Numerous articles and books have been written about the Proverbs 31 woman. And rightfully so. She possesses a variety of admirable qualities. She is a loving wife, industrious, financially astute, skillfully adept at providing for her family’s physical needs, wise, and kind. She is indeed a virtuous woman who is praised by her children and husband. “Her children rise up and bless her; her husband also, and he praises her, saying: ‘Many daughters have done nobly, but you excel them all’” (Proverbs 31:28-29 NASU). Would not the heart of any mother and wife find fulfillment in such praise? Little wonder this woman has been the subject of the pen of so many writers.

But did you know that the book of Proverbs speaks of another woman, a wife? However, this woman, this wife, is not blessed by her children or praised by her husband. Rather, this woman is described in terms that leave no doubt as to her character. And she is not a virtuous woman. Indeed, she is the very antithesis of the Proverbs 31 woman. She is so vile, so enticing, and so dangerous sons are strongly advised to beware of her. They are told to embrace wisdom and understanding lest they fall victim to her and become fools. Who is this dangerous woman?

She is the Proverbs 7 woman. Verse five describes her as “the strange woman” (KJV, ASV, YLT, Darby). Other Bible translations describe her as “an adulteress” (NASU, NIV), “the forbidden woman” (ESV, HCSB),”the loose woman” (AMP, RSV), and “the immoral woman” (NKJV). Obviously this woman is a harlot, a prostitute. The wise avoid her. But those who succumb to her flattery meet an unenviable fate. “For many are the victims she has cast down, and numerous are all her slain. Her house is the way to Sheol, descending to the chambers of death” (Proverbs 7:26-27 NASU). That is a high price to pay. In fact from a purely human point of view the price seems to be exaggerated. Do prostitutes routinely slay their customers? Not physically, but there is a sense in which she does slay them. How?

Listen to Proverbs 2:26: “For on account of a harlot one is reduced to a loaf of bread, and an adulteress hunts for the precious life” (NASU). The word “life” used here is the Hebrew nepesh. It is the word for soul. In other words the strange woman hunts for the soul, the precious life, the life that is of immeasurably more importance than the physical body. Anyone can kill the body of another, but the Strange Woman spoken of in Proverbs is not satisfied with that. She hunts for the precious life, the soul, to bring her victims down to hell. Therefore, I believe the warnings sons receive in Proverbs concerning her are not meant so much to keep the body alive, but the soul.

So if the Lord is trying to teach us something beyond engaging in the sin of fornication or adultery by sleeping with a woman who is not our wife what is He trying to teach us? (By the way, where is the warning for women? Are they not in danger of this sin? Yes, as we will see.)

In many places in the Bible God is referred to as a Husband and Israel is referred to as His wife (Jeremiah chapters 2 and 3; Ezekiel chapters 16 and 23; Hosea chapter 2; etc). God “married” Israel at Mount Sinai when the people of Israel entered into a covenant relationship with Him (Exodus 24:3-8). But they committed “adultery” many times afterward. How?

Speaking to Jeremiah the Lord said: “Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she was a harlot there” (Jeremiah 3:6 NASU). In other words they turned from God, their Husband, and worshipped idols. God expands on the extent of their harlotries in speaking with Ezekiel. “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah (derogatory names the Lord had given to Samaria and Jerusalem)? Declare to them their abominations. For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. With their idols they have committed adultery, and they have even offered up to them for food the children whom they had borne to me. Moreover, this they have done to me: they have defiled my sanctuary on the same day and profaned my Sabbaths. For when they had slaughtered their children in sacrifice to their idols, on the same day they came into my sanctuary to profane it. And behold, this is what they did in my house. They even sent for men to come from afar, to whom a messenger was sent; and behold, they came. For them you bathed yourself, painted your eyes, and adorned yourself with ornaments. You sat on a stately couch, with a table spread before it on which you had placed my incense and my oil. The sound of a carefree multitude was with her; and with men of the common sort drunkards were brought from the wilderness; and they put bracelets on the hands of the women, and beautiful crowns on their heads” (Ezekiel 23:36-42 ESV).

Notice what the “wife” of God had done. She shed innocent blood; even the blood of her own children. As if this were not bad enough she sacrificed her children to these idols then went to church (sanctuary) to fulfill her religious obligations to Yahweh, her “Husband”! Furthermore, not satisfied with the love and gifts of her Husband, she set about to entice other “men” to provide her with bracelets and crowns; that is, with material wealth and power. Notice also that the “men” (gentile nations) she seduced were “of the common sort drunkards”. Her Husband was a King, Royalty, but she chased after commoners. Worse, they were drunks “brought from the wilderness”. Yahweh’s wife had come out of the wilderness into the Promised Land by the power and strength of her Husband. But the wilderness she had come out of had not come out of her. She lusted after material wealth and power and to become drunk with that which her Husband had forbidden. Israel had become an adulteress; Israel had become the Strange Woman that sons are warned against in Proverbs 7. Thus, it would be helpful to study the Proverbs 7 woman more closely.

