Bible Strands
Proverbs 7:23
until an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird darting into a snare—not knowing it will cost him his life.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — A father addresses his sons in a wisdom discourse, warning them of the immediate fatal consequences of yielding to an adulterous woman's enticement.
The words — The Hebrew חֵץ (chetz, "arrow") and יְפַלַּח (ye.pal.lach, "it will pierce") describe a sudden, lethal strike, while פָּח (pach, "trap") and צִפּוֹר (tsi.por, "bird") depict the victim's unwitting flight into danger.
The thread — The bird-in-a-snare imagery runs directly into Ecclesiastes 9:12, while the fatal spear motif parallels the piercing action in Numbers 25:8 and the Sheol warning of Proverbs 9:18.
Why it lands — The text describes a man who follows impulsively into a trap without recognizing the lethal cost, demanding the reader acknowledge that unexamined desire carries an unavoidable, fatal end.
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
Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.
Cross-references
- Ecclesiastes 9:12 For surely no man knows his time: Like fish caught in a cruel net or birds trapped in a snare, so men are ensnared in an evil time that suddenly falls upon them.
- Proverbs 9:18 But they do not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.
- Numbers 25:8 followed the Israelite into the tent, and drove the spear through both of them—through the Israelite and on through the belly of the woman. So the plague against the Israelites was halted,
- Proverbs 1:17 How futile it is to spread the net where any bird can see it!