Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 7:24

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

24. ye children ] Rather, Now, therefore, my sons, &c., R.V. It is the same word as that which opens this appeal (Pro 7:1), and is constantly used by the Teacher throughout these addresses. See Pro 1:8, note.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Pro 7:24

Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children.

On impurity

Cicero says, There is not a more pernicious evil to man than the lust of sensual pleasure; the fertile source of every detestable crime, and the peculiar enemy of the Divine and immortal soul This is true of all sensual pleasures immoderately pursued and gratified beyond the demands of reason and of nature.

I. How contradictory the vice of impurity is to the great laws of nature and of reason, of society and religion.

1. It is in opposition to the first law of our nature, which enjoins the due subordination and subjection of our inferior appetites and passions to the superior and ruling principle of the soul–that principle which distinguishes man from the animal creation. What can be so degrading to our nature as to reverse this first and important law by giving the reins of dominion to an inferior and merely animal appetite, implanted in us, as a slave, to serve the purposes of our temporal existence? Appetites are wholly of sense; with them, abstractly considered, the mind has no concern. But if indulged beyond due bounds, they darken the mind and absorb all its noblest faculties.

2. It opposes the laws of reason, whose peculiar office it is to direct our conduct and form our manners in such a way as becomes the rank and station we bear in the universe. What folly, then, to indulge a vice and pursue a conduct which is at once most opposite to, and most derogatory from, the honour and the dictates of reason! And can anything be more so than the unrestrained gratification of impure desires, with which reason is so far from concurring, that men are obliged to lull its keen remonstrances in the tumult of passion and the hurry of sensual pursuits?

3. It opposes the laws of society–those universal laws of justice, honour, and virtue, upon which all society is founded, and upon the due observation whereof the happiness and the permanence of society depends. Nothing conduces more to corrupt the morals and deprave the minds of youth than the unrestrained gratification of impure and lustful desires; nothing conduces more to spread a general corruption of manners; nothing more affects and harms the nearest and dearest interests of men; nothing introduces more distressful injuries; and nothing is a greater prejudice or discouragement to just and honourable marriage.

4. It opposes the Divine laws. The Divine instructions inform man of the true state of his nature, of his dignity, fall, and possible restoration. Man is informed that his triumph is sure and his reward inestimable if, superior to sense and to appetite, he improves the Godlike principle of reason and virtue in him and purifies himself, even as his God, his great pattern and exemplar, is pure. There are some considerations peculiar to the Christian religion, drawn from the Inhabitation of Gods Holy Spirit in the bodies of believers as His temples, and from their being incorporated by faith as living members into the pure and immaculate body of Jesus Christ. Can men be so senseless as to defile this holy temple? What can the gratification of youthful lusts bestow, adequate to the loss, to the misery which it will assuredly occasion? Neither the laws of God nor of man are founded in fancy or caprice. No precept is imposed with a view to command or prohibit aught that was unessential to their well-being.

II. How inimical the vice of impurity is to the best interests of ourselves and of our neighbours! What ever youth would wish to arrive at true honour and true happiness must scorn with a noble fortitude the allurements of the harlot pleasure, and implicitly follow the counsels of pure virtue. The practice of impurity never can, never did or will, produce aught but thorns and briars, mischiefs and miseries, to others and to ourselves. One peculiar and aggravating circumstance of malignity in this vice is that the perpetration of it involves the ruin of two souls. You cannot be singly guilty. Have pity on yourselves! Have pity on the companions of your sin! The seductions of innocence can never be adequate to the end proposed. It is a complicated guilt. All gratifying of lustful passions must be in a high degree injurious to their fellow-creatures, and particularly to the unhappy partners of their guilt. And the vice of impurity is peculiarly noxious and prejudicial to ourselves, to the mind, body, estate, and reputation. (W. Dodd, LL. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 24. Hearken unto me now, therefore, O ye children] Ye that are young and inexperienced, seriously consider the example set before your eyes, and take warning at another’s expense.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

