Proverbs 7:6 - Meaning and Application

Solomon tells this story to strengthen the warning he has already given against sexual sin. He describes a young man who was ruined in every way by the charms of an adulterous woman. People today might treat such a story as entertainment, and even make the woman look like the hero. They might enjoy her tricks, celebrate her as clever and loving, and end the play with a happy mood. Solomon treats it very differently, as a sad warning that should make every reader fear fleshly lusts and keep far away from them.

This may be presented as a made-up case, but it may also have been a real one. Either way, the warning is serious, and the same kind of evil still works in the world. Solomon wrote here with both roles in view. As a magistrate, he watched the conduct of his people so he could punish evil and restrain wrongdoing. As a minister and prophet, he speaks like a watchman who warns of hidden danger, so we will not be unaware of Satan’s tricks and can guard ourselves better.

The young man was especially open to temptation because of his own choices. First, he was young, and sinful desire often grows strong in youth (2 Timothy 2:22). That does not make it harmless, it makes it more serious, because those are the first and best years of life, and bad habits then can shape everything that follows. Young people should be especially firm in resisting this sin.

He was also a young man without understanding. He went out into the world without wisdom or the fear of God to guide him. He was like a ship at sea with no weight to steady it, no pilot, no rope, and no compass. The best understanding is to know how to turn away from evil (Job 28:28). Those who reach adulthood but still have little sense are easy prey for Satan.

He also kept bad company. He was among the young men, and was himself a foolish young man among simple people. If he had chosen wiser and older companions, there would have been hope for him. Christ, when he was twelve years old, spoke with the teachers in the temple, which gives young people a good example. But those who choose foolish friends usually stay foolish and grow harder in their folly.

He was also idle. He had nothing useful to do, so he wandered through the street without purpose. One of the sins of Sodom was great idleness (Ezekiel 16:49). He walked about in a proud, stiff way, like a well-dressed fool, more concerned with appearance than wisdom. He was easy prey for a woman looking for someone to trap.

He was a night wanderer, too. He disliked the work that belongs to daylight and moved about at twilight, when darkness was beginning to fall. He sought the darkest part of the night, not the moonlit kind that might expose him. He was already leaning toward the works of darkness.

He also drifted toward a house where he should not have gone. He went near the corner and the way to her house (Proverbs 7:8), directly against Solomon’s earlier warning, “Do not go near the door of her house” (Proverbs 5:8). He may not have known at first that it was a wicked house, but it was still a place he had no business going. When we have nothing useful to do, the devil quickly gives us something harmful. We must guard not only our days, but also our evenings, because empty time can become a doorway to temptation.

The woman who tempted him was not a common prostitute. She was a married woman (Proverbs 7:19), and nothing here suggests that her neighbors suspected her of this behavior. Yet when evening came and her husband was away, she acted with shameless boldness. Her dress showed it. She wore the clothing of a prostitute (Proverbs 7:10), flashy and showy, perhaps even painted up like Jezebel, with her neck and breasts exposed. A pure heart should show itself in modest dress, which fits women who profess godliness.

She was also skilled at deception. She was subtle in heart, expert in flattery and manipulation, and knew how to use charms for her own evil ends. Her temper was just as bad. She was loud and stubborn, talkative and self-willed, noisy and hard to manage. She would not bear correction from her husband, parents, ministers, or friends. She was a daughter of Belial, a woman who would not endure any restraint.

Her habits showed the same problem. She was not content in her own house, because she hated the duties and limits of home life. Her feet would not stay there any longer than necessary. She liked to roam, changing places and company. Now she was outside in the countryside, then in the city streets, always with some excuse. She was everywhere except where she ought to be. She lay in wait at every corner, ready to catch victims. Virtue feels like a burden to those for whom home is like a prison.

The temptation itself was carefully arranged. She met the young man and, seeing from his manner that he was the kind she wanted, she grabbed him, kissed him, and acted with complete shamelessness (Proverbs 7:13). She did not wait for any polite talk or courtship. With a bold face, she invited him not only to her house, but to her bed. She began by asking him to eat supper with her (Proverbs 7:14, Proverbs 7:15): “I have peace offerings with me.”

By this, she lets him know two things. First, she says she is well provided for, surrounded by blessings, and has enough to offer peace offerings, gifts given in thankfulness and joy. In other words, she is “set up” in the world, so he does not need to fear losing anything by coming with her.

Second, she uses a show of religion to give herself respectability. She says she has been at the temple today and has paid her vows, as if that settled things with God and gave her freedom to begin a new round of sin. Outward acts of religion can become dangerous when they do not soften people against sin. Instead, they can harden the conscience and make sinful hearts bolder, as if God now owes them because they have made offerings and promises.

