And behold, the woman meets him,
dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart.
She is loud and wayward;
her feet do not stay at home;
now in the street, now in the market,
and at every corner she lies in wait.
She seizes him and kisses him,
and with bold face she says to him,
“I had to offer sacrifices,
and today I have paid my vows;
so now I have come out to meet you,
to seek you eagerly, and I have found you.
I have spread my couch with coverings,
colored linens from Egyptian linen;
I have perfumed my bed with myrrh,
aloes, and cinnamon.
Come, let us take our fill of love till morning;
let us delight ourselves with love.
For my husband is not at home;
he has gone on a long journey;
he took a bag of money with him;
at full moon he will come home.”

Proverbs 1-9 is a unified section–the first in the collection. It presents two idealize women, Wisdom and Folly. It makes pretty easy application to two more literal women, your wife and the woman who offers herself to you “for free” even though she is married to another man.

This section does not contain a great many of the aphoristic pairs and triplets that become prominent in later sections of Proverbs. But it does hit on some basics: stay away from violent gangs as a way to acquire wealth, don’t be lazy, be satisfied with your wife and don’t go wandering.

I wonder if the temptation of the adulterous woman is a temptation to engage in class warfare against a richer man. Someone who is attracted to the offer of quick money might also find this an issue. I’ve been listening to Proverbs four times a week for the last three months or more and this idea has become increasingly persuasive to me.

Almost none of the woman’s physical attractions are described except her eyelashes. (The wife of one’s youth is described in terms that are more sexually provocative.) What is described more is how rich she is (or her husband is). And how freely and publicly she makes her proposals. She offers a night in imported luxuries that I would guess the young man would not be able to afford.

(Was this a source of anxiety for wealthy men in the ANE in Solomon’s time? I recall what Boaz says to Ruth: “May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich.” Did some go after young men even after they were married?)

And what about the woman’s perspective on her husband? What kind of sexual ethic is she expecting from a man who “has gone on a long journey; he took a bag of money with him”? I wonder if she sees her behavior as payback.

For the young man, surely there have to be other opportunities to commit fornication in Jerusalem. What would make a woman with a husband so tempting? I suspect it is simply to grab some luxury (in every sense) from someone else’s life. It is not stealing in the same way as robbery, but it is the use of another man’s property and wealth against his will.

Solomon’s warnings are that the rich man, no matter what his wife’s longstanding reputation, will be really jealous and will destroy an adulterer’s life (I assume by threatening capital punishment unless he pays a fine that requires him to sell himself as a slave in hard labor). No matter what you think about the fact that others have gotten away with it, or that he’s off having fun somewhere else, he will still take your crime against him very seriously. Stay away. Enjoy your wife.

And work hard so you two can put Egyptian cotton sheets on your own bed some day.