A narrow town street at dusk, an empty corner, one small clay lamp alight in a far doorway, the sky above deepening and empty.

The father’s talks

Proverbs 7

Nobody plans the fall. They just take a walk near it, at the wrong hour.

27 verses≈ 3 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

1–7The father's talksWhy the book exists, then a father to his sonChapter 7
8–9Wisdom callsHer house and Folly's
10–22:16Solomon's sayingsTwo lines at a time
22:17–24The sayings of the wiseThirty sayings, and a few more
25–29Hezekiah's collectionMore of Solomon, copied out later
30AgurNumbered sayings from a weary man
31LemuelA mother's words, and the noble wife

Warnings about the Adulteress

My son, keep my words

and treasure my commandments within you.

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Keep my commandments and live;

guard my teachings as the apple of your eye.

Proverbs 7:2

Tie them to your fingers;

write them on the tablet of your heart.

Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”

and call understanding your kinsman,

that they may keep you from the adulteress,

from the stranger with seductive words.

Reflect

Before the hard hour

The father’s words have to be close before the street, not after it. Which words do you want near you before the hard hour comes?

From inside a dark room, a wooden lattice looks out on a town street at twilight, a lone young man small in the distance, walking toward a corner.

For at the window of my house

I looked through the lattice.

I saw among the simple,

I noticed among the youths,

a young man lacking judgment,

crossing the street near her corner,

strolling down the road to her house,

at twilight, as the day was fading

into the dark of the night.

0:17

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Then a woman came out to meet him,

with the attire of a harlot and cunning of heart.

She is loud and defiant;

her feet do not remain at home.

Now in the street, now in the squares,

she lurks at every corner.

She seizes him and kisses him;

she brazenly says to him:

The adulteress

“I have made my peace offerings;

today I have paid my vows.

So I came out to meet you;

I sought you, and I have found you.

The adulteress

I have decked my bed with coverings,

with colored linen from Egypt.

I have perfumed my bed with myrrh,

with aloes, and with cinnamon.

Come, let us take our fill of love till morning.

Let us delight in loving caresses!

The adulteress

The adulteress

For my husband is not at home;

he has gone on a long journey.

He took with him a bag of money

and will not return till the moon is full.”

Question

Quick question

The father watched the whole thing from his window. Look at where it starts.

When did the young man’s trouble begin?

Now, my sons, listen to me,

and attend to the words of my mouth.

For she has brought many down to death;

her slain are many in number.

A worn stony path falling away from the last houses of a town at nightfall, down into a dark ravine with tomb openings cut in the far side.

Her house is the road to Sheol,

descending to the chambers of death.

Pray

A way out, and mercy

Ask God for a way out in the hour of temptation, and for the sense to stay off that street at all. If there is something behind you that you cannot undo, bring it to Him tonight and ask for His mercy.

You’ve experienced

Proverbs 7

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A verse to carry with you

Keep my commandments and live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye.

Proverbs 7:2

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