Proverbs 7:21

She persuaded him ¹  with persuasive words; ²  with her smooth talk ³  she compelled him. ⁴ 

With persuasive words she led him astray; she seduced him with her smooth talk.

With her many persuasions she entices him; With her flattering lips she seduces him.

So she seduced him with her pretty speech. With her flattery she enticed him.

Soon she has him eating out of her hand, bewitched by her honeyed speech.

With her fair words she overcame him, forcing him with her smooth lips.

With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him.

With her enticing speech she caused him to yield, With her flattering lips she seduced him.

She persuaded him ¹  with persuasive words; ²  with her smooth talk ³  she compelled him. ⁴ 

¹ tn Heb “she turned him aside.” This expression means that she persuaded him. This section now begins the description of the capitulation, for the flattering speech is finished.

² sn The term לֶקַח (leqakh) was used earlier in Proverbs for wise instruction; now it is used ironically for enticement to sin (see D. W. Thomas, “Textual and Philological Notes on Some Passages in the Book of Proverbs,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 280-92).

³ tn Heb “smooth of her lips”; cf. NAB “smooth lips”; NASB “flattering lips.” The term “lips” is a metonymy of cause representing what she says.

⁴ tn The verb means “to impel; to thrust; to banish,” but in this stem in this context “to compel; to force” into some action. The imperfect tense has the nuance of progressive imperfect to parallel the characteristic perfect of the first colon.