Proverbs 7

Chap. VII. Ver. 1-27. Warning against an adulteress.— After a brief introductory address, this chapter presents us with the full-length portrait of a Jewish adulteress, in which we may observe—1. She was a gay and dressy woman; she wore the attire of a harlot, loose and gaudy; in consistency with which her bed was dressed with tapestry, and perfumed with myrrh, &c. 2. She was bold and impudent in her address, loud and stubborn in her behaviour, fond of the streets and places of public resort, ‘her feet abide not in her house.’ 3. Her lust was covered under the holy veil of matrimony, and her husband seems to have been so far deceived by her, as to intrust her with his house and property. He appears also to have lived in credit, and to have had a bag of money to take with him on his journey; and it is very evident from the preparation she had made for her lover, that she had no excuse of necessity for her licentiousness.

4. She affected to be religious. She had offered peace-offerings, and performed her vows; so that she had cleared (as some ignorant persons suppose) her account with heaven, and was ready to open a new score of sin. Never is sin so sinful as when dressed up in the garb of a religious profession. Her friendship was hypocritical as her religion; she pretended an intimate acquaintance and attachment; ‘I came diligently to seek thy face,’—which may be so far true—she came to look for a fool and found one. A sketch of his character follows, and the chapter concludes with the earnest entreaty of Wisdom to listen to her admonitions, and keep at a distance from the adulteress.

Notes on the verses

Chap. VII. Ver. 2 Apple of thine eye.—[As the pupil of the eye, the hole or opening of the uveous coat, or iris, through which the rays of light pass, and falling upon the retina, there depict every object in its natural colour, as upon a piece of white paper. Now the pupil of the eye being essentially necessary to sight, and easily injured, it is not only, in common with the other parts, deeply intrenched in the skull, ramparted with the forehead and cheek-bones, defended by the eyebrows, eyelids, and eyelashes, and placed so as to be best protected by the hands, but, in a wonderful mechanism, is contracted or dilated by the muscular power of the iris, without which an excess of light would cause instant blindness.

]}—Bagster.