.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01What pictures show how closely the listener should hold onto teaching and wisdom?
Notice the eye, fingers, heart, and family language that describe wisdom as something to guard and keep near.
02What does the passage show about the young man before the woman speaks to him?
Look at how he is described and where and when he chooses to go.
03How does the end of the passage uncover the true result of her invitation?
Compare her appealing words with the images of slaughter, a snare, many wounded, and the way to Sheol.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Proverbs 7:1–27
1My son, keep my words. Lay up my commandments within you.
2Keep my commandments and live! Guard my teaching as the apple of your eye.
3Bind them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your heart.
4Tell wisdom, “You are my sister.” Call understanding your relative,
5that they may keep you from the strange woman, from the foreigner who flatters with her words.
6For at the window of my house, I looked out through my lattice.
7I saw among the simple ones. I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding,
8passing through the street near her corner, he went the way to her house,
9in the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the middle of the night and in the darkness.
10Behold, there a woman met him with the attire of a prostitute, and with crafty intent.
11She is loud and defiant. Her feet don’t stay in her house.
12Now she is in the streets, now in the squares, and lurking at every corner.
13So she caught him, and kissed him. With an impudent face she said to him:
14“Sacrifices of peace offerings are with me. Today I have paid my vows.
15Therefore I came out to meet you, to diligently seek your face, and I have found you.
16I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry, with striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt.
17I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
18Come, let’s take our fill of loving until the morning. Let’s solace ourselves with loving.
19For my husband isn’t at home. He has gone on a long journey.
20He has taken a bag of money with him. He will come home at the full moon.”
21With persuasive words, she led him astray. With the flattering of her lips, she seduced him.
22He followed her immediately, as an ox goes to the slaughter, as a fool stepping into a noose.
23Until an arrow strikes through his liver, as a bird hurries to the snare, and doesn’t know that it will cost his life.
24Now therefore, sons, listen to me. Pay attention to the words of my mouth.
25Don’t let your heart turn to her ways. Don’t go astray in her paths,
26for she has thrown down many wounded. Yes, all her slain are a mighty army.
27Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the rooms of death.