24. The inferential admonitionis followed (Pro 7:26; Pro 7:27),by a more general allegation of the evils of this vice.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children,…. The Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Arabic versions, read, in the singular number, “my son”, in the same manner as the chapter begins; but it is in the plural number in the Hebrew text; and so read the Targum and Syriac version, “children”, the children of Solomon; not only those of his own body, but all such that put themselves under his instruction, or were willing to take his advice: it may be extended to all the children of men, for all are interested herein; especially such who profess to be the children of God and of Christ, the followers of wisdom. This is the epilogue, or application of the above story. Since this is the case, that young men are in danger of being ensnared and brought to ruin by this harlot, therefore take the advice of the wisest of men, even of Wisdom herself;

and attend to the words of my mouth; the doctrines of Christ; the best preservative from the allurements of the whore of Rome.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

With , as at Pro 5:7, the author now brings his narrative to a close, adding the exhortation deduced from it:

24 And now, ye children, give ear unto me,

And observe the words of my mouth!

25 Let not thine heart incline to her ways,

And stray not in her paths.

The verb (whence jest , like jet , Pro 4:15, with long e from i) the author uses also of departure from a wicked way (Pro 4:15); but here, where the portraiture of a faithless wife (a ) is presented, the word used in the law of jealousy, Num 5, for the trespass of an is specially appropriate. is interchanged with (cf. Gen 21:14): wander not on her paths, which would be the consequence of straying on them. Theodotion: , with , as also Syr., Targ., and Jerome. The Masora reckons this verse to the 25 which have at the beginning and at the middle of each clause ( vid., Baer in the Luth. Zeitschrift, 1865, p. 587); the text of Norzi has therefore correctly , which is found also in good MSS ( e.g., the Erfurt, 2 and 3).

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

      24 Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth.   25 Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths.   26 For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her.   27 Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.

      We have here the application of the foregoing story: “Hearken to me therefore, and not to such seducers (v. 24); give ear to a father, and not to an enemy.” 1. “Take good counsel when it is given you. Let not thy heart decline to her ways (v. 25); never leave the paths of virtue, though strait and narrow, solitary and up-hill, for the way of the adulteress, though green, and broad, and crowded with company. Do not only keep thy feet from those ways, but let not so much as thy heart incline to them; never harbour a disposition this way, nor think otherwise than with abhorrence of such wicked practices as these. Let reason, and conscience, and the fear of God ruling in the heart, check the inclinations of the sensual appetite. If thou goest in her paths, in any of the paths that lead to this sin, thou goest astray, thou art out of the right way, the safe way; therefore take heed, go not astray, lest thou wander endlessly.” 2. “Take fair warning when it is given you.” (1.) “Look back, and see what mischief this sin has done. The adulteress has been the ruin not of here and there one, but she has cast down many wounded.” Thousands have been undone, now and for ever, by this sin; and those not only the weak and simple youths, such as he was of whom he had now spoken, but many strong men have been slain by her, v. 26. Herein, perhaps, he has an eye especially to Samson, who was slain by this sin, and perhaps to David too, who by this sin entailed a sword upon his house, though so far the Lord took it away that he himself should not die. These were men not only of great bodily strength, but of eminent wisdom and courage, and yet their fleshly lusts prevailed over them. Howl, fir-trees, if the cedars be shaken. Let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. (2.) “Look forward with an eye of faith, and see what will be in the end of it,” v. 27. Her house, though richly decked and furnished, and called a house of pleasure, is the way to hell; and her chambers are the stair-case that goes down to the chambers of death and everlasting darkness. The cup of fornication must shortly be exchanged for the cup of trembling; and the flames of lust, if not quenched by repentance and mortification, will burn to the lowest hell. Therefore stand in awe and sin not.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

The Concluding Instruction

(Pro 7:24-27)

Verses 24-27 conclude the father’s warning against the evil woman with a three-fold counsel:

1) Let not your heart (mind) dwell on the attractions of the adulteress, Vs. 25a; Pro 23:7.

