Proverbs 7:8 Kommentar

The scope of this chapter is, as of several before, to warn young men against the lusts of the flesh. Solomon remembered of what ill consequence it was to his father, perhaps found himself, and perceived his son, addicted to it, or at least had observed how many hopeful young men among his subjects had been ruined by those lusts; and therefore he thought he could never say enough to dissuade men from them, that "every one may possess his vessel in sanctification and honour, and not in the lusts of uncleanness." In this chapter we have, I. A general exhortation to get our minds principled and governed by the world of God, as a sovereign antidote against this sin (Pro 7:1-5). II. A particular representation of the great danger which unwary young men are in of being inveigled into this snare (v. 6-23). III. A serious caution inferred thence, in the close, to take heed of all approaches towards this sin (Pro 7:24-27). We should all pray, "Lord, lead us not into this temptation."

INTRODUCTION TO PROVERBS 7 The sum of this chapter is to exhort men to attend to the doctrines and precepts of Wisdom, in order to avoid the adulterous woman; the exhortation to keep them with care, affection, and delight, in order to answer the end, is in Pro 7:1. A story is told, of Solomon's own knowledge, of a young man ensnared and ruined by a lewd woman; it begins Pro 7:6. The young man is described as foolish, and as throwing himself in the way of temptation, Pro 7:7; the harlot that met him is described by her attire, her subtlety, her voice, her inconstancy, her impudence, and pretensions to piety, Pro 7:10. The arguments she made use of to prevail upon him to go with her are taken partly from the elegance of her bed, the softness of it, and its sweet perfume, and satiety of love to be enjoyed in it, Pro 7:15; and partly from the absence of her husband, who was gone a long journey, and had made provision for it for a certain time, Pro 7:19. By which arguments she prevailed upon him to his utter ruin: which is illustrated by the similes of an ox going to the slaughter, a fool to the stocks, and a bird to the snare, Pro 7:21. And the chapter is concluded with an exhortation to hearken to the words of Wisdom, and to avoid the ways and paths of the harlot, by which many and mighty persons have been ruined; they being the direct road to hell and death, Pro 7:24.

Passing through the street near her corner,.... The house of the harlot that stood in a corner to take in persons that came both ways; to come near which is dangerous; this was putting himself in the way of temptation; or the corner of the street where she stood to pick up young men; it could be with no good design to walk the streets in the night, and to go where harlots haunt, and where they dwell or stand; or, however, it was exposing himself to danger, and, had he took the wise man's advice, would not have done it, Pro 5:8; we should abstain from all appearance of evil, and from everything that leads to sin; and as to immorality and uncleanness, so to false doctrine and false worship; the synagogues of Satan and Popish chapels should be avoided; and he went the way to her house; that led directly to her house, which shows a bad intention; and if his design was not to commit fornication, yet to gratify his lusts by looks, dalliances, and impure discourse with her; and hither he went in a set, stately manner, as the word (f) signifies; with an air pleasing to the harlot, as a beau and fop of the town; and by which air and gait he was known by her to be a proper person to attack. (f) "intelligitur incessus, compositus et pomposus", Piscator; "magnis et patheticis possibus", Michaelis; "est aliquid grande et audax in verbo", Schultens.

And walks towards her house. He who has turned from the way of truth, rightly appropriates the way to the house of the harlot or heretic; which is fittingly placed, as we have explained, both in the street and near the corner.

The subject continued, by a delineation of the arts of strange women, as a caution to the unwary. (Pro. 7:1-27) Similar calls (Pro 3:1-3; Pro 4:10, &c.).

her corner--where she was usually found. went . . . house--implying, perhaps, confidence in himself by his manner, as denoted in the word went--literally, "tread pompously."

Now follows, whither he saw the young fop [Laffen] then go in the darkness. 8 Going up and down the street near her corner, And he walked along the way to her house, 9 In the twilight, when the day declined, In the midst of the night and deep darkness. We may interpret עבר as appos.: juvenem amentem, ambulantem, or as the predicate accus.: vidi juvenem ... ambulantem; for that one may so express himself in Hebrew (cf. e.g., Isa 6:1; Dan 8:7), Hitzig unwarrantably denies. The passing over of the part. into the finite, 8b, is like Pro 2:14, Pro 2:17, and that of the inf. Pro 1:27; Pro 2:8. שׁוּק, Arab. suk (dimin. suweiḳa, to separate, from sikkat, street, alley), still means, as in former times, a broad street, a principal street, as well as an open place, a market-place where business is transacted, or according to its etymon: where cattle are driven for sale. On the street he went backwards and forwards, yet so that he kept near to her corner (i.e., of the woman whom he waited for), i.e., he never withdrew himself far from the corner of her house, and always again returned to it. The corner is named, because from that place he could always cast a look over the front of the house to see whether she whom he waited for showed herself. Regarding פּנּהּ for פּנּתהּ, vid., at Psa 27:5 : a primary form פּן has never been in use; פּנּים, Zac 14:10, is plur. of פּנּהּ. אצל (from אצל, Arab. wasl, to bind) is, as a substantive, the side (as the place where one thing connects itself with another), and thus as a preposition it means (like juxta from jungere) beside, Ital. allato. דּרכו is the object. accus., for thus are construed verbs eundi (e.g., Hab 3:12, Num. 30:17, cf. Pro 21:22). Pro 7:9 The designations of time give the impression of progress to a climax; for Hitzig unwarrantably denies that נשׁף means the twilight; the Talmud, Berachoth 3b, correctly distinguishes תרי נשׁפי two twilights, the evening and the morning twilight. But the idea is not limited to this narrow sense, and does not need this, since the root-word נשׁף (vid., at Isa 40:24) permits the extension of the idea to the whole of the cool half (evening and night) of the entire day; cf. the parallel of the adulterer who veils himself by the darkness of the night and by a mask on his countenance, Job 24:15 with Jer 13:16. However, the first group of synonyms, בּנשׁף בּערב יום (with the Cod. Frankf. 1294, to be thus punctuated), as against the second, appears to denote an earlier period of the second half of the day; for if one reads, with Hitzig, בּערב יום (after Jdg 19:9), the meaning remains the same as with בּערב יום, viz., advesperascente die (Jerome), for ערב = Arab. gharab, means to go away, and particularly to go under, of the sun, and thus to become evening. He saw the youth in the twilight, as the day had declined (κέκλικεν, Luk 24:29), going backwards and forwards; and when the darkness of night had reached its middle, or its highest point, he was still in his lurking-place. אישׁון לילה, apple of the eye of the night, is, like the Pers. dili scheb, heart of the night, the poetic designation of the middle of the night. Gusset incorrectly: crepusculum in quo sicut in oculi pupilla est nigredo sublustris et quasi mistura lucis ac tenebrarum. אישׁון is, as elsewhere לב, particularly the middle; the application to the night was specially suitable, since the apple of the eye is the black part in the white of the eye (Hitzig). It is to be translated according to the accus., in pupilla noctis et caligine (not caliginis); and this was probably the meaning of the poet, for a ב is obviously to be supplied to ואפלה.