Proverbs 7:11

(She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(11) Her feet abide not in her house.—She is not a “keeper at home,” as St. Paul (Titus 2:5) would have Christian matrons to be.

Benson Commentary

Proverbs 7:11-12. She is loud, &c. — Here the wise man draws her character. המיה היא וסררת, She is clamorous and obstinate, or refractory. She is full of talk, self-willed, disobedient to her husband, rebellious against God, and incorrigible by any admonitions of ministers or friends. Her feet abide not in her house — She minds not her business, which lies in her own house, but gives herself wholly up to idleness and pleasure, which she seeks in gadding abroad, and in changing her place and company. Now she is without — Standing, or waiting nigh the door of her house; now in the streets — In places of resort; and lieth in wait at every corner — To pick up such as she can make a prey of.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

7:6-27 Here is an affecting example of the danger of youthful lusts. It is a history or a parable of the most instructive kind. Will any one dare to venture on temptations that lead to impurity, after Solomon has set before his eyes in so lively and plain a manner, the danger of even going near them? Then is he as the man who would dance on the edge of a lofty rock, when he has just seen another fall headlong from the same place. The misery of self-ruined sinners began in disregard to God's blessed commands. We ought daily to pray that we may be kept from running into temptation, else we invite the enemies of our souls to spread snares for us. Ever avoid the neighbourhood of vice. Beware of sins which are said to be pleasant sins. They are the more dangerous, because they most easily gain the heart, and close it against repentance. Do nothing till thou hast well considered the end of it. Were a man to live as long as Methuselah, and to spend all his days in the highest delights sin can offer, one hour of the anguish and tribulation that must follow, would far outweigh them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Loud and stubborn - Both words describe the half-animal signs of a vicious nature. Compare Hosea 4:16.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

11, 12. loud—or, "noisy," "bustling."

stubborn—not submissive.

without … streets, … corner—(Compare 1Ti 5:13; Tit 2:5).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Loud, or clamorous, or full of talk, which served her design.

Stubborn; rebellious against God, and against her husband, and incorrigible by all admonitions of ministers or friends.

Her feet abide not in her house; she minds not her business, which lies at home, but gives up herself wholly to idleness and pleasure, which she seeks abroad with other men.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

She is loud and stubborn,.... "Loud"; not that her voice may be heard, and so be found by those that seek her in the dark, as Aben Ezra interprets it; but rather clamorous, noisy, and talkative, when she has got her gallant with her; pouring out foolish and unchaste words to allure and entice him; unless it is to be understood of her bawling and scolding, when within doors, at her husband, in order to get him out, and be rid of him; to whom she is "stubborn" or "rebellious", as the Targum, breaking covenant with him, and disobeying his commands; and departing from him, declining out of the way, as Jarchi; speaking rebellion, as Aben Ezra: all which agree with the whore of Rome, who is rebellious against Christ, whose spouse she professes to be; is perfidious to him, disobedient to his commandments; is gone out of the way of his truths and ordinances, and publishes and encourages everything that is contrary thereunto; as well as has a mouth speaking blasphemies, Revelation 13:5;

her feet abide not in her house; to attend the business of it; but site is gadding abroad to seek her lovers, and bring them in; it is the character of good women that they are keepers at home, but it is the sign of a harlot to gad abroad, which is enlarged upon in Proverbs 7:11.

Geneva Study Bible

(She {d} is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:

(d) He describes certain conditions, which are peculiar to harlots.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

11. loud] or clamorous, R.V., as the word is rendered in the parallel passage Proverbs 9:13, A.V.

stubborn] Rather, refractory, like a restive animal, as the same Heb. word is used of a heifer that casts off all restraint, Hosea 4:16, where R.V. renders stubborn, though here wilful. Comp. our expression, unbridled lust.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 11. - She is loud; boisterous, clamorous, as Proverbs 9:13. The description applies to a brute beast at certain periods. Stubborn; ungovernable, like an animal that will not bear the yoke (Hosea 4:16). Vulgate, garrula et vaga, "talkative and unsettled;" Septuagint, ἀνεπτερωμένη καὶ ἄσωτος, "flighty and debauched." Her feet abide not in her house. She is the opposite of the careful, modest housewife, who stays at home and manages her family affairs (Titus 2:5). The Vulgate inserts another trait: quietis impatiens, "always restless." Proverbs 7:11

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Finally, the young man devoid of understanding sees his waiting rewarded: like meets like.

