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Be Suspicious of Flattering Words

Proverbs 7:15 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)
¹⁵So I have come out to meet you,
to seek your face, and I have found you.

So I have come out to meet you: You will recall from 7:5, the father stated: “to keep you from a strange woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words.” Now we see the beginning of her smooth words in that she begins her flattery of inferring that it is him alone that she seeks, no other.

To seek your face, and I have found you: Here again, the literal seek your face, is a wayward woman with flattering words, as it means “to seek you eagerly,” as she eagerly seeks him alone, to know him. The sense of found you is more than a mere encountering him but rather searching out for him alone. These words suggest even more that they have met before, and her excited words for him may very well be believable to him.

When lust has the better of this young man, his thinking ability is not registering her unbelievable, misleading words. Unquestionably, she did not come out of her house to meet this young man specifically, as if he was special to her, to seek his face; it is a sham. Only a foolish person, moved by intense emotions, would believe such words.

This woman’s lips are smooth. Bold in manner or conduct, she expresses her words with the utmost confidence. She carefully chooses every word, calculatingly, to seduce this young man. She claims that she had to offer peace offerings that day and paid her vows. This suggests to the young man that she is clean and righteous, implying that she is a spiritual person, inferring that there would be food to feast. Peace offerings at the temple in Jerusalem,

Consisting of the sacrifice of a bull, cow, lamb, or goat that had no defect. As with the burnt offering, the individual laid a hand on the animal and killed it. The priests, in turn, sprinkled the blood around the altar. Only certain parts of the internal organs were burned. The priest received the breast and the right thigh (Lev. 7:28–36), but the one who offered the sacrifice was given much of the meat to have a meal of celebration (Lev. 7:11–21). As part of the meal, various kinds of bread were offered (and ultimately kept by the priest). A “peace offering” was to be brought in response to an unexpected blessing (a “thank offering”) or an answer to prayer (a “vow offering”), or for general thankfulness (a “freewill offering”). The idea of thanksgiving was associated with the peace offering. It often accompanied other sacrifices in celebration of events such as the dedication of the temple (1 Kings 8:63) or spiritual renewal (2 Chron. 29:31–36).[1]

She is cunning of heart, a prostitute who puts on a show of being righteous, acting as though there is more than enough to eat and drink at her house. The proposition is obvious: The young man was in for a good time there, and she came outside to look for him expressly. How moving if one was foolish enough to accept such a story. It is a half-truth; she was out looking for someone; it is just that someone was anyone.

[1] E. Ray Clendenen with Langston Scott, “Sacrifice and Offering,” ed. Chad Brand et al., Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003), 1430.