Proverbs 7:6

For at the window of my house I looked through my casement,

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Proverbs 7:6-10. For I looked through my casement — Hebrew, בעד אשׁנבי, per fenestellam meam, my little window, or lattice, rather. For “in Palestine they had no glass to their windows: they closed them with lattices or curtains.” This may either be considered as an historical relation, or a parabolical representation of that which frequently happened. I beheld among the simple ones — Among the fools; a young man void of understanding — חסר לב, destitute of a heart, a body without a mind, one as ignorant and foolish as they; one whose youth, and heat, and strength, made him more subject to those passions which are termed by the apostle youthful lusts, and who wanted both judgment and experience, as well as grace, to keep him from such courses. Passing through the street — Sauntering and idle, perhaps in quest of amusement; near her corner — The corner of the street where the adulteress lived. And he went the way to her house — Walked carelessly on till he came near her house. “It is not said that he intended to visit her, or even that he knew she lived there; but he was loitering about in a place where he had no business, and at an unseasonable hour.” — Scott. In the evening — When, the day-labour being ended, he was at leisure for any thing; and when such strumpets used, and, alas! still use, to walk abroad for prey; in the black and dark night — Hebrew, באישׁון לילה ואפלה, when night and darkness were yet in embryo, or just beginning, as Dr. Waterland interprets the words. And behold, there met him a woman — Thus through idleness he was led into temptation. This woman was not a prostitute, for she was a married woman, (Proverbs 7:19,) and, for aught that appears, lived in reputation among her neighbours, not suspected of any such wickedness. She was now, however, dressed in the attire of a harlot — And her carriage and conduct were agreeable to her quality and design; and she was subtle of heart — As she showed in her following discourse, wherein she proposes all things which might invite him to comply with her desire, and conceals whatsoever might discourage him.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

7:6-27 Here is an affecting example of the danger of youthful lusts. It is a history or a parable of the most instructive kind. Will any one dare to venture on temptations that lead to impurity, after Solomon has set before his eyes in so lively and plain a manner, the danger of even going near them? Then is he as the man who would dance on the edge of a lofty rock, when he has just seen another fall headlong from the same place. The misery of self-ruined sinners began in disregard to God's blessed commands. We ought daily to pray that we may be kept from running into temptation, else we invite the enemies of our souls to spread snares for us. Ever avoid the neighbourhood of vice. Beware of sins which are said to be pleasant sins. They are the more dangerous, because they most easily gain the heart, and close it against repentance. Do nothing till thou hast well considered the end of it. Were a man to live as long as Methuselah, and to spend all his days in the highest delights sin can offer, one hour of the anguish and tribulation that must follow, would far outweigh them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Casement - The latticed opening of an Eastern house, overlooking the street (compare Judges 5:28).

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6. For—or, "Since," introducing an example to illustrate the warning, which, whether a narrative or a parable, is equally pertinent.

window—or, "opening"

looked—literally, "watched earnestly" (Jud 5:28).

casement—or, "lattice."

Matthew Poole's Commentary

This is either an historical relation, or rather a parabolical representation of that which frequently happened.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For at the window of my house,.... This is either an historical account of a matter of fact known to Solomon, or a parable made by him, setting forth the cunning artifices of an harlot, the folly and weakness of a young man ensnared, and the ruin he is brought into by her. As Solomon was a public magistrate, he is here represented as a private observer of the behaviour of his subjects, as sitting in his palace at a window, at the small windows of it, as the Targum, where he could see and not be seen himself; near to which was an harlot's house; for they generally get about the courts of princes, where they make their prey;

I looked through my casement; or "lattice" (c); the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions: understand this of the harlot looking out of the window of her house and through the casement, when she spied a young man, as follows; but this agrees not with the Hebrew text, which carries it to Solomon; though a greater than he may be designed, the omniscient God, who looks through the windows and lattice of heaven, and beholds all the actions of the children of men; those that are most private, and done in the dark; and Christ the Son of God, whose "eyes are like unto aflame of fire", to look through all the darkness of Popery, represented by the Thyatirian church state; into all the intrigues of the Romish harlot, and behold all the follies of those that commit fornication with her, Revelation 2:18.

