Proverbs 2:16–19
To deliver you from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flatters with her words;
Which forsakes the guide of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God.
For her house inclines unto death, and her paths unto the dead.
None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.
The “strange woman”—sometimes translated as the “adulteress” and “wayward woman”—is the woman who lives outside of covenant relationship. She is rootless and nobody claims her as a daughter, a sister, or a wife. She is a wanderer, happy to be by herself, “independent,” free of all the ties that bind in family and church. Typically, this woman’s life is characterized by fornication, divorce, and adultery.
The woman described here abandoned the guardian of her youth, which could refer either to her father or to her husband. More likely this was her first husband, since the following verse indicates that she violated her marriage covenant. She is a covenant breaker and a flake. Sadly, this sort of woman is everywhere to be seen in our communities today.
The strange woman is a temptress and flatters with her words. Since young men almost universally enjoy strutting their stuff in the presence of pretty women, the whorish woman knows how to take full advantage of these boys. Just a little attention, a blink of the eyes, a lingering glance, and the whisper of flattery, and that young show-off is dead meat. Only wisdom could ever save a man from such a predicament.
1. What characterizes the strange woman from whom wisdom will save us? In what sorts of places might a young man run into these strange women?
2. Do you think the Christian young men in our fellowship might be taken by the powerful temptress?
3. What happens to people who follow this woman?