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1 My sonne, keepe my words, and lay vp my commaundements with thee.

2 Keepe my commandements, and liue: and my law as the apple of thine eye.

3 Bind them vpon thy fingers, write them vpon the table of thine heart.

4 Say vnto Wisedome, Thou art my sister, and call Understanding thy kinse woman,

5 That they may keepe thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.

6 ¶ For at the windowe of my house I looked through my casement,

7 And behelde among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a yong man void of vnderstanding,

8 Passing through the streete neere her corner, and he went the way to her house,

9 In the twilight in the euening, in the blacke and darke night:

10 And behold, there met him a woman, with the attire of an harlot, and subtill of heart.

11 (She is loud and stubburne, her feet abide not in her house:

12 Now is shee without, now in the streetes, and lieth in waite at euery corner.)

13 So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face, said vnto him,

14 I haue peace offerings with me: this day haue I paid my vowes.

15 Therefore came I forth to meete thee, diligently to seeke thy face, and I haue found thee.

16 I haue deckt my bed with couerings of tapestrie, with carued workes, with fine linnen of Egypt.

17 I haue perfumed my bed with myrrhe, aloes, and cynamom.

18 Come, let vs take our fill of loue vntill the morning, let vs solace our selues with loues.

19 For the good-man is not at home, he is gone a long iourney.

20 He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed.

21 With much faire speech she caused him to yeeld, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.

22 He goeth after her straightway, as an oxe goeth to the slaughter, or as a foole to the correction of the stocks,

23 Til a dart strike through his liuer, as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.

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

25 Let not thine heart decline to her wayes, goe not astray in her paths.

26 For shee hath cast downe many wounded: yea many strong men haue bene slaine by her.

27 Her house is the way to hell, going downe to the chambers of death.

Viewing the original 1611 KJV with archaic English spelling
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Commentary for Proverbs 7

Invitations to learn wisdom. (1-5) The arts of seducers, with warnings against them. (6-27)1-5 We must lay up God's commandments safely. Not only, Keep them, and you shall live; but, Keep them as those that cannot live without them. Those that blame strict and careful walking as needless and too precise, consider not that the law is to be kept as the apple of the eye; indeed the law in the heart is the eye of the soul. Let the word of God dwell in us, and so be written where it will be always at hand to be read. Thus we shall be kept from the fatal effects of our own passions, and the snares of Satan. Let God's word confirm our dread of sin, and resolutions against it.

6-27 Here is an affecting example of the danger of youthful lusts. It is a history or a parable of the most instructive kind. Will any one dare to venture on temptations that lead to impurity, after Solomon has set before his eyes in so lively and plain a manner, the danger of even going near them? Then is he as the man who would dance on the edge of a lofty rock, when he has just seen another fall headlong from the same place. The misery of self-ruined sinners began in disregard to God's blessed commands. We ought daily to pray that we may be kept from running into temptation, else we invite the enemies of our souls to spread snares for us. Ever avoid the neighbourhood of vice. Beware of sins which are said to be pleasant sins. They are the more dangerous, because they most easily gain the heart, and close it against repentance. Do nothing till thou hast well considered the end of it. Were a man to live as long as Methuselah, and to spend all his days in the highest delights sin can offer, one hour of the anguish and tribulation that must follow, would far outweigh them.

Commentary by Matthew Henry, 1710.

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