Solomon basically says look to wisdom in the same way you seek the counsel of a wise sister, wife, or female relative. She nurtures you and loves you with Godly discernment, so the wise sister is able to speak into your situation with uncanny insight.
Since I found some great pictures of the coffee shop, so I figured I would share a recent playlist for your reading enjoyment. You’re going to need Spotify to hear the whole songs. At any rate, you’ve got to have decent music in the cafe.
i. sacred wisdom
My child, keep my words
and store up my commandments with you
Proverbs vii.1, NRSV
Solomon charges his “son,” or his disciples, to listen. He uses priestly language for what he is sharing: “commandments… teachings… tablets” (verses 2-3). The word “teachings” can also be translated Law, and it is the Hebrew term tora (verse 2).
“The word tora means basically ‘teaching’ whether it is the wise man instructing his son or God instructing Israel. The wise give insight into all aspects of life so that the young men know how to conduct themselves and to live a long blessed life (Prov 3:1f).”[1]
Tora most often refers to the teachings surrounding the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. By using this term, Solomon is elevating Godly teaching as sacred.
We are commanded to “keep,” or guard, Godly teaching (verse 2). This can mean we are to delight in it as our central focus, as “the apple” or pupil of our eye. We are to “bind” ourselves to Godly teaching, as one binds himself to a friend (verse 3).
ii. the full life
We are to “write” these teachings on the “tablet” of our “heart.” This indicates memorization and more. As the seat of the soul in Hebrew thought, the “heart” controls the whole person. If our hearts are guided by Godly wisdom, our whole lives will be. That is the reward.
When we give ourselves wholly to Godly wisdom, we truly begin to “live” life in the fullest sense that God intends (verse 2).
“The OT view of the nature of man is holistic, that is, his function as body, mind, spirit is a unified whole spoken of in very concrete terms. Life is the ability to exercise all one’s vital power to the fullest; death is the opposite. The verb haya ‘to live’ involves the ability to have life somewhere on the scale between the fullest enjoyment of all the powers of one’s being, with health and prosperity on the one hand and descent into trouble, sickness, and death on the other.”[2]
iii. the wise sister
Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
and call insight your intimate friend
Prov vii.4
Solomon refers to wisdom and insight as living entities, “my sister,” or, “my kinswoman” (KJV). Insight can be translated understanding or discernment, a deeper function of the soul. It can also mean something to be obtained, like a prized object, an entity, or a person one chases after.
Solomon basically says look to wisdom in the same way you seek the counsel of a wise sister, wife, or female relative. She nurtures you and loves you with Godly discernment, so the wise sister is able to speak into your situation with uncanny insight.
iv. the flattering seductress
The wise sister has a way of counseling and keeping us from the wrong kinds of people. In stark contrast to the wise sister, Solomon paints a revealing portrait of the ways of, “the loose woman… the adulteress,” referring to her as a flattering seductress (Prov vii.5).
Consider reading the story of the seductress completely to see how vile her ways are, and how the simple-minded are ensnared by her flattery (verses 6-20).
The seduction and persuasiveness refers to knowledge, insight, or fair speech that peaks one’s curiosity in conversation (verse 21). The “smooth talk” can also mean flattery.
The young man is drawn in by her insights at first, not necessarily by seductive speech. However, her insight is the snare, so he eventually gives in.
It is important to note that this affair begins as the two talk, and there is no indication of visual lust. The seductress utilizes her language, possibly through double entendré.
“So she leads him astray with her talk, with smooth words she overcomes him.
He goes off with her right away, like a bull about to be slaughtered.”[3]
v. commandment & consequence
J.H. Hertz, former Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, comments on adultery, and the seventh commandment.
“This Commandment against infidelity warns husband and wife alike against profaning the sacred Covenant of Marriage. It involves the prohibition of immoral speech, immodest conduct, or association with persons who scoff a the sacredness of purity. Among no people has there been a purer home-life than among the Jewish people. No woman enjoyed greater respect than the Jewish woman; and she fully merited that respect.”[4]
The ancient Jews understand that in order to fulfill the commandment to abstain from adultery, one has to abstain from any language that leads to it, “the prohibition of immoral speech.”
He follows her, “like an ox goes to the slaughter” (verse 22). At best, adultery binds and imprisons one’s soul. At worst, it leads to death, and in fact carries the death penalty in the Hebrew Bible. It makes one vulnerable to the deadly “arrow” or dart of the enemy of the soul (verse 23). A fool walking into adultery is like an unwitting bird walking into the fowler’s snare.
vi. the house of the dead
The New International Version groups verses 24-27 together in one sad, poetic refrain. Solomon pauses and asks for our attention again, as if to see if we are really listening, because he is about to make the most important point (verses 24-25).
Many are the victims she has brought down,
her slain are a mighty throng. Prov vii.26; NIV
Do not be impressed by her flattering lips. You are not the first and you will not be the last. Furthermore, how many have not only been seduced by her, but also destroyed? If not physically, their good name in society has been destroyed by her. In our language, we would refer to her as a shameless “homewrecker.”
Her house is a highway to the grave,
leading down to the chambers of death. verse 27; NIV
The term “grave” is Sheol, the Hebrew term we associate with Hell or the underworld. There are various Theological arguments about who is housed in Sheol, either before or after the Cross, but it is evident in this context that Solomon is referring to a place where no one wants to go.
“Her house” is the gateway, the threshold of Hell itself. It is not enough to wound and destroy a person’s life on earth. This speaks of her ability to usher that person into eternal punishment and separation from God, “the chambers of death.”
It is adultery as a result of apostasy, consequently leading others into perdition. There seems to be little hope for this particular type of predatorial seductress or her victims.
vii. consecration in marriage & society
“Marriage is not merely a ‘contract’; it is consecration, and adultery is far more than merely an offence against one of the parties to a contract. It is an offence against the Divine Command proclaimed at Sinai, and constitutes the annihilation of holiness in marriage.”[5]
Adultery is also a term used figuratively to denote unholy soul-ties with people or things we have no business with.
When ancient Israel falls into idolatry, it is likened to adultery.
Today, when there is bad business, we might say that one business or entity “is in bed” with another… guilty by association. This is a similar concept.
For individuals, there are unholy soul-ties.
In society, there are the same issues on a grander scale with whole systems.
The wise sister definitely offers us an alternative to the dangers of the sensual lifestyle we see portrayed around us everywhere. By attuning our ears to everything she has to say, we can truly live the way God intended, or take the next steps if we do not think we are quite there yet.
notes:
pic credits | Tim Douglas
Crop baristas with coffee machine in cafe kitchen | 12.16.20 | pexels
Couple of colleagues having conversation in aprons in terrace | 11.17.20 | pexels
[2] Ibid., 279-278.
[3] Prov vii.21-22.a; James L. Kugel, The Great Poems of the Bible: A Reader’s Companion with New Translations (New York, NY: Free Press, 1999), 121.
[4] J.H. Hertz, Pentateuch and Haftorahs, 2nd ed., (London: Socino Press, 1960), p. 299.
[5] Ibid., 507.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In