10 And, lo, a woman coming to meet him,

     In the attire of an harlot and of subtle heart.

11 Boisterous is she, and ungovernable;

     Her feet have no rest in her own house.

12 At one time before her door, at another in the street,

     And again at every corner she places herself on the watch.

"Pro 7:12 (Hitzig) expresses what is wont to be, instead of a single event, Proverbs 7:11, viz., the custom of a street harlot. But she who is spoken of is not such an one; lurking is not applicable to her (cf. Job 31:9), and, Proverbs 7:11, it is not meant that she is thus inclined." But Hitzig's rendering of Proverbs 7:11, "she was boisterous ... in her house her feet had no rest," is inaccurate, since neither היאו nor שׁכנוּ is used. Thus in Proverbs 7:11 and Proverbs 7:12 the poet gives a characteristic of the woman, introduced by הנּהו into the frame of his picture, which goes beyond that which then presented itself to his eyes. We must with Proverbs 7:12 reject also Proverbs 7:11; and even that would not be a radical improvement, since that characteristic lying behind the evident, that which was then evident begins with וּנצרת לב (and subtle in heart). We must thus suppose that the woman was not unknown to the observer here describing her. He describes her first as she then appeared. שׁית Hitzig regards as equivalent to שׁוית, similitude (from שׁוה), and why? Because שׁית does not mean "to lay against," but "to place." But Exodus 33:4 shows the contrary, and justifies the meaning attire, which the word also has in Psalm 73:6. Meri less suitably compares 2 Kings 9:30, but rightly explains תקון (dressing, ornament), and remarks that שׁית elliptical is equivalent to בּשׁית. It is not the nominative (Bertheau), but the accusative, as תבנית, Psalm 144:12, Ewald, 279d. How Hitzig reaches the translation of ונצרת לב by "and an arrow in her heart" (et saucia corde)

(Note: Virgil's Aeneid, iv. 1.)

one can only understand by reading his commentary. The usage of the language, Proverbs 4:23, he remarks, among other things, would stamp her as a virtuous person. As if a phrase like נצר לב could be used both sensu bono and sensu malo! One can guard his heart when he protects it carefully against moral danger, or also when he purposely conceals that which is in it. The part. נצוּר signifies, Isaiah 1:8, besieged (blockaded), Ezekiel 16:12, protected, guarded, and Isaiah 48:6; Isaiah 65:4, concealed, hidden. Ewald, 187b, refers these three significations in the two passages in Isaiah and in the passage before us to צרר, Niph. נצר (as נגל); but (1) one would then more surely take צוּר (cf. נמּול, נבכים) as the verbal stem; (2) one reaches the idea of the concealed (the hidden) easier from that of the preserved than from that of the confined. As one says in Lat. homo occultus, tectus, abstrusus, in the sense of κρυψίνους, so it is said of that woman נצרת לב, not so much in the sense of retenta cor, h.e. quae quod in corde haberet non pandebat, Fr. retenue (Cocc.), as in the sense of custodita cor, quae intentionem cordis mentemque suam callide novit premere (Mich.): she is of a hidden mind, of a concealed nature; for she feigns fidelity to her husband and flatters her paramours as her only beloved, while in truth she loves none, and each of them is to her only a means to an end, viz., to the indulgence of her worldly sensual desire. For, as the author further describes here, she is המיּה (fem. of המה equals המי, as Proverbs 1:21; Isaiah 22:2), tumultuosa, externally as internally impetuous, because full of intermingling lust and deceit (opp. ἡσύχιος, 1 Peter 3:4; 1 Timothy 2:11), and סררת, self-willed, not minding the law of duty, of discretion, or of modesty (from סרר, Arab. sharr, pervicacem, malum esse). She is the very opposite of the noiseless activity and the gentle modesty of a true house-wife, rude, stubborn, and also vagrant like a beast in its season (Hosea 4:14): in domo ipsius residere nequeunt pedes ejus; thus not οἰκουρός or οἰκουργός (Titus 2:5), far removed from the genuine woman - like εἴσω ἥσυχον μένειν δόμων

(Note: Eurip. Herac.) - a radt, as they call such a one in Arab. (Wnsche on Hosea 12:1)

or as she is called in Aram. נפקת בּרא.