It is a sad thing when a display of piety becomes a hiding place for evil. That makes the sin worse, not smaller, because it adds hypocrisy to wickedness. People can even use the very things meant to wake their conscience as excuses to silence it. The Pharisees made long prayers, while they continued with greedy and harmful plans.

She also twists the law about peace offerings. Under that law, much of the meat from the sacrifice was given back to the worshiper to eat with friends, especially in thanksgiving offerings, and it had to be eaten the same day with nothing left until morning (Leviticus 7:15). A rule meant to encourage gratitude and generosity is now turned into a cover for overeating and excess. “Come home with me,” she says, “I have plenty of food, and only need good company to help me finish it.”

But she does more than offer food. She tries to deepen the temptation by pretending to have special affection for him above anyone else. “I came out to meet you,” she says in effect, “because no one would be more welcome than you” (Proverbs 7:15). She acts as if she had sought him out on purpose, and had taken great trouble to win his favor. Sinners often go to great lengths to do harm, while acting as if they are only trying to please.

She even makes it seem as if Providence, God’s guiding hand, approved her choice of him. She suggests that she found him quickly because she was meant to find him. Then she invites him to lie with her. They will eat and drink, then rise up to play, meaning to indulge in sexual sin, and a bed is already prepared for that purpose.

She describes the bed in ways meant to stir every sense. To please the eye, it is covered with fine tapestries and carved work, beautiful and costly. To please the touch, the linens are not plain cloth but fine Egyptian linen (Proverbs 7:16). To please the smell, it is scented with sweet perfumes (Proverbs 7:17). Then she says, “Come, let us take our fill of love” (Proverbs 7:18). She calls it love, but she means lust, crude and animal desire. True love comes from heaven. This kind of desire comes from hell.

She also tries to remove any fear of consequences. She knows he may think, “Isn’t she another man’s wife? What if her husband finds us?” So she answers that concern before he can speak it. “My husband is not at home,” she says (Proverbs 7:19). She does not even call him her husband. She has left the guide of her youth and forgotten the covenant of her God. Instead, she speaks of him coldly as “the good man of the house,” as if he were only an inconvenience.

Like Potiphar’s wife, she refuses to honor her husband even in speech (Genesis 39:14). That is why Sarah is praised for speaking respectfully of Abraham and calling him lord. This woman comforts herself with the thought that her husband is away, so she can do as she likes without his knowledge. She assumes no one will ever know.

She also says he will not be back soon. He has gone on a long journey and cannot return suddenly. He has taken a bag of money with him, either to buy goods for trade or, as she hints, to spend and waste it. Whether her words are fair or not, she wants the man to seem like a bad husband, because she is determined to be a bad wife. People often invent this kind of excuse, but it never makes sin less guilty.

At last, the temptation succeeds. She promises the young man pleasure and safety, and she wins him (Proverbs 7:21). He seems to have been simple and weak rather than openly wicked. If he had already planned evil, a word or glance might have been enough. But even though his conscience warned him, her smooth talk wore him down. His sinful desires finally overcame his inward warnings, and her flattery dragged him into surrender.

This shows how hard it is for wisdom to win a hearing. Wisdom’s messengers speak truth, reason, and real joy, yet people often turn a deaf ear to them. But sin has deep power in the human heart, and its lies and flattery can win quickly. Solomon looks on this foolish young man with pity as he follows the adulterous woman.

He is headed for destruction. A house of impurity is really a slaughterhouse for precious souls. A deadly arrow will soon pierce him, and without his armor he will receive a fatal wound (Proverbs 7:23). It is his life, his precious life, that he throws away beyond recovery. He becomes lost to what is good, his conscience is corrupted, and the way is opened for other sins. In the end, this road will surely lead to endless ruin.

What makes his case even sadder is that he does not realize his misery and danger. He walks on in the dark, and even laughs on his way to ruin. The ox thinks it is being led to pasture when it is really being led to slaughter. The fool, that is, the drunkard, for drunkards are among the greatest fools, is led to the stocks for punishment and does not feel the shame of it. He goes as if he were headed to a play.

The bird that rushes into the snare sees only the bait. It expects a pleasant meal and never thinks about its life. In the same way, this careless young man thinks only of the pleasure he hopes to find in the prostitute’s embraces, while in truth he is rushing toward ruin. Solomon does not say here that he carried out the law against this wicked woman, but we have no reason to think he did not. He was deeply troubled by the harm she did and strongly outraged by it.