2) Stay away from the woman who seeks to entice, Vs. 25b; Pro 5:8.

3) Consider the many who have suffered personally and by influence upon others because of the adulteress, Vs. 26-27; Pro 2:18; Pro 5:5; Pro 9:18; Neh 13:26.

NOTE: Reference to hell in Pro 5:5; Pro 7:27 means about the same as death, but death in the Old Testament means more than cessation of life, see Isa 66:24; Dan 12:2.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

24, 25. Hearken, etc. These verses contain an earnest and affectionate exhortation by the teacher to avoid the evils on which he has been discoursing.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

A Final Appeal Addressed To ‘Sons’ Not To Follow Her Because Her Way Is The Way Of Death ( Pro 7:24-27 ).

This final appeal is addressed, not to ‘my son’ but to ‘sons’. He may well be thinking, not only of the young man, but of those who will follow in later generations. And he calls on them not to be led astray, because such women have had many victims, and the consequence for all of them has been death.

The subsection is in the form of a simple chiasmus:

A Now therefore, sons, listen to me, and attend to the words of my mouth, Do not let your heart decline to her ways, do not go astray in her paths. (Pro 7:24-25).

B For she has cast down many wounded, yes, all her slain are a mighty host (Pro 7:26).

A Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death (Pro 7:27).

In A he warns against declining into her ways, and going astray in her paths, and in the parallel he shows where those ways lead, for her house is the way to Sheol (the grave world). Central in B is the number who have been caught out by her.

Pro 7:24-25

‘Now therefore, sons, listen to me,

And attend to the words of my mouth,

Do not let your heart decline to her ways,

Do not go astray in her paths.

‘Now therefore sons listen to me’ is a repeat of Pro 5:7 coming before a similar previous incident. The sons must therefore listen to him and not to the woman, and he calls on all who will hear his voice to take note of what he says and carry it into action (‘listen’). Let them attend to his words, and take them seriously. They must beware of letting their hearts take a downward path, descending into her ways. They must beware of going astray in her paths. Again we have the important emphasis on the fact that life is a way along which we walk, for good or ill, and we must beware of going downhill, or going astray in it. And the ways of this woman lead to deceit, the disintegration of society, shame and death.

Pro 7:26

For she has cast down many wounded,

Yes, all her slain are a mighty host.

For such women have had many victims, some wounded, others slain. And the dead have been many, ‘a mighty host’. Such women can be more destructive than a huge army. For no temptation destroys men more than straying sexually. Sex is a mighty force for evil, as well as, when properly used, for good..

Pro 7:27

Her house is the way to Sheol,

Going down to the chambers of death.

For the house of such a woman is the road to the grave world. Through it men go down to the chambers of death. The word for ‘chambers’ indicates inner rooms cut off from outside. There may well have been ‘chambers of death’ connected with Solomon’s palace, dark places into which men go never to return alive. For this description compare Pro 2:18; Pro 5:5.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Final Warning In Pro 7:24-27 Solomon gives the final warning of the adulteress, stressing the ultimate destruction and damnation of her victims.

Pro 7:24  Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth.

Pro 7:24 Comments – Wisdom tells us to pay attention to the words of her mouth. This is contrasted to strange woman who flatters with her words (Pro 7:5), and causes the simple to yield “with her fair speech” and flatters with her lips.”

Pro 7:25  Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths.

Pro 7:25 Comments The naive youg man had not constructed boundaries around his life, making himself vunerable to the enticer and seductress. The father is exhorting the young man to set up boundaries of his own will as he reaches adulthood. His father has set up his children boundaries for him, but as life progresses, the father has to let his children make their own decisions.

Pro 7:26  For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her.

Pro 7:26 Illustration – Samson was cast down by a woman (See Judges 16).

Pro 7:27  Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures