And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.
The verse pictures a sexually immoral and deceitful woman meeting a young man who lacks sense as he goes by night toward her house, luring him from virtue by deceptive outward appearance and a crafty, subtle heart. She is not one particular individual but a class of women encountered in a life of pleasure-seeking, described more fully as the woman in Ecclesiastes 7:26, in which search fewer women of character and worth were found than men. The portrayal is vivid, truthful and direct, speaking plainly and freely about sexual matters without coarseness and without making vice attractive, showing it in its true colors to make sexual sin appear exceedingly sinful as fatal to the health of soul and body.
It belongs to a warning against the downward path of sexual sin that calls the young man to turn back and heed the fate described at the end of the chapter. It belongs also to the warning against rejecting instruction and choosing the path of folly, which leads to spiritual disease and death. As practical philosophy it must be read slowly and thought over deeply, and though parts of the chapter are not fit to read aloud in a mixed company of men and women, its instruction must take hold on the heart of both men and women to warn against the sins condemned there.
The temptation is still present today, waiting in some form at every corner, so young men especially should take warning in time and escape the grievous snares thick about their feet. The verse warns of the moral dangers young women may face when left ignorant and unprepared, since a false step can lead to prostitution and a life of shame. In a figurative sense the harlot represents a morality that depends on political power to enforce it, a disguised morality that leads toward death and brings war, robbery, murder, revenge, hatred, envy and division.
The verse pictures a sexually immoral and deceitful woman meeting a young man who lacks sense as he goes by night toward her house, luring him from virtue by deceptive outward appearance and a crafty, subtle heart. She is not one particular individual but a class of women encountered in a life of pleasure-seeking, described more fully as the woman in Ecclesiastes 7:26, in which search fewer women of character and worth were found than men. The portrayal is vivid, truthful and direct, speaking plainly and freely about sexual matters without coarseness and without making vice attractive, showing it in its true colors to make sexual sin appear exceedingly sinful as fatal to the health of soul and body.
It belongs to a warning against the downward path of sexual sin that calls the young man to turn back and heed the fate described at the end of the chapter. It belongs also to the warning against rejecting instruction and choosing the path of folly, which leads to spiritual disease and death. As practical philosophy it must be read slowly and thought over deeply, and though parts of the chapter are not fit to read aloud in a mixed company of men and women, its instruction must take hold on the heart of both men and women to warn against the sins condemned there.
The temptation is still present today, waiting in some form at every corner, so young men especially should take warning in time and escape the grievous snares thick about their feet. The verse warns of the moral dangers young women may face when left ignorant and unprepared, since a false step can lead to prostitution and a life of shame. In a figurative sense the harlot represents a morality that depends on political power to enforce it, a disguised morality that leads toward death and brings war, robbery, murder, revenge, hatred, envy and division.