Proverbs 7:12

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.

Now is she without,.... The word for whore is sometimes rendered in the Targum (i) one that goes abroad, or without her house; sitting or standing at the door of it, in an idle posture, and in order to invite her lovers in; and if she can get none this way, or quickly, grows impatient: she is now in the streets; takes her walks abroad in the streets of the city, to see who she can light of, to pick up and bring home; and lieth in wait at every corner; of the street, where more ways meet, sometimes at one corner, and sometimes at another, that she may take all that comes; sometimes she is "without" in the fields, and in the country, to see what she can meet with there; and sometimes in the "streets" of the city, and in the populous places of it, in the markets, and courts, and in every private corner, trying all ways to gain lovers, and satisfy her lust (k): all which may represent the diligence and industry, art and cunning, of the Romish emissaries to gain proselytes to their idolatrous worship, who everywhere lie in wait to deceive. (i) Targ. Onk. in Genesis 34.31. (k) "Mille modi veneris", Ovid de Arte Amandi, l. 3. prope finem.

Verse 12. - Now is she without, now in the streets. At one moment outside her own door, at another in the open street. Septuagint: "At one time she roams without ( ἔξω ῤέμβεται )." The woman is represented not as a common prostitute, but as a licentious wife, who, in her unbridled lustfulness, acts the part of a harlot. Lieth in wait at every corner; seeking to entice some victim. Then the narrative proceeds; the writer returns to what he beheld on the occasion to which he refers. Proverbs 7:12

This verse shows how she conducts herself when she wanders abroad. It is no common street-walker who is designated (no "Husterin," Arab. ḳaḥbt, after which also the female demon-name (Arab.) se'alâ is explained), but that licentious married wife, who, no better than such a strumpet when she wanders abroad, hunts after lovers. The alternating פּעם (properly a stroke) Fleischer compares with the Arab. synonyms, marrt, a going over, karrt, a going back, una volta, una fiata, une fois (Orelli, Synon. der Zeit und Ewigkeit, p. 51). Regarding חוּץ, vid., at Proverbs 5:16 : it is the free space without, before the house-door, or also before the gate of the city; the parallelism speaks here and at Proverbs 1:20 more in favour of the former signification.

[Reformed Biblical] 68 EXPOSITION OF THE BOOK OF PROVERBS. member! (Deut. xxxii. 10. Ps. xvii. 8. Zech. ii. 8.) With the same care preserve the integrity of the law. Let every part of it have its full weight. To explain it away, or to lower its requirements, breaks down the barrier, and gives an easy entrance to temptation. The sen- sual sinner is often a covert infidel. Let it be at hand for constant use. Bind them upon thy fingers (Chap. iii. 3. Deut. vi. 8; xi. 18); that, being always in sight, they may be always ready for the present moment. And for their practical influ- ence, write them upon the table of thine heart . Oh! my God! this is thy Almighty work. (Isa. xxvi. 12. 2 Cor. iii. 3.) But thou hast engaged to do it for thy people. (Jer. xxxi. 33.) I "take hold of thy covenant." Lord! seal thy promised grace. Let it be the object of tender affection—as our sister--our kinswoman. It is her embrace that throws the harlot's beauty into the shade. Man must have his object of delight. If wisdom is not loved, lust will be indulged. The Bible therefore—not merely read, but the cherished object of familiar intercourse—proves a sacred exorcist to expel the power of evil. (Chap. ii. 10, 16; vi. 23, 24; xxiii. 26, 27.) 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

[Reformed Biblical] CHAP. VII. 1-5. 67 miseries,* flowing from the breach of God's holy commandment. ‘Oh! how great iniquity'—exclaimed the godly Augustine—'is this adul- tery! How great a perverseness! The soul, redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, is thus for the pleasures of an hour given to the devil; a thing much to be lamented and bewailed; when that which delighteth is soon gone, that which tormenteth remaineth without end.'† And shall not this fearful picture of sin and its consequences (which Solomon, alas! was too well fitted to draw) teach us to avoid every- thing that may be temptation; to be sensitive to the first intimations of its becoming so; to close every avenue of sense to the entrance of this seductive poison; to shun all communications that taint the purity of taste, that familiarise the mind with impurity, that give a vivid interest to associations from which a chaste imagination recoils with disgust? Let us learn to seek Divine strength to "watch and pray" continually; and, while we "think we stand, to take heed lest we fall." (1 Cor. x. 12 ) CHAPTER VII. 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 under- standing thy kinswoman: 5. That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger that flattereth with her words