properly · noun, common masculine singular construct
stocks
וּ֝כְעֶ֗כֶסu.khe.'E.khes
H5914
a fetter · conjunction + preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Job 13:27 Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks, and lookest narrowly unto all my paths; thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet.
Jeremiah 20:2 Then Pashur smote Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD…
Acts 14:13 Then the priest of Jupiter, which was before their city, brought oxen and garlands unto the gates, and would have done sacrifice with the pe…
Acts 16:24 Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Proverbs 7:6-23
Solomon here, to enforce the caution he had given against the sin of whoredom, tells a story of a young man that was ruined to all intents and purposes by the enticements of an adulterous woman. Such a story as this would serve the lewd profane poets of our age to make a play of, and the harlot with them would be a heroine; nothing would be so entertaining to the audience, nor give them so much diversion, as her arts of beguiling the young gentleman and drawing in the country squire; her conquests would be celebrated as the triumphs of wit and love, and the comedy would conclude very pleasantly; and every young man that saw it acted would covet to be so picked up. Thus fools make a mock at s…
straightway--quickly, either as ignorant of danger, or incapable of resistance.
John Gill on Proverbs 7:22
He goeth after her straightway,.... Or "suddenly" (g); and inconsiderately, giving himself no time to think of what would be the sad consequences of it;
as an ox goeth to the slaughter; as senseless and stupid as that; and as ignorant of the issue as that is, led by the butcher, as if it was going to a pasture, when it is going to the slaughter house. So such persons as are ensnared by harlots; they follow them in a view of pleasure, but it ends in ruin; if not in the loss of bodily life, by the revengeful husband or civil magistrate; yet in the destruction of their immortal souls;
or as a fool to the correction of the stocks; a drunken besotted fool, who, while he is leading to the stocks…
What followed: -
22 So he goes after her at once
As an ox which goeth to the slaughter-house,
And as one bereft of reason to the restraint of fetters,
23 As a bird hastens to the net,
Without knowing that his life is at stake -
Till the arrow pierces his liver.
The part. הולך (thus to be accentuated according to the rule in Baer's Torath Emeth, p. 25, with Mercha to the tone-syllable and Mahpach to the preceding open syllable) preserves the idea of the fool's going after her. פּתאם (suddenly) fixes the point, when he all at once resolves to betake himself to the rendezvous in the house of the adulteress, now a κεπφωθείς, as the lxx translates, i.e., as we say, a simpleton who has gone on…
The Church Fathers
Immediately he follows her, etc. That is, as if a foolish person, not knowing, he himself is led to destruction.
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. To this, therefore, he compares the man who gives himself up to the harlot on account of his immoderate lust; or else on account of the insensate folly of the creature, for he, too, pursues his object like one senseless. And they say that this bird is so much pleased with foam, that if one should hold foam in his hand as he sails, it will sit upon his hand. And it also brings forth with pain.
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. "He goeth after her like a simple man, and as an ox that goeth to the slaughterer, and as a dog to the fetters, and as a stag into whose liver an arrow hath pierced." And this foolishness is worthy of blame, because it ministereth not unto good but unto evil things, and it is not right, properly speaking, that it should be called simpleness—although the Book calleth it so because it is contrary to the mark which is laid down by it—but folly, and madness, and senselessness, and the destruction of what is seemly. And this our discourse doth not urge this kind of simplicity upon a man, nor that he should ignorantly submit to every voice, and be persuaded by the deceit of every doctrine.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Stocks — (An instrument of punishment, consisting of two beams, the upper one being movable, with two small openings between them, large enough for the ankles of the prisoner.—ED.) The term “stocks” is…
Harlot (Prostitute) · Shamelessness of — Shamelessness of
Ignorance · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Lasciviousness · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Ox, The · Goes to the slaughter unconscious — Goes to the slaughter unconscious
Prisoners · In stocks — In stocks
Stocks · Feet fastened in, as a punishment — Feet fastened in, as a punishment
Temptation · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Young Men · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The naive young man’s foolish actions might cost him his life (see 5:11; 6:32-35).
Rashi on Proverbs 7:22
and as a viper Heb. וכעכס. This is the venom of a snake.
to the chastisement of a fool Like a snake that runs quickly as an agent of the Holy One, blessed be He, to chastise the fool who is condemned by the Omnipresent, blessed be He, so does this one run after her until he stumbles on her, and her arrow splits his liver.
