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THE MESSAGE

Proverbs 7:21

Soon she has him eating out of her hand, bewitched by her honeyed speech. Before you know it, he's trotting behind her, like a calf led to the butcher shop, Like a stag lured into ambush and then shot with an arrow, Like a bird flying into a net not knowing that its flying life is over.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Adultery;   Blindness;   Flattery;   Harlot (Prostitute);   Hypocrisy;   Ignorance;   Lasciviousness;   Temptation;   Women;   Young Men;   The Topic Concordance - Whoredom;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Flattery;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Fornication;   Men;   Wisdom;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Fool, Foolishness, Folly;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Evil Speaking;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Delilah;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Gestures;   Proverbs, Book of;   Sex, Biblical Teaching on;   Song of Solomon;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Proverbs, Book of;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Proverbs book of;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Compel;   Fair;   Lip;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Chastity;   Judaism;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
She seduces him with her persistent pleading;she lures with her flattering talk.
Hebrew Names Version
With persuasive words, she led him astray. With the flattering of her lips, she seduced him.
King James Version
With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.
English Standard Version
With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him.
New Century Version
By her clever words she made him give in; by her pleasing words she led him into doing wrong.
New English Translation
She persuaded him with persuasive words; with her smooth talk she compelled him.
Amplified Bible
With her many persuasions she caused him to yield; With her flattering lips she seduced him.
New American Standard Bible
With her many persuasions she entices him; With her flattering lips she seduces him.
World English Bible
With persuasive words, she led him astray. With the flattering of her lips, she seduced him.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Thus with her great craft she caused him to yeelde, and with her flattering lips she entised him.
Legacy Standard Bible
With her abundant persuasions she entices him;With her flattering lips she drives him to herself.
Berean Standard Bible
With her great persuasion she entices him; she lures him with her flattering lips.
Contemporary English Version
And so, she tricked him with all of her sweet talk and her flattery.
Complete Jewish Bible
With all her sweet talk she convinces him, enticing him with her seductive words.
Darby Translation
With her much enticement she beguiled him; with the smoothness of her lips she constrained him.
Easy-to-Read Version
This is what the woman said to tempt the young man, and her smooth words tricked him.
George Lamsa Translation
With much fair speech she misled him, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.
Good News Translation
So she tempted him with her charms, and he gave in to her smooth talk.
Lexham English Bible
She persuades him with the greatness of her teachings; with her smooth lips she compels him.
Literal Translation
With the sum of her persuasion she turned him aside; with the flattering of her lips she forced him.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Thus with many swete wordes she ouercame him, and with hir flateringe lippes she wanne him.
American Standard Version
With her much fair speech she causeth him to yield; With the flattering of her lips she forceth him along.
Bible in Basic English
With her fair words she overcame him, forcing him with her smooth lips.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
With her much fair speech she causeth him to yield, with the blandishment of her lips she enticeth him away.
King James Version (1611)
With much faire speech she caused him to yeeld, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Thus with many sweete wordes she ouercame him, and with her flattering lippes she entised hym.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
So with much converse she prevailed on him to go astray, and with the snares of her lips forced him from the right path.
English Revised Version
With her much fair speech she causeth him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forceth him away.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Sche boonde hym with many wordis; and sche drow forth hym with flateryngis of lippis.
Update Bible Version
With her much fair speech she causes him to yield; With the flattering of her lips she forces him along.
Webster's Bible Translation
With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she impelled him.
New King James Version
With her enticing speech she caused him to yield, With her flattering lips she seduced him.
New Living Translation
So she seduced him with her pretty speech and enticed him with her flattery.
New Life Bible
She leads him away with her tempting talk. She tempts him with the smooth words of her lips.
New Revised Standard
With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
She turneth him aside, with her great persuasiveness, - with the flattery of her lips, she compelleth him:
Douay-Rheims Bible
She entangled him with many words, and drew him away with the flattery of her lips.
Revised Standard Version
With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him.
Young's Literal Translation
She turneth him aside with the abundance of her speech, With the flattery of her lips she forceth him.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
With her many persuasions she entices him; With her flattering lips she seduces him.

