I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows.
The verse belongs to the account in the seventh chapter of Proverbs of the strange woman and the young man void of understanding who under cover of darkness went the way to her house. In the verse the woman invokes her peace offerings and paid vows as a religious appeal while enticing the young man away from virtue, and her outward show of devotion does not make her invitation safe, for he is being drawn toward ruin. The woman in the attire of an harlot and subtle of heart still lives, lying in wait at every corner. Those who yield go after her straightway as an ox to the slaughter and as a fool to correction, till a dart strikes through the liver, as a bird hastens to the snare not knowing it is for his life, for she has cast down many wounded and slain many strong men and her house is the way to hell going down to the chambers of death. She is a harlot leading people toward death.
The verse is part of a warning to young men against the downward path of sexual immorality, whose final verse makes clear the terrible fate awaiting those who continue in that path unless they turn back. It belongs to instruction warning against the path of folly and urging the path of wisdom, which is the path of life, and rejecting its reproofs leads to spiritual ruin and death. The chapter gives a vivid and truthful setting forth of the vicious life with its momentary pleasures and its long years of bitter remorse, going straight to the mark. Its plain speaking about sexual matters makes sins of this nature appear exceeding sinful because they are fatal to the health of soul and body, warns young men in time to escape the grievous snares about their feet, and paints vice and its dreadful consequences in their own true colors without coarseness and without making vice attractive. The verse contains deep philosophy that must be read slowly and thought over, and as part of instruction warning the human heart of both men and women against condemned sins, its subject makes it not well suited for reading in a mixed assembly of men and women, yet its warning ought to take hold on every heart.
The description of the immoral woman enticing inexperienced youth shows the moral dangers surrounding young people, especially girls sent alone into cities in dense ignorance of the sacred functions of the body, where seduction along a perilous path can commit them by a single false step to the life of shame of women who sell themselves. Therefore fathers and mothers must give wise instruction in the forces and laws of physical life for health of body and soul. The harlot image is also applied to morality enforced through political power, describing it as a disguised harlot whose path brings violence and division.
The verse belongs to the account in the seventh chapter of Proverbs of the strange woman and the young man void of understanding who under cover of darkness went the way to her house. In the verse the woman invokes her peace offerings and paid vows as a religious appeal while enticing the young man away from virtue, and her outward show of devotion does not make her invitation safe, for he is being drawn toward ruin. The woman in the attire of an harlot and subtle of heart still lives, lying in wait at every corner. Those who yield go after her straightway as an ox to the slaughter and as a fool to correction, till a dart strikes through the liver, as a bird hastens to the snare not knowing it is for his life, for she has cast down many wounded and slain many strong men and her house is the way to hell going down to the chambers of death. She is a harlot leading people toward death.
The verse is part of a warning to young men against the downward path of sexual immorality, whose final verse makes clear the terrible fate awaiting those who continue in that path unless they turn back. It belongs to instruction warning against the path of folly and urging the path of wisdom, which is the path of life, and rejecting its reproofs leads to spiritual ruin and death. The chapter gives a vivid and truthful setting forth of the vicious life with its momentary pleasures and its long years of bitter remorse, going straight to the mark. Its plain speaking about sexual matters makes sins of this nature appear exceeding sinful because they are fatal to the health of soul and body, warns young men in time to escape the grievous snares about their feet, and paints vice and its dreadful consequences in their own true colors without coarseness and without making vice attractive. The verse contains deep philosophy that must be read slowly and thought over, and as part of instruction warning the human heart of both men and women against condemned sins, its subject makes it not well suited for reading in a mixed assembly of men and women, yet its warning ought to take hold on every heart.
The description of the immoral woman enticing inexperienced youth shows the moral dangers surrounding young people, especially girls sent alone into cities in dense ignorance of the sacred functions of the body, where seduction along a perilous path can commit them by a single false step to the life of shame of women who sell themselves. Therefore fathers and mothers must give wise instruction in the forces and laws of physical life for health of body and soul. The harlot image is also applied to morality enforced through political power, describing it as a disguised harlot whose path brings violence and division.