1 My son, guard my words and conceal my precepts within you.
Bede · AD 735 My son, keep my words, etc. And this section is the same as previously explained more fully under the person of the harlot.
2 Son, preserve my commandments, and you shall live. And keep my law as the pupil of your eye.
Bede · AD 735 And my law as the apple of your eye. Keep what I teach as diligently as if nothing right could be seen without it.
Bonaventure · AD 1257 The third benefit of the observance of God's commandments is the attainment of heavenly rewards. Whence it is said in Proverbs: "Keep my commandments, and you shall live; and my law as the pupil of the eye." This is the reason why God gave the observance of commandments to man when he was in paradise.
3 Bind it with your fingers; write it on the tablets of your heart.
Cyril of Jerusalem · AD 386 These articles of our faith were not composed out of human opinion but are the principal points collected out of the whole of Scripture to complete a single doctrinal formulation of the faith.
Bede · AD 735 Bind them on your fingers, etc. On your fingers, means in actions; on the tablets of your heart, in the breadth of thought. Indeed, another translation says: Inscribe it on the breadth of your heart.
4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call prudence your friend.
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 And it is fitting that, until we come to perfection, the virtue of the soul should be within us and be our own; but when we have come to perfection, so that we are fit to teach others also, then we no longer shut virtue up within our bosom as a wife, but join her also, as a sister, to others who wish for her.
Bede · AD 735 Say to wisdom, You are my sister, etc. Join the wisdom of ecclesiastical doctrine to you with fraternal love; so that it may preserve you from heretical defilement, which is proven to be foreign to the chastity of the Church.
5 So may she guard you from the woman who is an outsider, and from the stranger who sweetens her words.
6 For I gaze from the window of my house, through the lattice,
Bede · AD 735 For from the window of my house I looked through the lattice, etc. Aptly, however, does Solomon say he looked from the window of his house through the lattice, to judge the deeds of the little ones. For one who looks from a window through the lattice can fully consider what is done outside, yet those outside cannot see the one looking within.
7 and I see little ones. I consider a frenzied youth,
Bede · AD 735 I observed among the youth, etc. He calls the adulterer a youth, not because of virtue, but because of instability. Who passes through the street, because he has abandoned the narrow way that leads to life. Near the corner, because he deviates from rectitude.
8 who crosses the street at the corner and close to the way of that house.
Bede · AD 735 And walks towards her house. He who has turned from the way of truth, rightly appropriates the way to the house of the harlot or heretic; which is fittingly placed, as we have explained, both in the street and near the corner.
9 He steps into shadows, as day becomes evening, into the darkness and gloom of the night.
Bede · AD 735 In the twilight, in the evening of the day, etc. Because such a one, through the blindness of the heart, hastens to the darkness, both of sin and damnation.
10 And behold, a woman meets him, dressed like a harlot, prepared to captivate souls: chattering and rambling,
Ambrose of Milan · AD 397 With a provocative movement of a prostitute, with a disrupted gait through delights, with wandering eyes, and with playful darting of her eyelids, she captures the precious souls of young men (for the eye of a prostitute is a snare of a sinner), and with doubtful perception, she accosts anyone passing by in the corner of her house, with charming words, causing the hearts of you…
Bede · AD 735 And behold, a woman meets him in the attire of a harlot, etc. These all clearly relate to the literal sense of harlotry; however, heretical doctrine attempts to deceive anyone it finds careless and foolish. It indeed appears in harlot's attire, because it shines with unclean eloquence. It is prepared to capture souls, for it spiritually kills whomever it can associate with it.
11 unwilling to bear silence, unable to keep her feet at home,
Bede · AD 735 Unable to remain at home with her feet. There is no heresy content with its first disciples: for they are its house, but it always seeks new ones to deceive.
12 now outside, now in the streets, now lying in ambush near the corners.
Bede · AD 735 Now in the streets, now in the squares, etc. Outside, it seizes the pagans; in the streets, the voluptuous; by the corners, other heretics.
