The world's most potent honey trap (Proverbs blog #3)

 So far in this series in Proverbs, we have thought about (a) the book’s introduction, which highlights the centrality of the fear of the LORD, and (b) the book’s use of Deuteronomy, reinforcing the fear of the LORD as a key theme and application of the book. If you haven’t read these previous two blogs, I would recommend starting with those and reading them in order – but that is up to you! This blog continues looking at how the author of Proverbs draws on other parts of the Old Testament to teach us and transform us.

As we have thought about Proverbs, there has been a big elephant in the room, making awkward eye contact with us from the very first verse: Solomon. These are ‘the proverbs of Solomon’ (1:1, again in 10:1 and again in 25:1). The whole book has a Solomon-y feel.[1] Why so much focus on Solomon?

The worst translation error in the Bible

To work this out, we need to start with (what I think is) the worst bible translation error, at least in the NIV and ESV translations. They get the name of the book’s villain wrong.

Throughout chapters 1 to 9, we encounter a character called ‘forbidden woman’ and ‘adulteress’ in the ESV (in 2:16, 5:3, 5:20, 6:24 and 7:5). But that is not the name the author of Proverbs has given her – she is actually called ‘strange woman’ and ‘foreign woman’ in the Hebrew, which has been mistranslated in our versions. If you want to get nerdy about the translation/Hebrew stuff, I have added a footnote for your pleasure.[2]

The reason this error matters is that the foreign woman is not a new character. When we see her in Proverbs, we are meant to recognise her from the Old Testament: she was the architect of Solomon’s downfall.

Solomon: the man ruined by his choice of women

It is worth reading 1 Kings 11:1-8 at this point, as it is the single-most important passage for understanding the book of Proverbs. See if you can spot our villain, the foreign woman, as you read:

“Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and did not wholly follow the LORD, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods.”

Clearly Solomon is in the wrong here – there is no good justification for 700 wives and 300 concubines. But 1 Kings surprisingly doesn’t focus on the number of women, rather focusing on where they are from: “King Solomon loved many foreign women…”.

Before we think that the author is just being xenophobic, we need to recognise the theological connotations of foreignness at this time. Different nations all had different gods. And this, rather than the sheer scale of adultery, is the really bad thing about Solomon’s love life – they turned him away from the LORD: “his wives turned away his heart. For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God”.

This is what makes the foreign woman a terrible villain – not just the sexual immorality, but that she seduces your heart into a path of idolatry and godlessness, where the LORD is nowhere to be found. She takes you away from the fear of the LORD.

The primary metaphor of Proverbs: which woman will you choose

Going back to Proverbs, there is a clear metaphor running through chapters 1 to 9 (and indeed the rest of the book): two women vying for the heart of the reader:

·        The book starts with Lady Wisdom calling to all who might listen: “Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: ‘how long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?” (1:20-22)

·        The book then highlights in the next chapter a deathly woman from whom Wisdom will deliver you: “So you will be delivered from the strange woman, from the foreign woman with her smooth words, who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God; for her house sinks down to death and her paths to the departed; none who go to her come back, nor do they regain the paths of life.” (2:16-19)

·        Throughout the following chapters, the author appeals to the reader to choose Lady Wisdom (4:5-9, 5:18-19) and to beware the deathly foreign woman (5:1-6, 5:20, 6:23-26).

·        The argument then climaxes in chapter 7-9, as the reader is presented with the call to avoid the foreign woman’s seduction (7:1-27) and to embrace Lady Wisdom as their companion instead (7:4, 8:1-36). Chapter 9 leaves the reader invited to two banquets: Lady Wisdom’s (9:1-6) and the woman Folly’s (9:13-18), leaving us to decide which invite we will accept. Which woman will we choose?

The foreign woman really is a metaphor

It is key to recognise the identity shift that happens to the foreign/strange woman in chapter 9 – no longer is she called the foreign woman, but “The woman Folly” (9:13). Remember from our last blog – wisdom and folly have specific theological definitions, with wisdom describing a life recognising the LORD as God and fearing him, and folly describing a life turned away from him. By calling her “Folly”, the author of Proverbs is using her as a metaphor embodying all walks of life where one’s heart is turned away from the LORD to other things.

This is why the mistranslation of her as ‘the adulteress’ is so unhelpful. It limits people to thinking that Proverbs is just addressing (a) men who (b) are tempted to adultery, and that the big sin they are in danger of is sexual immorality. But that is missing the point of the metaphor! The foreign woman in Proverbs refers to any aspects of a godless, foolish life that we are tempted by (after all, she is the embodiment of Folly). That could be sexual immorality, or it could be something completely different like power or pleasure or pay. This means that Proverbs is a book for everyone who is tempted by some aspect of godlessness or worldly living. In other words, it is a book for every single Christian.

