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INTRODUCTION to Proverbs Chapter 7

Solomon sets out on the difficult task of helping his son (in essence, all you people), to see that marriage is a beautiful arrangement, while a life of immorality will only bring pain and difficulty, if not death. The reality is quite simple: we will live if we heed his counsel. On the other hand, we will die if we ignore his counsel. One may get by with a life of immorality and not contract a sexually transmitted disease that contributes to an early death. However, they will not receive eternal life, so they are just the walking dead because that is their eventuality.

Receive My Words and Live

Proverbs 7:1-2 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)
7 My son, keep my words
and treasure up my commandments with you;
²keep my commandments and live;
keep my teachings^[1] as the pupil of your eye;[2]

My son, keep my words: Once again, Solomon opens his writings with a plea to his son, to heed his words and live. Three times in verses 1-2, Solomon uses the imperative verb keep (שׁוֹמֵר Shomer or שֹׁמֵר Shomer), which is an appeal or a command for the son to conform their actions to the wise words of their father.

And treasure up my commandments with you: Here commandment (מִצְוָה mitsvah) is an authoritative direction or instruction, given as a prescription from the father with the authority or power to the son under his authority or control within the family. – 1 Samuel 13:13; 1 Ki 2:43.

Keep my commandments and live: Only by heeding the father’s exhortation to keep his instruction can the son hope to have life and live (חָיָה chayah).

Keep my teachings as the pupil of your eye: The Hebrew word (אִישׁוֹן ishon) pupil when used with (עַיִן ayin) eye, literally means little man. (Deut. 32:10) The reference is clearly to the tiny reflected image of yourself that you can see in that black center of another’s eye. Similarly, (בַּת bath) daughter is used at Lamentations 2:18 and literally means “daughter of the eye,” a term of endearment. Both expressions refer to the pupil. The two are combined for emphasis at Psalm 17:8 (כְּאִישׁ֣וֹן בַּת־עָ֑יִן keison-batayin), which literally means “little man, daughter of the eye.” The expression pupil of your eye refers to something precious. In other words, the son needs to keep the laws or teachings of the father as something precious in his eyes.

The importance of this message is to be guarded, to be treasured, and to be kept. The warning here is not just an exhortation; it is a command. It is the father who God has assigned to teach God’s Word to the children of the family, with the wife’s assistance. Jehovah commanded the Israelite men, “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” (Deut. 6:6-7) This is carried over into the New Testament, where Paul stated, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” (Eph. 6:4) Yes, the father is charged with regularly instructing his children in the Word of God to get it down into the heart. The mother is to assist in this task as well, as Solomon spoke of “your mother’s teaching,” namely, the “law of your mother.” – Proverbs 1:8; 6:20

The eye is a very precious organ of sight that is very sensitive to touch. If you have ever experienced even a small speck of dust in your eye, it can be excruciating, irritating, and cause damage if left in it. The cornea is the transparent membrane that covers the pupil and iris of the eye, which needs to be protected and cared for because if for some reason it is damaged or gets diseased, this will result in distorted vision, even blindness. The pupil of the eye is “deeply entrenched in the skull, ramparted with the forehead and cheekbones, defended by the eyebrows, eyelids, and eyelashes, and placed so as to be best protected by the hands.”[3] Hence, with a metaphorical expression, Solomon uses “the pupil of your eye” in speaking of that, which is to be protected with the greatest caution. The same holds true of the counsel, the commands given here in Proverbs chapter 7.

[1] Or law; instructions

[2] Lit little man; Or apple of your eye; I.e., something precious

[3] The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge: Five Hundred Thousand Scripture References and Parallel Passages., Prov. 7:2 (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1995).