Proverbs 7:23 Commentary and Bible Study

This is apparently the first awareness the young man has that he is in mortal danger. By the time that he has this awareness, it is too late. The dart has been kept out of view until he is safely in the trap. The liver could not be injured in those days without almost certain loss of life. In the ancient literature, the liver very often stood for the affections and the seat of desire. And what it means is that now she has got him, he wants to do this, he wants her and he throws caution to the wind.Just as a bird hastens to the snare, sees the fragment of food, but doesn't realise the net is there and doesn't know that his life is going to be taken, so the young man takes the step which will be his last. There is something decidedly peculiar about the bird hurrying into the trap. So totally has it been deceived by the hunter that what will bring it to death is really what it wants most of all. Why did the young man so misread the situation? Because his lusts blinded him and he ignored that instruction that gives ‘prudence to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.’