"The woman of folly is boisterous, she is naive and knows nothing."
This section is a thorough description of the adulterous woman – who lures men into adultery.
the woman of folly
Proverbs is trying to get you to recognize certain characteristics about people who will suck you into sin. Solomon calls this person a woman of foolishness. In other words, foolishness has been fully embraced as a way of life for this person. This person is selfish, impulsive, and rebellious; but the characteristic of this woman who commits multiple adulteries are the three that are listed below.
boisterous
The Hebrew word translated boisterous is the word hamah which means loud, roar, clamor, noise, tumult, disquieted.
The idea seems to be when you notice this attention-gaining woman, take a step back instead of a step forward. This woman is loud and noisy in her manner and actions. She presents herself as a notice-me type of person. It is her notice me, all eyes on me, that brings her the attention she needs to begin the seduction.
The Septuagint translates this tharsos or bold and spirited. This aggressive trait is what is brought out in this early Greek translation.
Men can be easily attracted to an aggressive woman. It makes it seem as though they are wanted and desired. But this woman does not want you; she only wants what you represent.
naive
The Hebrew word is the word peti and comes from the verbal root pathah which means open, wide, or spacious but also is used in the Old Testament to mean entice, seduce, flatter, persuade. Exodus 22:16; Judges 12:14-16.
The Septuagint says that she becomes or presents herself as a favorable morsel.
Older translations use the word wantonness; disregard for moral boundaries.
This description of the foolish woman is very helpful. She is naive in that she does not really think through what will be the end results of her actions – either for herself or the men she seduces – but she also is a person schooled in the work of enticing, in flattery, and sexual persuasion. She knows how to use a man's natural sexual desire against him. She has a notice-me aggressive style with an enticing, flattering manner.
Men are warned to put some serious distance between themselves and this type of woman. No matter how attracted you are, make a space for her charms will destroy her and you.
knows nothing
This is a combination of words: knowledge, nothing, and at all. So she knows nothing at all. There seems to be the idea that she, in contrast to wisdom, does not add anything to the men she seduces. She has nothing to add. It appears that she will add some carnal knowledge and secret information to their lives, but she has nothing to add for she knows nothing at all. She actually takes much away.
This is important because one must contrast the offerings of wisdom at the beginning of this proverb with this woman who is offering sexual aggressiveness. It seems like a person will gain by being with her, but she knows nothing at all and has nothing to give except feeding a sexual appetite. The man comes away empty like feeding on cotton candy; it looks filling but will make you sick and leave you empty.
Another view of this verse is that these negative qualities are what young girls are being taught through the television and magazines to aspire to in our culture. The role models in our culture – for millions of young women – are loud, sexually aggressive, seductive, simple-minded, and consumed with useless pieces of information. We have almost become a factory for turning out prostitutes and porn stars instead of intelligent, virtuous, stable, godly, and beautiful women of God.
It is important to constantly work with your daughters to not give in to the pressure of this culture and become these things that do not end up in a good place. They will be alone, used, often battered, and lacking in basic financial resources with many emotional, mental, and spiritual scars.
I believe that it is important to limit the amount of this type of modeling that comes to your daughters and increase the amount of positive role models that your girls are exposed to.
Another interesting study to do is look at the opposite of these qualities and how they often signal a godly woman:
Not boisterous but instead meek and humble.
Not demanding the limelight with their manner, voice, clothes, and style.
Not seductive and sexually aggressive but virtuous and patient.
Sexually pure and responsive.
Not trying to trap a man through sexual desire but instead living a life of industry and virtue, allowing a godly man to pursue her.
Not knowing nothing at all but engaged in the real issues of the day, developing skills and taking action to fix real issues and real problems.
Realize that our society is working against us and is trying to turn out broken women who will feed an increasingly sexual culture.
Until tomorrow,
Gil Stieglitz