Proverbs 7:26
For she has brought many down to death; her slain are many in number.
Sermons
A Tragedy of TemptationE. Johnson Proverbs 7:1-27
The Two WaysW. Clarkson Proverbs 7:1-27














This is a fine piece of dramatic moral description, and there is no reason why it should not be made use of, handled with tact and delicacy, with an audience of young men.

I. THE PROLOGUE. (Vers. 1-5.) On ver. 1, see Proverbs 1:8; Proverbs 2:1; Proverbs 6:20. On ver. 2, see on Proverbs 4:4. Here an expression not before used occurs. "Keep my doctrine as thine eye apple;" literally, "the little man in thine eye." It is an Oriental figure for what is a treasured possession (Deuteronomy 32:10; Psalm 17:8). On ver. 3, see on Proverbs 3:3; Proverbs 6:21. "Bind them on thy fingers," like costly rings. Let Wisdom be addressed and regarded as "sister," Prudence as "intimate friend" (ver. 4). On ver. 5, see on Proverbs 2:16; Proverbs 6:24. On the prologue as a whole, remark

(1) it is intense in feeling,

(2) concentrated in purpose, and hence

(3) exhaustive in images of that which is precious and desirable before all else. It is an overture which gives the theme of the drama with the deepest impressiveness.

II. THE FIRST ACT. (Vers. 6-9.) The teacher looked through a grated loophole, or eshnab, and saw among the silly fools, the simple ones, who passed by or stood chatting, one simpleton in particular, who attracted his notice. He watched him turn a corner (hesitating, and looking around a moment, according to Ewald's explanation), and pass down a street. The Hebrew word finely shows the deliberacy, the measured step, with which he goes; he has made up his mind to rush into sin. It was late in the evening - "dark, dark, dark," says the writer, with tragic and suggestive iteration - dark in every sense. The night is prophetic.

III. THE SECOND ACT. (Vers. 10-20.) A woman - "the attire of a harlot" (as if she were nothing but a piece of dress), with a heart full of wiles, meets him. She was excitable, noisy, uncontrollable, gadding - now in the streets, now in the markets, now at every corner (vers. 11, 12). Her characteristics have not changed from ancient times. And so with effrontery she seizes and kisses the fool, and solicits him with brazen impudence. Thank offerings had "weighed upon" her in consequence of a vow; but this day the sacrificial animal has been slain, and the meat which, according to the Law, must be consumed within two days, has been prepared for a feast. And she invites him to the entertainment, fires his fancy with luxurious descriptions of the variegated tapestries and the neat perfumes of her couch, and the promise of illicit pleasures. She alludes with cool shamelessness to her absent husband, who will not return till the day of the full moon (ver. 20). "This verse glides smoothly, as if we could hear the sweet fluting of the temptress's voice." But it is as the song of birds in a wood before an awful storm.

IV. THE THIRD ACT. (Vers. 21-23.) Her seductive speech, the "fulness of her doctrine," as the writer ironically says, and the smoothness of her lips, overcome the yielding imagination of her victim. Ver. 22 implies that he had hesitated; but "all at once," passion getting the better of reflection, he follows her like a brute under the dominion of a foreign will driven to the slaughter house. He is passive in the power of the temptress, as the fool who has got into the stocks. "Till a dart cleave his liver - the supposed seat of passion. Hastening like a bird into the net, he knows not that his life is at stake.

V. THE EPILOGUE. (Vers. 24-27.) On ver. 24, see on Proverbs 5:7. Let not thy heart turn aside to her ways, and go not astray on her paths." Properly, "reel not" (shagah), as in Proverbs 5:20. Beware of that intoxication of the senses and fancy which leads to such an end. For she is a feller of men, a cruel murderess (ver. 26). Her house is as the vestibule of hell, the facilis descensus Averni - the passage to the chambers of death (see on Proverbs 2:18; Proverbs 5:5).

LESSONS.

1. Folly and vice are characteristically the same in every age. Hence these scenes have lost none of their dramatic power or moral suggestion.

2. Only virtue is capable of infinite diversity and charm. The pleasures of mere passion, violent at first, pass into monotony, thence into disgust.