(c) "per cancellum meum", Montanus; "per cancellos", Tigurine version, Michaelis.

Geneva Study Bible

{b} For at the window of my house I looked through my casement,

(b) Solomon uses this parable to declare their folly, who allow themselves to be abused by harlots.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

6. casement] Or, lattice, R.V., as the same Heb. word is translated in A.V. in Jdg 5:28, the only other place in which it occurs.

Proverbs 7:7-9. A few graphic strokes draw the picture of the victim. He is not yet positively vicious; but his feeble moral character (Proverbs 7:7), his thoughtless running into danger (Proverbs 7:8), and the perilous hour he chooses (Proverbs 7:9), conspire to render him an easy prey.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 6-23. - To show the greatness of the danger presented by the seductions of the temptress, the writer introduces no mere abstraction, no mere personification of a quality, but an actual example of what had passed before his own eyes. Verse 6. - For. The particle introduces the example. At the window of my house. He gives a graphic delineation of a scene witnessed outside his house. I looked through my casement; eshnab, "the lattice," which served the purpose of our Venetian blinds, excluding the sun, but letting the cool air pass into the room (comp. Judges 5:28). A person within could see all that passed in the street without being himself visible from without (Song of Solomon 2:9). The Septuagint reads the sentence as spoken of the woman: "For from the window glancing out of her house into the streets, at one whom she might see of the senseless children, a young man void of understanding." Proverbs 7:6

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

How necessary it is for the youth to guard himself by the help of wisdom against the enticements of the wanton woman, the author now shows by a reference to his own observation.

6 For through the window of my house,

   From behind the lattice I looked out;

7 Then saw I among the simple ones,

   Discerned among the young people, a youth devoid of understanding.

כּי refers indeed to the immediately following clause, yet it actually opens up the whole following exemplification. The connection with Proverbs 7:5 would be closer if instead of the extended Semitic construction it were said: nam quum ...prospicerem vidi, etc. חלּון (from חלל, to bore through) is properly a place where the wall is bored through. אשׁנב .hguor (from שׁנב equals Arab. shaniba, to be agreeable, cool, fresh) is the window-lattice or lattice-window, i.e., lattice for drawing down and raising up, which keeps off the rays of the sun. נשׁקף signifies primarily to make oneself long in order to see, to stretch up or out the neck and the head, καραδοκεῖν, Arab. atall, atal'a, and tatall'a of things, imminere, to overtop, to project, to jut in; cf. Arab. askaf of the ostrich, long and bent, with respect to the neck stretching it up, sakaf, abstr. crooked length. And בּעד is thus used, as in Arab. duna, but not b'ad, is used: so placed, that one in relation to the other obstructs the avenue to another person or thing: "I looked forth from behind the lattice-window, i.e., with respect to the persons or things in the room, standing before the lattice-window, and thus looking out into the open air" (Fleischer). That it was far in the night, as we learn at Proverbs 7:9, does not contradict this looking out; for apart from the moon, and especially the lighting of the streets, there were star-lit nights, and to see what the narrator saw there was no night of Egyptian darkness. But because it was night 6a is not to be translated: I looked about among those devoid of experience (thus e.g., Lwenstein); but he saw among these, observed among the youths, who thus late amused themselves without, a young man whose want of understanding was manifest from what further happened. Bertheau: that I might see, is syntactically impossible. The meaning of וארא is not determined by the אבינה following, but conversely אבינה stands under the operation of ו ( equals אבינה, Nehemiah 13:7), characterizing the historic aorist. Regarding פּתי, vid., at Proverbs 1:4. בּנים is the masc. of בּנות, Arab. benât in the meaning maiden. בבּנים has in correct texts, according to the rules of the accents, the ב raphatum.

(Note: Regarding the Targ. of Proverbs 7:6-7, vid., Perles, Etymologische Studien, 1871, p. 9.)