Proverbs 7:11
"She is boisterous and rebellious; her feet do not remain at home."
This proverb gives us the character flaws of this adulteress and how she lures her victims. What is sad about our culture is that these qualities are now being touted as being praiseworthy instead of signs of a fool.
boisterous
This is the Hebrew word hemya, which means sound, music, cry out, making noise. It is translated boisterous – meaning that this type of woman is loud and aggressive.
This woman – in the midst of betraying her vows to God and her husband and luring a man into unfaithfulness and destruction – is confident, loud, and aggressive. One would expect that there would be hesitancy or a level of guilt which would bring a sneakiness. But not this type of fool.
Solomon is trying to get men – and especially young men – to realize that the quality of sexual aggressiveness going outside of marriage is not a good thing. While it is tempting if a woman comes on to you like this, turn and run as fast as you can. This woman is trouble. She is offering candy-coated poison. She covers over the sin she is trying to commit by being loud, sure of herself, and aggressive. Some people take other people's surety as a sign of righteousness. In this case her aggressiveness and loudness toward sexual unfaithfulness is a sign of her depravity, not the rightness of what she wants to do.
The opposite situation is also true. Many young men act all sure of themselves to convince a young woman that sexual unfaithfulness is okay and even the normal or expected thing. Do not believe them; get away from this type of person.
rebellious
This is the Hebrew word sar, which means to be stubborn or rebellious. In other words what they should be doing under an authority, they are not doing. They are powerful and aggressively doing what they want to do.
What is interesting here is that the rebellion that this woman is engaged in is not an open rebellion in that she opposes her husband outright. She may even be very engaging with him. She is rebellious to his wishes and to his basic expectations. She ignores the common rules of relationships and pursues instead her desires. When a person's desires trump what they should do, then a moral line will be crossed.
Solomon is trying to give us a heads-up that there are people out there who are like this; people who lurk waiting to ensnare the person who is going along having a sane life. The bait is sex, romance, and love. The real price is alienation, loneliness, guilt, and missed opportunities. There will most likely be someone ensnared by this person, but it does not have to be you.
Until tomorrow,
Gil Stieglitz