Verses 1-27. - 13. Thirteenth admonitory discourse, containing a warning against adultery, treated under a different aspect from previous exhortations, and strengthened by an example. In this chapter and the following a contrast is drawn between the adulteress and Wisdom. Verse 1. - My son, keep my words. The teacher enjoins his pupil, as in Proverbs 2:1, to observe the rules which he gives. Lay up, as a precious treasure (see on Proverbs 2:1 and 7). The LXX. adds here a distich which is not in the Hebrew or in any other version, and is not germane to the context, however excellent in itself: "My son, honour the Lord, and thou shalt be strong, and beside him feat no other." With this we may compare Luke 12:5 and Isaiah 8:12, 13.

7:1-5 We must lay up God's commandments safely. Not only, Keep them, and you shall live; but, Keep them as those that cannot live without them. Those that blame strict and careful walking as needless and too precise, consider not that the law is to be kept as the apple of the eye; indeed the law in the heart is the eye of the soul. Let the word of God dwell in us, and so be written where it will be always at hand to be read. Thus we shall be kept from the fatal effects of our own passions, and the snares of Satan. Let God's word confirm our dread of sin, and resolutions against it.My son, keep my words,.... Doctrines and instructions; which, as a father to a son, or a master to his scholars, he had delivered; these he would have him observe and attend to;

and lay up my commandments with thee: as a treasure in his heart, to be brought out upon occasion; to be kept as valuable, and made use of as an antidote against and a preservative from sinning; see Psalm 119:11. The Septuagint and Arabic versions add, what is not in the Hebrew text,

"son, honour the Lord, and thou shalt be strong;''

the Arabic adds,

"and he shall strengthen thee; and fear none besides him.''