Revisiting the Warning of the Adulterous Woman

Proverbs 7:1–5 (ESV) My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you; 2 keep my commandments and live; keep my teaching as the apple of your eye; 3 bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart. 4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call insight your intimate friend, 5 to keep you from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words.

Amazingly, the Proverbs return to the dangers of a wandering woman who seduces a man into giving his life for a short temporal pleasure. The answer again is to gain and treasure the commands of a father. 

One would think that with all of Solomon's dalliances, this warning carried a particularly heavy for him as he delivered it. He obviously knew the dangers of giving your strength to women who would lead your heart away to death. 

How do men get themselves into this mess? The Proverb gives us an illustration:

Proverbs 7:6–9 (ESV) For at the window of my house I have looked out through my lattice, 7 and I have seen among the simple, I have perceived among the youths, a young man lacking sense, 8 passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house 9 in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness.

First, notice that this man decides to place himself near the woman's residence. And even more - at night! Nothing good can come from these actions. 

Proverbs 7:10–12 (ESV) And behold, the woman meets him, dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart. 11 She is loud and wayward; her feet do not stay at home; 12 now in the street, now in the market, and at every corner she lies in wait.

What the youth wanted, he found - a woman ready to seduce him. This is unfortunately the way of the world. The oldest profession at work. But today it works more often through digital imagery and pixellated promises. 

Proverbs 7:14–15 (ESV) “I had to offer sacrifices, and today I have paid my vows; 15 so now I have come out to meet you, to seek you eagerly, and I have found you.

Just as in this ancient context, the promiscuous woman finds you. You only need to give her an opportunity through proximity. 

The proximity is really the danger as her words are full of seduction:

Proverbs 7:21 (ESV) With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him.

Just as wisdom was personified as a woman, so is foolishness and destruction here in Proverbs 7. The original choice of Solomon after God granted him wisdom was also the choice between women. And we live between that choice daily. Thankfully, through Christ, we have the power to choose the woman of wisdom and to embrace life and not death.