In a nutshell the Proverbs 7 woman symbolizes God’s chosen people in a state of apostasy. In the Old Testament the nation of Israel was God’s chosen people, as we have seen. We have also seen how God’s “wife” – Israel – betrayed her husband by committing adultery with idols. She was still religious, but it was a syncretistic religion. In the New Testament the Church is God’s chosen people. Paul makes this clear when he says, “‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:31-32 ESV). But just as Israel committed adultery against Yahweh by seeking the favor of gods and goddesses to meet their needs, both physically and spiritually, Paul exposes the danger the Church faces when she looks to the world to satisfy the desires of her soul. “I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough” (2 Corinthians 11:2-4 ESV). Paul feared the Corinthian Christians would allow false teachers to take them “captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ” (Colossians 2:8 NASU). The teachings of man – evolution, more than one way to Heaven, homosexuality is not a sin, abortion is not murder, man is basically good, pornography is not harmful, the Bible is not inerrant or inspired by God, all religions are basically the same, no such thing as absolute truth – may sound good, but they are rooted in the pride of man and his desire to be free (unmarried so to speak) from a husband’s (Yahweh/Jesus) authority. In other words, when the Church “marries” the world she becomes the Proverbs 7 woman; she becomes the Strange Woman.

On a physical level the Proverbs 7 woman seeks to defile as many men as she can by committing adultery with them. But this is equally true on a spiritual level. The Apostate Church today (yes, she does exist) seeks to defile as many men – which I believe symbolically refers to the spirit as opposed to the soul – as she can. She does this by appealing to the fallen nature within man. Man is a religious being and will worship something, even if it is his own intellect. Thus, he seeks a way to worship, but still satisfy his fallen nature. The Apostate Church fulfills that desire. He can worship God (god, goddesses, nature, money) on his terms, have a clear conscience, and believe he is in need of nothing more.

Thus Proverbs 7:6-9 says, “For at the window of my house I looked out through my lattice, and I saw among the naive, and discerned among the youths a young man lacking sense, passing through the street near her (the Strange Woman) corner; and he takes the way to her house, in the twilight, in the evening, in the middle of the night and in the darkness” (NASU). What a description of fallen man this is! Naïve, lacking sense, flirting with evil, desiring to satisfy his spiritual hunger outside of God’s will, but sensing that the path he has chosen to take to fulfill his desires is best done under cover of darkness lest the Light of Jesus expose the true nature of his heart.

The Apostate Church, the church that has compromised her commitment to her Husband, hunts for such a “youth”, he who wants to be saved in his sins rather than from his sins. So anxious is she to spring her trap on him she leaves her house and “comes to meet him” (vs. 10). Knowing her prey she has prepared herself well. She is “dressed as a harlot and cunning of heart” (vs. 10). She makes herself available to him with the thought that no commitment is needed on his part. He can take what he wants and then leave. But she is cunning. She is hiding a secret. She knows that once he has embraced her he will not be able to free himself from her. She satisfies his need for spiritual fulfillment while at the same time allowing him to partake of all the world offers apart from God. This is a picture of man finding spiritual solace from a church that embraces sin, whose members “call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter” (Isaiah 5:20 NASU! The Strange Woman knows man is drawn to religion (harlot), but his pride is repulsed by the thought of being a “submissive wife” to Jesus. That is her secret. The “youth” (unsaved mankind) may agree to a price the harlot requests – going to church regularly, giving of time and money – but she knows the real cost is his soul.

Unsaved man finds the Apostate Church exciting. “She is boisterous and rebellious, her feet do not remain at home; she is now in the streets, now in the squares, and lurks by every corner” (Proverbs 7:11-12 NASU). She is a party-girl, wild, not satisfied with the home her Husband provides for her. She is loud and unwilling to submit to her Husband. Compare this to the behavior of a wife obedient to her God-ordained calling: “In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior” (1 Peter 3:1-2 NASU). The feminist movement with its anti-male (a picture of the soul usurping the position of authority that belongs to the spirit) philosophy is not new. On a spiritual level the Apostate Church is a radical feminist, intent on pleasuring herself by destroying any spirit (male) that joins itself to Jesus.

Further, the Apostate Church is evangelistic. She is proactive in her endeavor to seduce any who wish to call themselves “Christian” while remaining very much a part of the world. Thus, she goes to the streets to hunt for victims. It is interesting that the word “street” used here means a broad way. She will not find her victims on the narrow way for it is they who are following the Lord (Matthew 7:13-14). Rather she hunts on the way that is broad because these travelers are already going her way.