Just a caveat on the gender balance of this metaphor – it is clearly written from the man’s perspective, but that does not mean that Proverbs is more useful for men. Lots of illustrations in the Bible will be related to one gender but useful for all the church – for example, the metaphor of the bride for the church in Revelation 21 may be more relatable for women, but is still a useful picture for all of us. The reason this metaphor in Proverbs is from a man’s perspective is because we are meant to think of Solomon: the way folly enticed him was through the foreign women. But the lesson we learn from Solomon’s story is just as important for women as it is for men.

The value of the metaphor: folly is sexy and seductive

Why does Proverbs choose to use this metaphor of a woman? Why not just tell people not to choose folly in its different ways? Why not just restate the ten commandments?

To see the value of this metaphor, let’s look at how the foreign woman (Folly herself) is described:

·        “The foreign woman with her smooth words” (2:16)

·        “The lips of a strange woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil” (5:3)

·        “The smooth tongue of the foreign woman” (6:24)

·        “The woman meets him, dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart. She is loud” (7:10-11)

·        ““Come, let us take our fill of love till morning; let us delight ourselves with love”” (7:18)

·        “With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him” (7:21)

·        “The woman Folly is loud; she is seductive and knows nothing” (9:13)

The key thing about the woman Folly is that she is seductive. Her words are incredibly enticing; what she says she offers sounds incredible.

This is what makes the metaphor so powerful: it captures the appeal of temptation to folly that we all experience as Christians. For a Christian in a high-powered job, the path of their colleagues is really appealing, devoting all their energy to their work in hopes of promotion or worldly recognition. For a Christian, a romantic relationship with a good non-christian friend whom we get on well with and are attracted to can be really appealing. For a Christian, the selfish mantras of our present age can be really appealing, as we see a world around us enjoying incredible pleasures and experiences that we feel like we’re missing out on.

Those are only three generic examples of the many ways that folly – a life turned away from the LORD and focused on other things – can sound enticing to Christians. For Solomon, it was the foreign women, with the allure of sex and love leading his heart away from the LORD. For us, it may be something completely different. But Folly will find a way to tempt you – and the metaphor is so powerful because it captures how appealing her temptation will be.

The author goes even further in driving home her appeal – by showing her success rate:

“Let not your heart turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths, for many a victim has she laid low, and all her slain are a mighty throng. Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.” (7:23-25)

Folly has seduced and subsequently murdered millions upon millions in history, as human hearts have chosen the world and godlessness rather than the LORD. Don’t be complacent in thinking you’re safe from her allure – she has killed many before you and could kill you too.

Hopefully you can see the power of this evocative metaphor. Rather than using dry and boring language to describe the Christian experience, Proverbs paints a vivid picture: the appeal of the world is like the sexiest woman around, whose offer is near irresistible to our ears, and who at the same time is holding a knife behind her back, desperate to kill us.

Conclusion: a book that helps us fear the LORD in a world of temptation

At the end of the previous blog, we had this as our working summary for the message of Proverbs based on its introduction and its use of Deuteronomy:

Proverbs teaches its readers to fear the LORD…

This blog, part 2 of our Proverbs-Old Testament deep dive, expands our working message of the book. As we look at how Proverbs builds on Solomon and 1 Kings, in steps the villain. An incredibly attractive, compelling woman, Folly herself. She is the alternative to the fear of the LORD, offering a godless life without him, which can look really good to us. The reason we need Proverbs is because we are in mortal danger: Folly is out to seduce us and then kill us, and is really appealing in doing so.

So, building this part into our summary for the message:

Proverbs teaches its readers to fear the LORD when godlessness is really appealing…

This leaves us with one more blog to go. So far, we have focused on one of the two women in the metaphor. But why is it worth choosing the other one, Wisdom? Come back for part 3 of 3, where we go back to the very beginning…

 

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[1] Proverbs is a book concerned with wisdom and understanding; Solomon is the king famous for requesting understanding (1 Kings 3:1-15, particularly verse 9: “Give your servant an understanding mind”) and for possessing wisdom (1 Kings 3:16-28, particularly verse 28: “they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him”). He is the king renowned for proverbs: “he also spoke 3,000 proverbs” (1 Kings 4:32).

[2] In the verses where the woman appears, the Hebrew words describing her are ‘zuwr’ (translated ‘forbidden’ in Proverbs and ‘strange’ everywhere else in the Bible) and ‘nokri’ (translated ‘adulteress’ in Proverbs and ‘foreign’ everywhere else in the Bible, including 1 Kings 11). Because this woman is presented as seductive through chapters 1-9, and is portrayed as an adulteress in chapter 7, the ESV translators decided to interpret ‘zuwr’ and ‘nokri’ as metaphorical (i.e. this woman is metaphorically foreign/a stranger because she isn’t your wife – she is a stranger to you because you’re not married to her). However, nowhere else in the entire Old Testament (with over 100 other references) are these words translated as metaphorical in this way – they always literally mean something foreign or someone who is a stranger/foreign. Therefore, the most suitable translation of these words should be in line with their meaning everywhere else in Hebrew – literally a stranger/foreign.

I also want to say that I am incredibly grateful for the translators of the ESV and the NIV - I just disagree with them on this one issue!