Reading: Proverbs 7-9, Psalm 150

Have you ever had a friend who only had one metaphor? I know several people whose fundamental metaphor for everything is Star Wars. Even the most obscure characters from the space opera universe find their way into daily conversations as ways to explain life events. “Oh, I felt like Opo Chano, selling my droid credentials.” Because that explains everything. Others for whom it is Lord of the Rings. “Those dogs are like Rumil and Orophin watching the borders of Lorien.” I’ve heard there are people who their fundamental metaphor is a sport, especially football. I won’t try for an example. I don’t understand football well enough.

Solomon continues his instructions to his son using his fundamental metaphor for life: his relationship with women. Today we get three chapters, and three women. In chapter 7 Solomon warns his son against getting entangled with an adulteress, his neighbor’s wife. In chapter 8 and most of 9 he sings the praises of wisdom, personified as, what else, a woman. Finally, there is a short address against a third woman, the woman of folly, who is loud, obnoxious, and dangerous. Let’s go ahead and get this straight now: none of this is about actual women. Solomon is not addressing gender differences, in either the ancient world or the modern. Whether we think it wise or ethical, Solomon is using a women as metaphor, and we need to read through the metaphor to the point being made, not argue its appropriateness.

In chapter 7 we get a story. Solomon speaks of watching a scene unfold in the street outside his house. A young man is wandering the streets at night, and a young woman comes out dressed as a prostitute. She rather aggressively seduces the young man, even while confirming that she is in fact married, though her husband is out of town. The young man is too foolish to see that taking this path with ultimately lead to his destruction, so he follows her home. Once again we have to ask, is this really new advice from Solomon? Don’t wander the streets at night. Have the sense not to sleep with married women. Be self aware enough not to be seduced. While this is all good advice, I think there is more going on here. Like his story about not falling in with brigands back in chapter 1, Solomon is making a larger point. He wants his son to avoid getting mixed up with people who ignore their obligations, as the adulterous woman ignores her marriage. He wants him to avoid unsafe and irresponsible behavior, like wandering the streets at night. He wants him to recognize that not all the sweet words from fine looking people are what they appear to be, as the words of the adulteress lead to pain and death.

On that cheery note, Solomon turns to another woman, who is calling aloud in the streets. Like the adulterous woman we just read about, she is calling out to the men of the town. But unlike her, she is not decorating herself falsely or intending to break any promises. The lady Wisdom calls for the simple ones, to learn prudence, and for the fools, to learn sense. Her words are constructive, not destructive. She is present and involved in the process of creation. There are arguments that this is a reference to the trinity, but I don’t think Solomon is calling wisdom a person in the sense of her being God. He has personified something that God used in the process of creation. Wisdom, the concept, is the means by which God created. I think Solomon is making a point about how things end up when wisdom is present and when it is not. When the young man followed the adulterous woman, it ended in destruction. But when wisdom is present, creation happens.

The woman of folly continues this thought. Though she is not the adulterous of chapter 7, this woman of folly looks somewhat like lady wisdom, but has a different message, and is set up a little differently. Rather than calling from the crossroads, and at the city gates as lady Wisdom does, this woman sits at the door of her house, she takes a seat on the highest places of town. Lady Wisdom calls for the simple and foolish to learn from her in the public square, the woman of folly calls for them to eat stolen bread and drink in secret. Again, following this woman ends in destruction rather than creation.

I think the first nine chapters of Proverbs are one extended argument to listen to all the books that came before it. Wisdom and knowledge come from the fear of the God of Israel, a shorthanded way of telling the reader to know God before they try to understand everything else. Solomon has a bunch of pithy sayings coming up that are often taken out of this context and applied to life. And they even sort of work. Good advice is good advice, after all, and as a general rule it will work. But apart from it’s context of knowing where you came from, it will lose much of it’s benefit. Before taking to heart any of the individual proverbs, know the story.