Proverbs 7:1-5 (NKJV) 1 My son, keep my words,
And treasure my commands within you.
2 Keep my commands and live,
And my law as the apple of your eye.
3 Bind them on your fingers;
Write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
And call understanding your nearest kin,
5 That they may keep you from the immoral woman,
From the seductress who flatters with her words.
Proverbs 7:1-5 (NIV) 1 My son, keep my words
and store up my commands within you.
2 Keep my commands and you will live;
guard my teachings as the apple of your eye.
3 Bind them on your fingers;
write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
and to insight, “You are my relative.”
5 They will keep you from the adulterous woman,
from the wayward woman with her seductive words.
Proverbs 7:1-5 (BSB) 1 My son, keep my words
and treasure my commandments within you.
2 Keep my commandments and live;
guard my teachings as the apple of your eye.
3 Tie them to your fingers;
write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
and call understanding your kinsman,
5 that they may keep you from the adulteress,
from the stranger with seductive words.
Proverbs 7:1-5 (NLT) 1 Follow my advice, my son;
always treasure my commands.
2 Obey my commands and live!
Guard my instructions as you guard your own eyes.
3 Tie them on your fingers as a reminder.
Write them deep within your heart.
4 Love wisdom like a sister;
make insight a beloved member of your family.
5 Let them protect you from an affair with an immoral woman,
from listening to the flattery of a promiscuous woman.
Proverbs 7:1-5 (CEV) 1 My son, pay close attention
and don't forget
what I tell you to do.
2 Obey me, and you will live!
Let my instructions be
your greatest treasure.
3 Keep them at your fingertips
and write them
in your mind.
4 Let wisdom be your sister
and make common sense
your closest friend.
5 They will protect you
from the flattering words
of someone else's wife.
The verbs and action words are keep and treasure.
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance
keep - שְׁמֹ֣ר (shamar, šə·mōr) - Verb - Qal - Imperative - masculine singular
Strong's Hebrew 8104: To hedge about, guard, to protect, attend to
Brown-Driver-Briggs English and Hebrew Lexicon adds: to observe and follow the dictates of
treasure - תִּצְפֹּ֥ן (tsaphan, tiṣ·pōn) - Verb - Qal - Imperfect - second person masculine singular
Strong's Hebrew 6845: To hide, to hoard, reserve, to deny, to protect, to lurk
Job 23:12 12 “I have not departed from the command of His lips;
I have treasured the words of His mouth 1more than my necessary food"
Luke 11:28 But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.
John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
2 Corinthians 3:3 (Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth) It is clear that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
This is the fourth section in Proverbs on the evils of the seducing woman, Madame Folly. It will be followed with a section on Lady Wisdom.
"Proverbs 2:16-19 the emphasis was on her betrayal of both man and God; in Proverbs 5:1-23 there was an emphasis on the financial and social loss involved in consorting with the strange woman and the encouragement to look rather to a true wife; in Proverbs 6:20-35 the emphasis was on the resultant anger of the husband which can only be assuaged by extreme judgment" - Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Let godly wisdom be as familiar and dear to you as a close family member or dearest friend. How do you show a dear friend or beloved family member that you love and value them? You spend time with them. You listen to them. You talk to them. You hear and understand what they are saying. If you don't understand, you ask questions and try to understand. You seek them out. You look for them above all others. You can distinguish them from a crowd and you go to them. You give them a hug, handshake, a kiss. You welcome them into your company.
How do you show that you don't care about someone? You don't seek them out. You ignore and avoid them. You don't listen to them. You don't care enough to ask questions and try to understand them. You don't touch them. You don't welcome them into your company.
So how do you treat God and His Word? As an intimate friend and beloved family member or as a stranger. Some even treat God and His Word as some sort of enemy!
How do you guard God's teachings as the "apple of your eye?" Our eye is a very vulnerable part of our body but also a valued part of our body. We might could lose a finger, but we don't want to lose our eye! A wound to the eye could be devastating and even deadly. So we protect our eyes. Thus the Word of God should be valued, precious and always before our eyes. We should guard godly wisdom as though it were priceless. As long as we have God's Word before our eyes, we are seeing truth. We have clear vision. The clouds of confusion, like cataracts, can obscure our vision but if we keep godly wisdom in our eye, our spiritual sight will be clear. In order to see clearly we must keep our eye on His Word and keep Him ever in sight.
"the miniature reflection of objects seen in the pupil, specially of the person who looks into another's eye. It is a proverbial expression for anything particularly precious and liable to be injured unless guarded with scrupulous care." - Pulpit Commentary
"Let the word of God dwell in us, and so be written where it will be always at hand to be read. Thus we shall be kept from the fatal effects of our own passions, and the snares of Satan. Let God's word confirm our dread of sin, and resolutions against it." - Matthew Henry Commentary
"I believe that the Bible teaches us to memorize scripture the way an ant gathers food in summer: because it is so valuable and will be needed in the winter months. '[The ant] prepares her food in the summer, and gathers her provision in the harvest' (Proverbs 6:8). Memorizing scripture is not a discipline for its own sake. It is because the scriptures are a treasure and will be needed before the day is done to help you escape a sinful attitude and live a life that glorifies God". - John Piper, Thy Word I Have Treasured in my Heart
Once again, we are looking at how this saves a person from the attentions of the "strange woman". A woman who is not of the household, not part of the family of God. This prostitute, harlot, or immoral woman would try to entice and seduce you from what you know is God's Word and wisdom. She tempts you to disobey God. Not only do human men and women do this but satan uses them to tempt you away from God.
A woman, who is not your wife, not a part of your family and household, would tempt you to leave your wife and family. To betray them with her. Is that not like satan? He is not of God's household and he would tempt you away to your own destruction. So don't let him! Don't listen to his words, his whisperings, the thoughts he puts in your head. His words are lies. He is the father of lies and lying is his native language. God is Truth and the truth lies with Him.
Jesus Christ walked on this earth in godly wisdom with His eyes always on His Father and empowered by the Holy Spirit. This is what is available to us! If we will take His example and keep God's Word before our eyes, etch it into our heart, work it out through our feet and hands, speak it through our mouth, then we have a better chance of being like Him. We have God's Word. We have the Holy Spirit indwelling in us. We have everything we need to be like Him. But too often we run after rabbits on rabbit trails and we get in trouble.
- When you read this scripture a couple of times, what was coming into your mind? What were your thoughts? What pictures came to your mind?
- How can you keep and treasure godly wisdom?
- What does the expression, "apple of your eye" mean?
- How do you show your loved one that you love them? Let's say it's Valentine's Day, how do you show your love that you love them and appreciate them?
- How can you show God you love and appreciate Him?
- If your beloved wrote a book and asked you to read it, would you? Are you interested enough in your beloved and their work to read it? Would you see it as an expression of them and thus you would want to share with them by reading it? Would you critique it, belittle it? Or would you be in awe of their creativity and love it because it was written by them and gave you a window into their heart?
- How can you bind godly wisdom to yourself? How can you tie it to your fingers? How can you etch it in your heart?
- Had you ever pondered the analogy of the eye as the spiritual eye? Can you expound on that?
For all my studies on Proverbs click HERE.