From the streets she goes to the squares to ply her trade. The town square was the place where official political business was conducted. It was in the squares that laws were voted on and judgments were passed. Not satisfied with destroying individuals she found in the streets she expanded her sphere of influence over governments. And so it is today. A Church that remains true to her Husband and follows His commands is mocked, ridiculed, and scorned by the powers that be in an attempt to silence her. Not so with the Apostate Church. She is welcomed by the rich and powerful; by the lawmakers, judges, and executioners.

Having seduced the common man, having gained political power, the Strange Woman now “lurks by every corner”. “Lurks” means to ambush. She will use whatever means are necessary in her attempt to take captive as many as possible to her lies.
Having captured her prey she entices him to stay with her with promises of forbidden pleasures. “So she seizes him and kisses him and with a brazen face she says to him: ‘I was due to offer peace offerings; today I have paid my vows. Therefore I have come out to meet you, to seek your presence earnestly, and I have found you. I have spread my couch with coverings, with colored linens of Egypt. I have sprinkled my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. Come, let us drink our fill of love until morning. Let us delight ourselves with caresses’” (Proverbs 7:13-18 NASU). These words tell us many things about the Strange Woman. She is shameless; she is religious; she is evangelistic and persistent; her house (church, denomination) is decorated with the things of the world; that is, teachings and doctrines of the world (symbolized by Egypt – a land of plenty, but also of slavery) that appeal to fallen man; she excites the senses – smell, taste, touch, sight, hearing – in order to get her victims into her bed so she can bear offspring after her kind.

To ease any remaining doubts her victims may have about joining her out of fear her Husband may return and assume His position of authority the Strange Woman says: “For my husband is not at home, he has gone on a long journey; he has taken a bag of money with him, at the full moon he will come home” (Proverbs 7:19-20 NASU). In other words the Apostate Church can follow whatever teachings and doctrines she chooses. She has no fear of God or respect for Jesus. She picks and chooses what she wishes to believe. If she disagrees with what the Bible teaches she ignores it, revises it, or twists it.

We are given an example of the Strange Woman in Revelation 2:18-23. These verses speak of the church in Thyatira. She is under the teachings and influence of Jezebel. Some scholars believe Jezebel was the wife of the bishop over this church or simply a strong-willed woman who took it upon herself to exercise authority in her own right. In either case many scholars believe the name “Jezebel” is not the actual name of this woman, but rather a symbol of her character and nature. I agree with this, especially when one discovers the name “Jezebel” means unhusbanded! Spiritually speaking this is a picture of the Apostate Church (Strange Woman) not willing to submit to her Husband (Jesus) by recognizing His headship. Rather, she assumes the position of headship. She may call herself a Christian and thus imply Jesus’ headship as false, apostate churches do, but she was acting as if she were the head, the one in authority.

Those who join churches that teach doctrines contrary to the Bible are easily seduced by the Strange Woman because though she says she is “married” (calls herself Christian) to Jesus she emphasizes He is on a long journey and she is in charge. Thus, those who place themselves under the authority of the Strange Woman/Apostate Church do so with the assurance they can live their lives any way they see fit and still be a “Christian” in good standing.

The Strange Woman’s promise of life without restraints while also promising life lived to the fullest proves irresistible to fallen man. “With her many persuasions she entices him; with her flattering lips she seduces him. Suddenly he follows her as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as one in fetters to the discipline of a fool, until an arrow pierces through his liver; as a bird hastens to the snare, so he does not know that it will cost him his life (Hebrew nepesh soul)” (Proverbs 7:21-23 NASU). What sounds so right to fallen man – I will do what I want to do; no one has the right to tell me what to do; no one has the right to judge my lifestyle; the Bible is not the Word of God, but just a book written by men; God would not give me desires He did not want me to fulfill; abortion is not murder; there is no such thing as absolute truth; it is all about me – leads ultimately to a death that encompasses the whole man – body, soul, and spirit.

Is the Strange Woman/Apostate Church alive today? Most certainly. And she will become more brazen in her harlotries as she finds men and women rushing to join themselves to her so that they may take the name “Christian” and still embrace evil. But true Christians are warned to get away from her (implying some true Christians have succumbed to her charms). “I heard another voice from heaven, saying, ‘Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues; for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities’” (Revelation 18:4-5 NASU).

Have you been seduced by the Strange Woman? Only you can answer that. But one telltale sign is how much the world loves you and how much you look like it.

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About Terry L. Brown

Terry taught a home Bible Study for over ten years. In January 2000 he began a writing ministry called “Whispers of the Spirit”. In June 2003 he graduated from Yellowstone Valley Bible Institute with high academic honors, receiving a Certificate of Ministry. Upon graduation he taught adult Sunday school classes and preached upon occasion while maintaining his writing ministry. Terry is also the author of “Hallowed Be Thy Name”. It is available at www.authorhouse.com/bookstore or many other bookstores.He currently lives in Montana with his wife Julie.

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