Contextual Overview

6As I stood at the window of my house looking out through the shutters, Watching the mindless crowd stroll by, I spotted a young man without any sense Arriving at the corner of the street where she lived, then turning up the path to her house. It was dusk, the evening coming on, the darkness thickening into night. Just then, a woman met him— she'd been lying in wait for him, dressed to seduce him. Brazen and brash she was, restless and roaming, never at home, Walking the streets, loitering in the mall, hanging out at every corner in town. 13She threw her arms around him and kissed him, boldly took his arm and said, "I've got all the makings for a feast— today I made my offerings, my vows are all paid, So now I've come to find you, hoping to catch sight of your face—and here you are! I've spread fresh, clean sheets on my bed, colorful imported linens. My bed is aromatic with spices and exotic fragrances. Come, let's make love all night, spend the night in ecstatic lovemaking! My husband's not home; he's away on business, and he won't be back for a month." 21Soon she has him eating out of her hand, bewitched by her honeyed speech. Before you know it, he's trotting behind her, like a calf led to the butcher shop, Like a stag lured into ambush and then shot with an arrow, Like a bird flying into a net not knowing that its flying life is over.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

With her: Proverbs 7:5, Proverbs 5:3, Judges 16:15-17, Psalms 12:2

forced: 1 Samuel 28:23, 2 Kings 4:8, Luke 14:23, Luke 24:29, Acts 16:15, 2 Corinthians 5:14

Reciprocal: Judges 14:17 - she lay Judges 16:5 - Entice Judges 16:6 - General Judges 16:16 - she pressed Judges 16:19 - she made 2 Chronicles 24:17 - the princes of Judah Nehemiah 6:4 - four times Job 31:9 - If mine Proverbs 1:10 - General Proverbs 2:16 - flattereth Proverbs 26:28 - a flattering Proverbs 29:5 - that Ecclesiastes 7:26 - I find Ezekiel 16:30 - the work 1 Corinthians 2:4 - not James 3:6 - a world

