Proverbs 7:13

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.

So she caught him, and kissed him,.... The young man that went near her corner where she was plying, or in the way to her house, where she was sitting, or standing, waiting and watching for such an opportunity, for such a person, as a prey to fasten on; and no sooner she saw him, and come up to him, but, without any ceremony or address, she laid hold upon him, as the word (l) signifies, threw her arms about his neck, and embraced him in them; and, what is unusual for women to do, kissed him, in order to stir up wanton affections and impure desires in him; and with an impudent face; or, "and she strengthened her face" (m); rubbed her forehead, put on a brasen face, a whore's front; see Jeremiah 3:3. And said unto him; accosted him in the following manner, without shame or blushing. (l) "apprehendit eum", Pagninus, Mercerus, Gejerus, Michaelis, Schultens. (m) "et roboravit facies suas", Montanus; "vultumque suum obfirmavit", Schultens, so Michaelis; "obfirmabat", Cocceius.

Verse 13. - So she caught him and kissed him; being utterly lost to shame, like Potiphar's wife ( Genesis 39:12 ). With an impudent face said; literally, strengthened her face and said ; put on a bold and brazen look to suit, the licentious words which she spoke. Wordsworth quotes the delineation of the "strange woman" drawn by St. Ambrose ('De Cain. et Abel.,' 1:4): "Domi inquieta, in plateis vaga, osculis prodiga, pudore villis, amictu dives, genas picta; meretricio procax motu, infracto per delicias incessu, nutantibus oculis, et ludentibus jaculans palpebris retia, quibus pretiosas animus juveuum capit." Proverbs 7:13

After this digression the poet returns to the subject, and further describes the event as observed by himself. And she laid hold on him and kissed him; Put on a bold brow and said to him. The verb נשׁק is here, after its primary signification, connected with the dat.: osculum fixit ei. Thus also Genesis 27:26 is construed, and the Dagesh in לּו is, as there, Dag. forte conj., after the law for which the national grammarians have coined the technical name אתי מרחיק (veniens e longinquo, "coming out of the distance," i.e., the attraction of a word following by one accented on the penult.). The penult.-accenting of נשׁקה is the consequence of the retrogression of the accent (נסוג אחור), which, here where the word from the first had the penult, only with Metheg, and thus with a half a tone, brings with it the dageshing of the לו following, as the original penultima-accenting of והחזיקה does of the בו which follows it, for the reading בּו by Lwenstein is contrary to the laws of punctuation of the Textus receptus under consideration here. (Note: Vid., Baer's Torath Emeth, p. 29f., and Psalmen-Commentar under Psalm 52:5.) As בו and לו have received the doubling Dagesh, so on the other hand, according to Ewald, 193b, it has disappeared from העזה (written with Raphe according to Kimchi, Michlol 145a).

And as נשׁקה has the tone thrown back, so the proper pausal ותּאמר is accented on the ult., but without attracting the לו following by dageshing, which is the case only when the first of the two words terminates in the sound of ā (āh). העז פניו is said of one who shows firmness of hardness of countenance (Arab. slabt alwajh), i.e., one who shows shamelessness, or, as we say, an iron forehead (Fl.).

[Bible] 6:35. Nor will he yield to any man's prayers, nor will he accept for satisfaction ever so many gifts. Proverbs Chapter 7 The love of wisdom is the best preservative from being led astray by temptation. 7:1. My son, keep my words, and lay up my precepts with thee. Son, 7:2. Keep my commandments, and thou shalt live: and my law as the apple of thy eye: 7:3. Bind it upon thy fingers, write it upon the tables of thy heart. 7:4. Say to wisdom: Thou art my sister: and call prudence thy friend, 7:5. That she may keep thee from the woman that is not thine, and from the stranger who sweeteneth her words. 7:6. For I looked out of the window of my house through the lattice, 7:7. And I see little ones, I behold a foolish young man, 7:8. Who passeth through the street by the corner, and goeth nigh the way of her house, 7:9. In the dark when it grows late, in the darkness and obscurity of the night. 7:10. And behold a woman meeteth him in harlot's attire, prepared to deceive souls: talkative and wandering, 7:11. Not bearing to be quiet, not able to abide still at home, 7:12. Now abroad, now in the streets, now lying in wait near the corners. 7:13. And catching the young man, she kisseth him, and with an impudent face, flattereth, saying: 7:14. I vowed victims for prosperity, this day I have paid my vows. 7:15. Therefore I am come out to meet thee, desirous to see thee, and I have found thee. 7:16. I have woven my bed with cords, I have covered it with painted tapestry, brought from Egypt. 7:17. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. 7:18. Come, let us be inebriated with the breasts, and let us enjoy the desired embraces, till the day appear. 7:19. For my husband is not at home, he is gone a very long journey. 7:20. He took with him a bag of money: he will return home the day of the full moon. 7:21. She entangled him with many words, and drew him away with the flattery of her lips.

VIII. (1) This verse in praise of wisdom can be connected either with what precedes or what follows. (See Hosea 14:9.) Interpretation.—The word occurs elsewhere in the Chaldee parts of Daniel. Boldness.—Impudence is removed from the countenance. See Proverbs 7:13; Proverbs 21:29; Ecclesiasticus 13:25.