13 And overtaking the youth, she kisses him, and with a provocative face, she flatters him, saying:
Bede · AD 735 And with a shameless face, it flatters, saying, etc. According to the letter, the understanding is evident, because the harlot confesses that she has prepared a magnificent feast. But the heretics in all that they do boast and rejoice that they sacrifice the victims of their salvation to God.
14 “I vowed sacrifices for well-being. Today I have repaid my vows.
15 Because of this, I have gone out to meet you, desiring to see you, and I have found you.
16 I have woven my bed with cords. I have strewn it with embroidered tapestries from Egypt.
Bede · AD 735 I have woven my bed with cords, etc. Beds that are woven with cords, or according to another translation, with withes, are usually softer than those made of wood, leather, or any other material. Therefore, with a bed woven with cords, the harlot designates the softness of resting.
17 I have sprinkled my bed with myrrh, aloe, and cinnamon.
Bede · AD 735 I have scented my bed with myrrh, etc. They promise that they have such fragrances of heavenly virtues, by which they consecrate their hearts and those of their followers as if in beautiful bedchambers; so that they may say with the Apostle: For we are the pleasant fragrance of Christ to God (II Cor. II).
18 Come, let us be inebriated in abundance, and let us delight in the embraces of desire, until the day begins to dawn.
Bede · AD 735 Come, let us be drunk with love, etc. The heretics boast that they are sated with each other with the cups of holy doctrine and joined by the grace of virtues until their deeds are followed by eternal light.
19 For my husband is not in his house. He has gone away on a very long journey.
Bede · AD 735 There is no husband in the house, he has gone, etc. He says, Christ is not bodily in the Church. For having risen from the dead, He ascended to heaven and left us the ministry of governing the Church, namely His house.
20 He took with him a bag of money. He will return to his house on the day of the full moon.”
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 In these words, "after many days he will return home," Paul (who in the spirit perceived the plan of the divine economy) refers to the last enemy which is to be destroyed, that is, death. That enemy is the man of wickedness that Solomon will describe as one who took in his hand "a bag of money," that is, humanity.
Bede · AD 735 He will return to his house on the day of the full moon. When the Church of His elect has completed its number, He will return for judgment.
21 She enmeshed him with many words, and she drew him forward with the flattery of her lips.
22 Immediately, he follows her, like an ox being led to the sacrifice, and like a lamb acting lasciviously, and not knowing that he is being drawn foolishly into chains,
Hippolytus of Rome · AD 235 The "cemphus" is a kind of wild sea-bird, which has so immoderate an impulse to sexual enjoyment, that its eyes seem to fill with blood in coition; and it often blindly falls into snares, or into the hands of men.
Philoxenus of Mabbug · AD 523 And again in his speech Solomon also reprehendeth him that is led after his lust like a foolish person, and who lacketh the knowledge which should fight against his passions.
Bede · AD 735 Immediately he follows her, etc. That is, as if a foolish person, not knowing, he himself is led to destruction.
23 until the arrow pierces his liver. It is just as if a bird were to hurry into the snare. And he does not know that his actions endanger his own soul.
24 Therefore, my son, hear me now, and attend to the words of my mouth.
25 Do not let your mind be pulled into her ways. And do not be deceived by her paths.
26 For she has tossed aside many wounded, and some of those who were very strong have been slain by her.
Hippolytus of Rome · AD 235 You have seen her mischief. Wait not to admit the rising of lust; for her death is everlasting. And for the rest, by her words, her arguments in sooth, she wounds, and by her sins she kills those who yield to her. For many are the forms of wickedness that lead the foolish down to hell. And the chambers of death mean either its depths or its treasure.
Bede · AD 735 And all the mighty men were slain by her. As Solomon himself, the wisest of men, as Samson, the strongest, as David, the most gentle, were ensnared by the trap of women, just as Origen was by heretical doctrine, whom whoever denies to have been a master of the Church after the apostles, while he thought rightly, errs.
27 Her household is the way to Hell, reaching even to the inner places of death.
Bede · AD 735 Her house is the way down to Sheol, etc. But also concerning the Church, it says: The gates of hell will not prevail against it (Matt. XVI). Indeed, the innermost parts of death, the most severe torments of hell, are said to be sharper and darker, by which it is evident that heretics and fornicators are to be submerged.