Table of Contents
Proverbs 7
Proverbs 7
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 understanding thy kinswoman:
5 That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.
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 And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.
11 (She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:
12 Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.)
13 So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him,
14 I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows.
15 Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.
16 I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.
17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
18 Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.
19 For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:
20 He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed.
21 With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.
22 He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks;
23 Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.
24 Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth.
25 Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths.
26 For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her.
27 Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.
Notes
Cross Reference
Concordance
Commentary
Rashi
Verse 2
<html><b>like the apple of your eyes</b> The pupil of the eye, which is like darkness, like the darkness of night.</html>
Verse 4
<html><b>“You are my sister”</b> (Draw her near to you.) <b>a kinsman</b> Heb. מדע, a kinsman, as in (Ruth 3: 2): “Boaz our kinsman (מדעתנו),” our close relative; i.e., draw her near to you always.</html>
Verse 7
<html><b>I discerned</b> Heb. אבינה, I discerned and I saw.</html>
Verse 8
<html><b>next to her corner</b> The corner of the harlot and of the pagan house of worship.</html>
Verse 10
<html><b>And behold a woman</b> As its apparent meaning. Another explanation: One of the enticers. <b>the nakedness of a harlot</b> Heb. שית, as in (II Sam. 10:4): “their buttocks (שתותיהם),” i.e., the nakedness of a harlot. <b>with her heart besieged</b> Heb. ונצרת לב. As a besieged city is surrounded by bulwarks, so is this one’s heart surrounded by lewdness and foolishness.</html>
Verse 11
<html><b>and rebellious</b> Heb. וסררת, turning away from the road.</html>
Verse 14
<html><b>I had to bring peace offerings</b> I prepared a great feast, for today I sacrificed my vows and my peace offering.</html>
Verse 15
<html><b>and I have found you</b> In order that I find you.</html>
Verse 16
<html><b>covers</b> Heb. מרבדים. Garments of freedom and beauty; a similar term is found at the end of the book (31:22): “She made covers for herself.” <b>I have bedecked my couch</b> Heb. רבדתי, I have adorned. <b>with superior braided work of Egypt</b> Heb. חטבות אטון מצרים, praiseworthy, high quality linen garments coming from Egypt, where linen is common, as it is written in the Book of Isaiah (19: 9): “And those who work at flax… shall be ashamed.” <b>braided work</b> Heb. אטון. The Aramaic translation of מיתריהם, their ropes (Num. 4:32), is אטוניהון.</html>
Verse 17
<html><b>I fanned</b> Heb. נפתי. I fanned the scent as one fans with a scarf in a perfumery to bring the scent from above down below. Dunash (Teshuvoth Dunash p. 22) defines it as an expression of smoking, which he states has no comparison.</html>
Verse 19
<html><b>For the man is not at home</b> You have seen that the Holy One, blessed be He, has removed His Shechinah and has given all good to the pagans.</html>
Verse 20
<html><b>the bag of money</b> He has slain the righteous among them. <b>on the appointed day</b> Heb. ליום הכסא. At the fixed appointed time, and similarly (Ps. 81:4), “At the appointed time for the day of our festival.”</html>
Verse 21
<html><b>She swayed him</b> the one devoid of sense, to her. <b>with all her talk</b> with which she is accustomed to familiarize men. <b>she entices him</b> from the road.</html>
Verse 22
<html><b>and as a viper</b> Heb. וכעכס. This is the venom of a snake. <b>to the chastisement of a fool</b> Like a snake that runs quickly as an agent of the Holy One, blessed be He, to chastise the fool who is condemned by the Omnipresent, blessed be He, so does this one run after her until he stumbles on her, and her arrow splits his liver.</html>
Verse 23
<html><b>as a bird hastens</b> to run to a snare, and it does not know that the snare was spread out there for the life of the bird.</html>