7:5 so that they may keep you 1 from the adulterous 2 woman,
from the loose woman 3 who flatters you 4 with her words. 5
14:1 Every wise woman 6 builds 7 her household, 8
but a foolish woman tears it down with her own hands.
1 tn The infinitive construct with the preposition shows the purpose of associating closely with wisdom: Wisdom will obviate temptations, the greatest being the sexual urge.
2 tn Heb “strange” (so KJV, ASV).
3 tn Heb “strange woman.” This can be interpreted as a “wayward wife” (so NIV) or an “unfaithful wife” (so NCV). As discussed earlier, the designations “strange woman” and “foreign woman” could refer to Israelites who stood outside the community in their lawlessness and loose morals – an adulteress or wayward woman. H. Ringgren and W. Zimmerli, however, suggest that she is also a promoter of a pagan cult, but that is not entirely convincing (Spruche/Prediger [ATD], 19).
4 tn The term “you” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness.
5 tn Heb “she makes smooth her words.” This expression means “she flatters with her words.”
6 tn Heb “wise ones of women.” The construct phrase חַכְמוֹת נָשִׁים (khakhmot nashim) features a wholistic genitive: “wise women.” The plural functions in a distributive sense: “every wise woman.” The contrast is between wise and foolish women (e.g., Prov 7:10-23; 31:10-31).
7 tn The perfect tense verb in the first colon functions in a gnomic sense, while the imperfect tense in the second colon is a habitual imperfect.
8 tn Heb “house.” This term functions as a synecdoche of container (= house) for contents (= household, family).