The Young Man Void of Understanding
1 My son, keep my words. Lay up my commandments within you. 2 Keep my commandments and live! Guard my teaching as the apple of your eye. 3 Bind them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your heart. 4 Tell wisdom, “You are my sister.” Call understanding your relative, 5 that they may keep you from the strange woman, from the foreigner who flatters with her words. 6 For at the window of my house, I looked out through my lattice. 7 I saw among the simple ones. I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding, 8 passing through the street near her corner, he went the way to her house, 9 in the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the middle of the night and in the darkness. 10 Behold, there a woman met him with the attire of a prostitute, and with crafty intent. 11 She is loud and defiant. Her feet don’t stay in her house. 12 Now she is in the streets, now in the squares, and lurking at every corner. 13 So she caught him, and kissed him. With an impudent face she said to him: 14 “Sacrifices of peace offerings are with me. Today I have paid my vows. 15 Therefore I came out to meet you, to diligently seek your face, and I have found you. 16 I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry, with striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt. 17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. 18 Come, let’s take our fill of loving until the morning. Let’s solace ourselves with loving. 19 For my husband isn’t at home. He has gone on a long journey. 20 He has taken a bag of money with him. He will come home at the full moon.” 21 With persuasive words, she led him astray. With the flattering of her lips, she seduced him. 22 He followed her immediately, as an ox goes to the slaughter, as a fool stepping into a noose. 23 Until an arrow strikes through his liver, as a bird hurries to the snare, and doesn’t know that it will cost his life. 24 Now therefore, sons, listen to me. Pay attention to the words of my mouth. 25 Don’t let your heart turn to her ways. Don’t go astray in her paths, 26 for she has thrown down many wounded. Yes, all her slain are a mighty army. 27 Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the rooms of death.
The father stops arguing and tells a story he watched through a window, and every detail in it is a decision the young man made before he met anyone.
The chapter changes method. Chapters 5 and 6 argued; this one narrates, and the narrator places himself at a window looking through the lattice. What follows is presented as something observed, which gives it a different kind of authority. The reader is put beside a man watching.
The young man is described before the woman appears, and this is where the chapter does its real work. He is among the simple, void of understanding. He is passing through the street near her corner — he knows which corner it is. He went the way to her house. And the time is given four ways in one verse: twilight, evening, the middle of the night, darkness. Nothing has happened to him yet, and every choice that matters has already been made. He picked the street, the direction and the hour.
Only then does she appear. Her approach is drawn with the same economy: dressed for it, loud and defiant, feet that do not stay in her house, lurking at every corner. And the first thing she says is religious. Sacrifices of peace offerings are with me. Today I have paid my vows. A peace offering had to be eaten the same day, so she is inviting him to a meal left over from an act of worship. She has been to the sanctuary and she is using it as the opening line.
The rest of her speech is a catalogue of preparation — tapestry from Egypt, myrrh and aloes and cinnamon — followed by the one piece of information that makes it possible: my husband isn't at home. He has gone on a long journey. She even gives the date of his return. The whole thing is planned, priced and timetabled, and the young man contributes nothing to it but arriving.
The three images at the end run in a deliberate order. He follows as an ox goes to the slaughter, which walks willingly and does not understand. As a fool stepping into a noose, who understands and does it anyway. And as a bird hurries to the snare, and doesn't know that it will cost his life — hurrying, eager, and wrong about the price. The chapter's verdict is in that last clause. He is not described as choosing death. He is described as not knowing what it costs, having taken care not to be in a position to find out.
settled What this mark means