The Fool (Part 7)

The Fool

Proverbs 9:13-18 (KJV) ¹³ A foolish woman is clamorous: she is simple, and knoweth nothing. ¹⁴ For she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city, ¹⁵ To call passengers who go right on their ways: ¹⁶ Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, ¹⁷ Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. ¹⁸ But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell.

The 7^th occurrence of the word fool in Proverbs is found here in chapter 9 and it is in reference to an immoral woman, a woman who is practicing the world’s oldest profession of prostitution.  The Bible in other passages refers to this woman as a harlot, but here in Proverbs in this passage she is called foolish. 

The first characteristic of the women who lives as if there is no God is clamorous.  Clamorous has a wide variety of meaning in the Hebrew, but is usually defined as loud, turmoil, or in an uproar.

1.            A foolish woman is loud, outraged, and tumultuous.

The second word used to describe this foolish woman is simple.  Simple is defined here in Scripture as a person who is naïve, one who believes anything, one who is undisciplined.  When you combine the word simple with the next phrase that this foolish woman knoweth nothing, you can understand her better. She is gullible, undisciplined, and lacks knowledge.

2.            A foolish woman is gullible, undisciplined, and lacks knowledge.

In verse 17 stolen waters reference the fact that sin has pleasure for a season and in verse 18 it talks about the end result of disobeying God’s Word.  Life teaches this truth over and over again.  How often do we seek pleasure outside of God’s Word only to find in the end result is heartache and bondage. 

3.            A foolish woman considers only the immediate and not the end result.

                A foolish woman lives for temporary pleasure and not permanent joy.