BOOK 20 OF 66 · WISDOM & POETRY · KING JAMES BIBLE

Proverbs 7

Proverbs book home•Chapter 7 of 31•27 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Proverbs 7 Overview

The father tells his son to treasure instruction, then watches a naive young man approach the adulteress, records her calculated seduction, and compares his surrender to an ox going to slaughter.

ProverbsBook

7Chapter

27Verses

PoetryDivision

Before you read Proverbs 7

Coming from

Proverbs 6 emphasized wisdom about debt, diligence, destructive character, and adultery. Because many proverbs are individual sayings rather than a continuous argument, the chapter-to-chapter connection is thematic rather than narrative.

In this chapter

The father tells his son to treasure instruction, then watches a naive young man approach the adulteress, records her calculated seduction, and compares his surrender to an ox going to slaughter.

Leads into

Proverbs 8 turns to wisdom calls openly and belongs with god's ordering of creation, expanding wisdom into another set of choices, contrasts, and observations.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The narrative exposes manipulation and foolish consent; it should not be used to shift responsibility for the young man's choice onto women as a class. Proverbs uses compact wisdom sayings to train judgment. Its normal patterns describe how God’s moral order ordinarily works; they are not mechanical guarantees that remove human freedom, suffering, or providence.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Central truth

A vivid picture of seduction and its deadly end.

Sexual Purity truth

In Proverbs 7, sexual choices are treated as morally serious because they affect covenant faithfulness, character, and life.

Wisdom truth

In Proverbs 7, wisdom is moral skill under the fear of the LORD, not merely intelligence or practical cleverness.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Sexual Purity connection

1 Corinthians 6:18 commands believers to flee fornication. This connection helps frame Proverbs 7.

Wisdom connection

James 1:5 says those who lack wisdom should ask God, who gives generously. This connection helps frame Proverbs 7.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep sexual purity in context

Keep the moral responsibility of every participant clear in Proverbs 7; warnings about seduction never excuse the person who knowingly consents to sin.

Keep wisdom in context

Do not read Proverbs 7 as a set of magic formulas. Proverbs trains wise judgment in the ordinary moral order God established.

Read Proverbs 7 watching for…

bind commandments.

simple youth.

corner near her house.

flattering seduction.

way to hell.

Chapter outline3 sections

1-5Keep wisdom close so it may guard from the strange woman 6-23A simple young man is enticed and follows the adulterous woman toward destruction 24-27Do not let the heart turn to her ways, for her house leads to death

My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.

Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.

Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.

Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman:

That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.

For at the window of my house I looked through my casement,

And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding,

Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house,

In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night:

And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.

(She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:

Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.)

So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him,

I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows.

Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.

I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.

I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.

For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:

He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed.

With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.

He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks;

Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.

Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth.

Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths.

For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her.

Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.

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Proverbs 7:21

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