Cross-References

Genesis 6:13
God said to Noah, "It's all over. It's the end of the human race. The violence is everywhere; I'm making a clean sweep.
Genesis 6:17
"I'm going to bring a flood on the Earth that will destroy everything alive under Heaven. Total destruction.
Genesis 7:6
Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters covered the Earth. Noah and his wife and sons and their wives boarded the ship to escape the flood. Clean and unclean animals, birds, and all the crawling creatures came in pairs to Noah and to the ship, male and female, just as God had commanded Noah. In seven days the floodwaters came.
Genesis 7:17
The flood continued forty days and the waters rose and lifted the ship high over the Earth. The waters kept rising, the flood deepened on the Earth, the ship floated on the surface. The flood got worse until all the highest mountains were covered—the high-water mark reached twenty feet above the crest of the mountains. Everything died. Anything that moved—dead. Birds, farm animals, wild animals, the entire teeming exuberance of life—dead. And all people—dead. Every living, breathing creature that lived on dry land died; he wiped out the whole works—people and animals, crawling creatures and flying birds, every last one of them, gone. Only Noah and his company on the ship lived.
Isaiah 24:19
The Landscape Will Be a Moonscape Danger ahead! God 's about to ravish the earth and leave it in ruins, Rip everything out by the roots and send everyone scurrying: priests and laypeople alike, owners and workers alike, celebrities and nobodies alike, buyers and sellers alike, bankers and beggars alike, the haves and have-nots alike. The landscape will be a moonscape, totally wasted. And why? Because God says so. He's issued the orders. The earth turns gaunt and gray, the world silent and sad, sky and land lifeless, colorless. Earth is polluted by its very own people, who have broken its laws, Disrupted its order, violated the sacred and eternal covenant. Therefore a curse, like a cancer, ravages the earth. Its people pay the price of their sacrilege. They dwindle away, dying out one by one. No more wine, no more vineyards, no more songs or singers. The laughter of castanets is gone, the shouts of celebrants, gone, the laughter of fiddles, gone. No more parties with toasts of champagne. Serious drinkers gag on their drinks. The chaotic cities are unlivable. Anarchy reigns. Every house is boarded up, condemned. People riot in the streets for wine, but the good times are gone forever— no more joy for this old world. The city is dead and deserted, bulldozed into piles of rubble. That's the way it will be on this earth. This is the fate of all nations: An olive tree shaken clean of its olives, a grapevine picked clean of its grapes. But there are some who will break into glad song. Out of the west they'll shout of God 's majesty. Yes, from the east God 's glory will ascend. Every island of the sea Will broadcast God 's fame, the fame of the God of Israel. From the four winds and the seven seas we hear the singing: "All praise to the Righteous One!" But I said, "That's all well and good for somebody, but all I can see is doom, doom, and more doom." All of them at one another's throats, yes, all of them at one another's throats. Terror and pits and booby traps are everywhere, whoever you are. If you run from the terror, you'll fall into the pit. If you climb out of the pit, you'll get caught in the trap. Chaos pours out of the skies. The foundations of earth are crumbling. Earth is smashed to pieces, earth is ripped to shreds, earth is wobbling out of control, Earth staggers like a drunk, sways like a shack in a high wind. Its piled-up sins are too much for it. It collapses and won't get up again. That's when God will call on the carpet rebel powers in the skies and Rebel kings on earth. They'll be rounded up like prisoners in a jail, Corralled and locked up in a jail, and then sentenced and put to hard labor. Shamefaced moon will cower, humiliated, red-faced sun will skulk, disgraced, Because God -of-the-Angel-Armies will take over, ruling from Mount Zion and Jerusalem, Splendid and glorious before all his leaders.
Zephaniah 1:3
"Men and women and animals, including birds and fish— Anything and everything that causes sin—will go, but especially people.
Romans 8:22
All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

With her much fair speech she caused him to yield,.... Or, "to decline" from the right way: or, "inclined him" d; his ear to listen to her, and his heart to go after her and along with her. This she did, by using a great many words, by her prolixity, and by some taking and striking expressions; lewd women are generally very talkative e. It may be rendered, "by her much doctrine" f, as the word is in Proverbs 4:2; so Jezebel calls herself a prophetess, and sets up for a teacher of men; and, by her false doctrine, deceives some that are called the servants of Christ to commit fornication, and eat things sacrificed to idols, Revelation 2:20;

with the flattering of her lips she forced him; to go along with her, not against his will, but with it: though at first there was some reluctance, conscience rose up and opposed; but her words, which were smoother than oil, found a way into his heart, and prevailed upon him to yield to her entreaties; he could no longer withstand her attacks, but surrendered to her; her charming voice, and flattering lips, had more effect upon him than her kisses; notwithstanding these he was reluctant, but could stand it out no longer against her alluring words and soothing language. With this compare the deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish through antichrist, 2 Thessalonians 2:10.

d הטתו "declinare facit eum", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, Gejerus; "flexit", Tigurine version, Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Mercerus, Michaelin "inclinavit illum", Cocceius. e "Verbosa gaudet Venus Ioquela", Catullus ad Camer. Ep. 53. v. 20. f ברב לקחה "multitudine discipline suae", Junius Tremellius, Piscator "doctrinae suae", Michaelis.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Fair speech - The Hebrew word is usually translated “doctrine,” or “learning” Proverbs 1:5; Proverbs 4:2; Proverbs 9:9; possibly it is used here in keen irony.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Proverbs 7:21. With her much fair speech — With her blandishments and lascivious talk, she overcame all his scruples, and constrained him to yield.


 
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