Proverbs 7:13

After this digression the poet returns to the subject, and further describes the event as observed by himself. And she laid hold on him and kissed him; Put on a bold brow and said to him. The verb נשׁק is here, after its primary signification, connected with the dat.: osculum fixit ei. Thus also Gen 27:26 is construed, and the Dagesh in לּו is, as there, Dag. forte conj., after the law for which the national grammarians have coined the technical name אתי מרחיק (veniens e longinquo, "coming out of the distance," i.e., the attraction of a word following by one accented on the penult.). The penult.-accenting of נשׁקה is the consequence of the retrogression of the accent (נסוג אחור), which, here where the word from the first had the penult, only with Metheg, and thus with a half a tone, brings with it the dageshing of the לו following, as the original penultima-accenting of והחזיקה does of the בו which follows it, for the reading בּו by Lwenstein is contrary to the laws of punctuation of the Textus receptus under consideration here. (Note: Vid., Baer's Torath Emeth, p. 29f., and Psalmen-Commentar under Psa 52:5.) As בו and לו have received the doubling Dagesh, so on the other hand, according to Ewald, 193b, it has disappeared from העזה (written with Raphe according to Kimchi, Michlol 145a). And as נשׁקה has the tone thrown back, so the proper pausal ותּאמר is accented on the ult., but without attracting the לו following by dageshing, which is the case only when the first of the two words terminates in the sound of ā (āh). העז פניו is said of one who shows firmness of hardness of countenance (Arab. slabt alwajh), i.e., one who shows shamelessness, or, as we say, an iron forehead (Fl.).

The scope of this chapter is, as of several before, to warn young men against the lusts of the flesh. Solomon remembered of what ill consequence it was to his father, perhaps found himself, and perceived his son, addicted to it, or at least had observed how many hopeful young men among his subjects had been ruined by those lusts; and therefore he thought he could never say enough to dissuade men from them, that "every one may possess his vessel in sanctification and honour, and not in the lusts of uncleanness." In this chapter we have, I. A general exhortation to get our minds principled and governed by the world of God, as a sovereign antidote against this sin (Pro 7:1-5). II. A particular representation of the great danger which unwary young men are in of being inveigled into this snare (v. 6-23). III. A serious caution inferred thence, in the close, to take heed of all approaches towards this sin (Pro 7:24-27). We should all pray, "Lord, lead us not into this temptation."