3. The character of the utter harlot has never been made other than repulsive (even in French fiction, as Zola's 'Nana') in poetry. What exists in practical form is mere dregs and refuse.

4. The society of pure and refined women is the best antidote to vicious tastes. For to form a correct taste in any matter is to form, at the same time, a distaste for coarse and spurious quality. Perhaps reflections of this order may be more useful to young men than much declamation. - J.

Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children.
Cicero says, "There is not a more pernicious evil to man than the lust of sensual pleasure; the fertile source of every detestable crime, and the peculiar enemy of the Divine and immortal soul" This is true of all sensual pleasures immoderately pursued and gratified beyond the demands of reason and of nature.

I. HOW CONTRADICTORY THE VICE OF IMPURITY IS TO THE GREAT LAWS OF NATURE AND OF REASON, OF SOCIETY AND RELIGION.

1. It is in opposition to the first law of our nature, which enjoins the due subordination and subjection of our inferior appetites and passions to the superior and ruling principle of the soul — that principle which distinguishes man from the animal creation. What can be so degrading to our nature as to reverse this first and important law by giving the reins of dominion to an inferior and merely animal appetite, implanted in us, as a slave, to serve the purposes of our temporal existence? Appetites are wholly of sense; with them, abstractly considered, the mind has no concern. But if indulged beyond due bounds, they darken the mind and absorb all its noblest faculties.

2. It opposes the laws of reason, whose peculiar office it is to direct our conduct and form our manners in such a way as becomes the rank and station we bear in the universe. What folly, then, to indulge a vice and pursue a conduct which is at once most opposite to, and most derogatory from, the honour and the dictates of reason! And can anything be more so than the unrestrained gratification of impure desires, with which reason is so far from concurring, that men are obliged to lull its keen remonstrances in the tumult of passion and the hurry of sensual pursuits?

3. It opposes the laws of society — those universal laws of justice, honour, and virtue, upon which all society is founded, and upon the due observation whereof the happiness and the permanence of society depends. Nothing conduces more to corrupt the morals and deprave the minds of youth than the unrestrained gratification of impure and lustful desires; nothing conduces more to spread a general corruption of manners; nothing more affects and harms the nearest and dearest interests of men; nothing introduces more distressful injuries; and nothing is a greater prejudice or discouragement to just and honourable marriage.

4. It opposes the Divine laws. The Divine instructions inform man of the true state of his nature, of his dignity, fall, and possible restoration. Man is informed that his triumph is sure and his reward inestimable if, superior to sense and to appetite, he improves the Godlike principle of reason and virtue in him and purifies himself, even as his God, his great pattern and exemplar, is pure. There are some considerations peculiar to the Christian religion, drawn from the "Inhabitation of God's Holy Spirit in the bodies of believers as His temples," and from their being incorporated by faith as living members into the pure and immaculate body of Jesus Christ. Can men be so senseless as to defile this holy temple? What can the gratification of youthful lusts bestow, adequate to the loss, to the misery which it will assuredly occasion? Neither the laws of God nor of man are founded in fancy or caprice. No precept is imposed with a view to command or prohibit aught that was unessential to their well-being.

II. HOW INIMICAL THE VICE OF IMPURITY IS TO THE BEST INTERESTS OF OURSELVES AND OF OUR NEIGHBOURS! What ever youth would wish to arrive at true honour and true happiness must scorn with a noble fortitude the allurements of the harlot pleasure, and implicitly follow the counsels of pure virtue. The practice of impurity never can, never did or will, produce aught but thorns and briars, "mischiefs" and "miseries," to others and to ourselves. One peculiar and aggravating circumstance of malignity in this vice is that the perpetration of it involves the ruin of two souls. You cannot be singly guilty. Have pity on yourselves! Have pity on the companions of your sin! The seductions of innocence can never be adequate to the end proposed. It is a complicated guilt. All gratifying of lustful passions must be in a high degree injurious to their fellow-creatures, and particularly to the unhappy partners of their guilt. And the vice of impurity is peculiarly noxious and prejudicial to ourselves, to the mind, body, estate, and reputation.

(W. Dodd, LL. D.)

