Proverbs 7:4
Say to wisdom, "You are my sister," and call understanding your kinsman,
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.

Her house is the way to hell.
An energetic expression. It is not the place itself, but the way to it. In this ease what is the difference between the way and the destination? The one is as the other, so much so that he who has entered the way may reckon upon it as a fatal certainty that he will accomplish the journey and be plunged into "the chamber of death." No man means to go the whole length. A man's will is not destroyed in an instant; it is taken from him, as it were, little by little, and almost imperceptibly; he imagines that he is as strong as ever, and says that he will go out and shake himself as at other times, not knowing that the spirit of might has gone from him. Is there any object on earth more pathetic than that of a man who has lost his power of resistance to evil, and is dragged on, an unresisting victim, whithersoever the spirit of perdition may desire to take him? It is true that the young man can plead the power of fascination; all that music, and colour, and blandishment, and flattery can do has been done: the cloven foot has been most successfully concealed; the speech has been all garden, and paradise, and sweetness, and joy; the word hell, or perdition, has not been so much as mentioned. This is what is meant by seduction: leading a man out of himself, and from himself, onward and onward, by carefully graded processes, until fascination has accomplished its work, and bound the consenting soul in eternal bondage.

(J. Parker, D. D.).

People
Solomon
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Cry, Friend, Insight, Intelligence, Intimate, Kinsman, Kinswoman, Named, Relative, Sister, Special, Understanding, Wisdom
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 7:1-5

     5345   influence

Proverbs 7:1-22

     6241   seduction

Proverbs 7:4-5

     6242   adultery

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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