Bible Strands
Proverbs 7:12
Now in the street, now in the squares, she lurks at every corner.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The text describes a woman's movements through the city as part of a warning to a young man about the dangers of yielding to adulterous temptation. The narrative places her actively patrolling public thoroughfares while the listener is being instructed on the consequences of ignoring that warning.
The words — The Hebrew verb תֶאֱרֹֽב (te.'e.Ro) literally means "she lies in wait," paired with כָּל־פִּנָּה (kol-pinnah) = "every corner," underscoring her comprehensive coverage of public thoroughfares.
The thread — This pattern of predatory lurking appears in Proverbs 23:28, where a robber similarly lies in wait to multiply the faithless, and in Revelation 18:3, which depicts a corrupt system whose immorality intoxicates the nations. The motif of strategic ambush in public spaces recurs as a warning against systemic temptation.
Why it lands — The passage demands recognition of calculated danger disguised as opportunity, requiring the reader to treat public temptation as a deliberate trap rather than a neutral circumstance. It instructs the reader to maintain vigilance and refuse engagement with overtly predatory allure.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.)
Cross-references
- Proverbs 23:28 Like a robber she lies in wait and multiplies the faithless among men.
- Proverbs 9:14 She sits at the door of her house, on a seat in the heights of the city,
- Revelation 18:3 All the nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her immorality. The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown wealthy from the extravagance of her luxury.”
- Jeremiah 2:20 “For long ago you broke your yoke and tore off your chains, saying, ‘I will not serve!’ Indeed, on every high hill and under every green tree you lay down as a prostitute.
- Jeremiah 2:33 How skillfully you pursue love! Even the most immoral of women could learn from your ways.
- Jeremiah 2:36 How impulsive you are, constantly changing your ways! You will be disappointed by Egypt just as you were by Assyria.
- Jeremiah 3:2 “Lift up your eyes to the barren heights and see. Is there any place where you have not been violated? You sat beside the highways waiting for your lovers, like a nomad in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution and wickedness.
- Ezekiel 16:24 you built yourself a mound and made yourself a lofty shrine in every public square.
- Ezekiel 16:31 But when you built your mounds at the head of every street and made your lofty shrines in every public square, you were not even like a prostitute, because you scorned payment.
- Revelation 18:23 The light of a lamp will never shine in you again, and the voices of a bride and bridegroom will never call out in you again. For your merchants were the great ones of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery.”