5 My son, be attentive to my wisdom;
incline your ear to my understanding,
2 that you may keep discretion,
and your lips may guard knowledge.
3 For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey,
and her speech is smoother than oil,
4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
sharp as a two-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death;
her steps follow the path to Sheol;
6 she does not ponder the path of life;
her ways wander, and she does not know it.
Bearing in mind the fact that in the first nine chapters of Proverbs we have what amounts to an exposition of the 'text' given in 1:7: 'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge'. In a series of fatherly talks which illustrate and press home the fateful choice to be made between wisdom and folly, we have, next in order, a chapter dealing with wisdom about marriage. It divides into three sections, the first of which occupies us in these verses. There are several lessons to be gathered from this graphic picture of the 'strange woman' or seductress. For one thing, here is a realm in which it is important for a young man to listen to an older person's advice and counsel, for the very good reason that it is a realm where it is so easy to lose one's perspective. There is a blind spot in so many minds in this kind of situation, and it becomes absolutely imperative to have ob- jective assessments given us. God will certainly guide us through others' views here. For another thing, we should note the contrast between 'thy lips' in 2 and 'her lips' in 3. What is said in 2 will prove to be a protection and safeguard against the temptation. If our speech is true, we are likely to be true, and will therefore 'see through' the false and specious flattery that leads the unwary and gullible to disaster. This means that the crite- rion of judgment is sound spiritual sense and wisdom rather than emotional feelings. Reason, rather than emotion, must be the touchstone, in this as in so many other things. But more of this in tomorrow's Note.