Proverbs - 7:13



13 So she caught him, and kissed him. With an impudent face she said to him:

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Proverbs 7:13.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
And catching the young man, she kisseth him, and with an impudent face, flattereth, saying:
And she laid hold on him, and kissed him, She hath hardened her face, and saith to him,
So she took him by his hand, kissing him, and without a sign of shame she said to him:
And overtaking the youth, she kisses him, and with a provocative face, she flatters him, saying:

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

So she caught him - Laid fast hold on him, and kissed him, to show that she was affectionately attached to him.
And with an impudent face - העזה פניה heezzah paneyha, "she strengthened her countenance," assumed the most confident look she could; endeavored to appear friendly and sincere.

So she caught him, and kissed him,.... The young man that went near her corner where she was plying, or in the way to her house, where she was sitting, or standing, waiting and watching for such an opportunity, for such a person, as a prey to fasten on; and no sooner she saw him, and come up to him, but, without any ceremony or address, she laid hold upon him, as the word (l) signifies, threw her arms about his neck, and embraced him in them; and, what is unusual for women to do, kissed him, in order to stir up wanton affections and impure desires in him;
and with an impudent face; or, "and she strengthened her face" (m); rubbed her forehead, put on a brasen face, a whore's front; see Jeremiah 3:3. And
said unto him; accosted him in the following manner, without shame or blushing.
(l) "apprehendit eum", Pagninus, Mercerus, Gejerus, Michaelis, Schultens. (m) "et roboravit facies suas", Montanus; "vultumque suum obfirmavit", Schultens, so Michaelis; "obfirmabat", Cocceius.

The preparations for a feast do not necessarily imply peculiar religious professions. The offerer retained part of the victim for a feast (Leviticus 3:9, &c.). This feast she professes was prepared for him whom she boldly addresses as one sought specially to partake of it.

After this digression the poet returns to the subject, and further describes the event as observed by himself.
And she laid hold on him and kissed him;
Put on a bold brow and said to him.
The verb נשׁק is here, after its primary signification, connected with the dat.: osculum fixit ei. Thus also Genesis 27:26 is construed, and the Dagesh in לּו is, as there, Dag. forte conj., after the law for which the national grammarians have coined the technical name אתי מרחיק (veniens e longinquo, "coming out of the distance," i.e., the attraction of a word following by one accented on the penult.). The penult.-accenting of נשׁקה is the consequence of the retrogression of the accent (נסוג אחור), which, here where the word from the first had the penult, only with Metheg, and thus with a half a tone, brings with it the dageshing of the לו following, as the original penultima-accenting of והחזיקה does of the בו which follows it, for the reading בּו by Lwenstein is contrary to the laws of punctuation of the Textus receptus under consideration here.
(Note: Vid., Baer's Torath Emeth, p. 29f., and Psalmen-Commentar under Psalm 52:5.)
As בו and לו have received the doubling Dagesh, so on the other hand, according to Ewald, 193b, it has disappeared from העזה (written with Raphe according to Kimchi, Michlol 145a). And as נשׁקה has the tone thrown back, so the proper pausal ותּאמר is accented on the ult., but without attracting the לו following by dageshing, which is the case only when the first of the two words terminates in the sound of ā (āh). העז פניו is said of one who shows firmness of hardness of countenance (Arab. slabt alwajh), i.e., one who shows shamelessness, or, as we say, an iron forehead (Fl.).

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