People
Solomon
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Army, Cast, Caused, Death, Ecclesiastes, Fall, Host, Laid, Low, Mighty, Numerous, Ones, Slain, Strong, Throng, Thrown, Victim, Victims, Wounded, Yea, Yes
Outline
1. Solomon persuades to a sincere and kind familiarity with wisdom
6. In an example of his own experience he shows
10. the cunning of a harlot
22. and the desperate simplicity of a young wanton
24. He detests such wickedness

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Proverbs 7:6-27

     5276   crime

Proverbs 7:14-27

     6242   adultery

Proverbs 7:24-27

     6237   sexual sin, nature of

Library
Twelfth Sunday after Trinity Gospel Transcends Law.
Text: 2 Corinthians 3, 4-11. 4 And such confidence have we through Christ to God-ward: 5 not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God; 6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. 7 But if the ministration of death, written, and engraven on stones, came with glory, so that the children of Israel could not look stedfastly upon
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. III

Appendix 2 Extracts from the Babylon Talmud
Massecheth Berachoth, or Tractate on Benedictions [76] Mishnah--From what time is the "Shema" said in the evening? From the hour that the priests entered to eat of their therumah [77] until the end of the first night watch. [78] These are the words of Rabbi Eliezer. But the sages say: Till midnight. Rabban Gamaliel says: Until the column of the morning (the dawn) rises. It happened, that his sons came back from a banquet. They said to him: "We have not said the Shema.'" He said to them, "If the column
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life

Blessed are the Poor in Spirit
Having spoken of the general notion of blessedness, I come next to consider the subjects of this blessedness, and these our Saviour has deciphered to be the poor in spirit, the mourners, etc. But before I touch upon these, I shall attempt a little preface or paraphrase upon this sermon of the beatitudes. 1 Observe the divinity in this sermon, which goes beyond all philosophy. The philosophers use to say that one contrary expels another; but here one contrary begets another. Poverty is wont to expel
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

The Desire of the Righteous Granted;
OR, A DISCOURSE OF THE RIGHTEOUS MAN'S DESIRES. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR As the tree is known by its fruit, so is the state of a man's heart known by his desires. The desires of the righteous are the touchstone or standard of Christian sincerity--the evidence of the new birth--the spiritual barometer of faith and grace--and the springs of obedience. Christ and him crucified is the ground of all our hopes--the foundation upon which all our desires after God and holiness are built--and the root
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Dogmatic.
I. (i) Against Eunomius. The work under this title comprises five books, the first three generally accepted as genuine, the last two sometimes regarded as doubtful. Gregory of Nazianzus, [303] Jerome, [304] and Theodoret [305] all testify to Basil's having written against Eunomius, but do not specify the number of books. Books IV. and V. are accepted by Bellarmine, Du Pin, Tillemont, and Ceillier, mainly on the authority of the edict of Justinian against the Three Chapters (Mansi ix., 552),
Basil—Basil: Letters and Select Works

On the Symbols of the Essence' and Coessential. '
We must look at the sense not the wording. The offence excited is at the sense; meaning of the Symbols; the question of their not being in Scripture. Those who hesitate only at coessential,' not to be considered Arians. Reasons why coessential' is better than like-in-essence,' yet the latter may be interpreted in a good sense. Explanation of the rejection of coessential' by the Council which condemned the Samosatene; use of the word by Dionysius of Alexandria; parallel variation in the use of Unoriginate;
Athanasius—Select Works and Letters or Athanasius

A Believer's Privilege at Death
'For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.' Phil 1:1I. Hope is a Christian's anchor, which he casts within the veil. Rejoicing in hope.' Rom 12:12. A Christian's hope is not in this life, but he hash hope in his death.' Prov 14:42. The best of a saint's comfort begins when his life ends; but the wicked have all their heaven here. Woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation.' Luke 6:64. You may make your acquittance, and write Received in full payment.' Son, remember that
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Proverbs
Many specimens of the so-called Wisdom Literature are preserved for us in the book of Proverbs, for its contents are by no means confined to what we call proverbs. The first nine chapters constitute a continuous discourse, almost in the manner of a sermon; and of the last two chapters, ch. xxx. is largely made up of enigmas, and xxxi. is in part a description of the good housewife. All, however, are rightly subsumed under the idea of wisdom, which to the Hebrew had always moral relations. The Hebrew
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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