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A Naive Young Man Must Choose His Path

Proverbs 7:5 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)
⁵to keep you from a strange woman,^[1]
from the adulteress with her smooth words.

To keep you from a strange woman: The wise words of the father, his commandment, if understood and applied, should keep the son from a strange woman or wayward woman. Here the strange woman (אִשָּׁה זָרָה ishah zara) (2:16; 5:3) refers to those who set aside what was in harmony with the Mosaic Law and thus distanced and estranged themselves from God. Therefore, the immoral sensual woman (prostitute) was not necessarily a foreigner. “The strange woman,” the prostitute, is described as one “who forsakes the companion of her youth” (2:17), which refers to the husband of her young womanhood. She has ignored and disregarded the prohibition on adultery that was a part of the covenant of her God, the Mosaic Law covenant. – Exodus 20:14; Jeremiah 2:25; 3:13.

From the adulteress with her smooth words: The father is now moving into his cautionary account of a naive young son seduced by the wiles of an adulteress woman and his own sinful nature. Her smooth (חָלַק chalaq) words, as you will recall from 5:3, are smoother than oil; they are flattering and seductive, as well as deceitful.

Why is it imperative that the son develop the teachings of the father (God’s Word) and an intimate relationship with wisdom? This will enable the son to dismiss and bypass the seduction of the adulteress. If he chooses to ignore the counsel of his father, her words to him are going to be so smooth and flattering that he will be unable to see the trail leading to her house of death. However, if he chooses to heed his father’s counsel, it will significantly help him to sidestep the pitfalls of sexual immorality.

[1] Or wayward woman