Commentary - Proverbs 7:1-5

Bird's-eye view

In this opening section of Proverbs 7, a father gives his son an urgent and intensely practical lesson in spiritual warfare. The battleground is the son's heart and the enemy is the seductive allure of the adulteress. The father's strategy is not a list of prohibitions, but rather a positive and all-encompassing fortification of the soul. He commands his son to saturate his entire being with the law and wisdom of God. This is a prophylactic piety, a preventative medicine. The Word of God must be treasured internally, guarded jealously, displayed externally, and cultivated relationally. The goal of this deep, abiding love for God's truth is explicitly stated: it is the only effective defense against the flattering lies of the strange woman, which lead to death. This is not mere moral advice; it is covenantal instruction on how to live.

The core principle is that a heart filled with the right kind of love has no room for the wrong kind. The father instructs his son to personify and befriend wisdom, to make her a sister and an intimate friend. This establishes a pure, protective, and familial relationship that stands in stark contrast to the illicit, destructive, and foreign relationship offered by the adulteress. The passage sets up the central conflict of the chapter: a battle between two women, Lady Wisdom and Dame Folly, for the soul of a young man. The father's plea is for his son to choose his relations wisely, because that choice is a matter of life and death.

Outline

Context In Proverbs

Proverbs 7 is a masterful, narrative sermon set within the larger collection of a father's instructions to his son that comprises chapters 1 through 9. This section of Proverbs is distinct from the pithy, two-line proverbs that dominate the rest of the book. Here, we find extended discourses on the theme of wisdom versus folly. These two paths are personified as two women: Lady Wisdom, who calls out in the streets offering life and honor, and Dame Folly, often represented as the "strange woman" or the adulteress, who lurks in the shadows offering stolen pleasures that lead to the grave. Chapter 7 is the most vivid and detailed portrait of the adulteress in action. The opening verses (1-5) serve as the essential preamble, providing the divine antidote before describing the poison. They establish that the only way to resist the temptations detailed in the rest of the chapter is to be thoroughly prepared beforehand through a deep and abiding love for God's commandments.

Key Issues

Your Sister, Wisdom

The world is full of temptations, but the book of Proverbs simplifies the issue for us by focusing on the paradigmatic temptation for a young man, which is the adulteress. But before the father describes her tactics, he lays out the only effective defense system. And it is not what we might expect. It is not a set of rules for where to look and where not to look. It is not a behavioral modification program. The defense is a relationship. The defense is a love affair. The only way to guard a young man from the wrong woman is to make sure he is already in a committed, loving relationship with the right one. And her name is Wisdom.

This is a profoundly Christian principle. The way we fight sin is not simply by saying "no" to temptation, but by saying a more profound "yes" to Christ. The Christian life is not one of grim-faced prohibition, but of joyful preoccupation. When a man's heart is captivated by the glory of God, when he treasures the commandments, when wisdom is his sister and his friend, the cheap trinkets offered by the adulteress are exposed for the trash they are. The fight for purity is fought and won here, in the heart's affections, long before the moment of temptation ever arrives.

Verse by Verse Commentary

1 My son, keep my words And treasure my commandments within you.

The address is personal and affectionate: My son. This is not an impersonal legal code; it is a father's earnest plea, born of love and concern. The first command has two parts. First, keep my words. This means to guard them, to watch over them, to obey them. It's an active, diligent responsibility. Second, treasure my commandments within you. This goes deeper. It is not enough to obey externally; the law must be stored up in the heart as a precious treasure. You don't leave gold and jewels lying around on the floor. You put them in a vault. The heart is to be a vault for God's Word. This implies value. The son must see the commandments not as a burden, but as his most precious possession. This is the foundation of all that follows.

2 Keep my commandments and live, And my law as the apple of your eye.

The stakes are stated plainly: keep my commandments and live. This is covenant language, echoing Deuteronomy. Obedience is the path of life; disobedience is the path of death. This is not teaching salvation by works, but rather describing the nature of reality. God has designed the world in such a way that wisdom leads to flourishing and folly leads to ruin. The second phrase intensifies the command to treasure the law: keep it as the apple of your eye. The pupil of the eye is the most sensitive, vulnerable, and essential part of the body. We guard it instinctively and fiercely. A speck of dust causes a panic. That is how we are to view the law of God. We are to be exquisitely sensitive to any threat against it, protecting it with an automatic and zealous reflex. It is that precious.

3 Bind them on your fingers; Write them on the tablet of your heart.

This verse, drawing directly from Deuteronomy 6:8, describes a total saturation with the Word of God, both externally and internally. Bind them on your fingers speaks of a constant, visible reminder. Your hands are what you use to interact with the world. God's law should govern every action, every task, every thing you touch. It should be as plain as the ring on your finger. But external reminders are useless without internal reality. Therefore, he adds, Write them on the tablet of your heart. This moves from the symbol to the substance. The heart, in Hebrew thought, is the center of the will, the intellect, and the emotions. The father is calling for a deep, permanent, inward transformation, the very thing promised in the New Covenant when God says He will write His law on our hearts (Jer. 31:33). True obedience flows from a changed heart that loves God's law.

4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister," And call understanding your intimate friend;

Here is the relational masterstroke. The son is not just to learn about wisdom as an abstract concept; he is to enter into a relationship with her. He is to claim her as family. Say to wisdom, "You are my sister." This is a beautiful and carefully chosen metaphor. A sisterly relationship is one of intimacy, affection, and companionship, but it is pure. It is a safe relationship. It is protective. You look out for your sister, and she looks out for you. He is also to call understanding your intimate friend. This is a close confidante, someone you know and trust completely. The point is to cultivate a deep, personal, loving attachment to the wisdom of God. This is the positive affection that will crowd out the illicit affection offered by the adulteress.

5 In order to keep you from the strange woman, From the foreign woman who flatters with her words.

This verse reveals the practical, immediate purpose of all the preceding commands. Why must you treasure the law, guard it like your own eye, bind it to your hands, write it on your heart, and make wisdom your sister? In order to keep you from the trap. The defense must be in place before the attack comes. The enemy is identified as the strange woman or foreign woman. This does not necessarily mean she is a gentile. She is "strange" or "foreign" to the covenant of God. She is an outsider to the way of wisdom and life. Her primary weapon is identified: she flatters with her words. She uses smooth, seductive speech to deceive. The only way to be immune to her lies is to be so filled with God's truth that the flattery sounds hollow and false. A man in love with wisdom will not be fooled by the sweet talk of folly.

Application

This ancient fatherly advice is desperately needed in our hyper-sexualized world. The "strange woman" is no longer confined to a dark corner of the city; she is in every man's pocket on his smartphone, available with a few clicks. Her flattering words are broadcast through our movies, music, and advertising, promising fulfillment and pleasure while delivering only bondage and death. The tactics have not changed, and neither has the defense.

The call for Christian men today is the same. You cannot fight a firestorm of temptation with a squirt gun of good intentions. You need a deep, abiding, and treasuring love for the Word of God. You need to guard it as the most precious thing you own. It must be written on your heart by the Holy Spirit. But most of all, you must cultivate a relationship with Wisdom Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who is "better than rubies" (Prov. 8:11). When you learn to say to Christ, "You are my brother, my Lord, my intimate friend," the flattering words of the world begin to lose their power. The fight for purity is a fight for affection. The question this passage forces upon us is simple: Who are you related to? Is Wisdom your sister? Or is Folly your mistress?