Paragraph 7:13–20

This paragraph tells how the woman seduced the young man. After first kissing him (7:13), she then used words in order to seduce him. She told about the favorable circumstances (7:14), used flattery (7:15), appealed to his anticipation of physical pleasure (7:16–18), and reassured him of her husband’s absence (7:19–20).

7:13a

She seizes him and kisses him: This verse continues the story from 7:10. This story was interrupted by the general description of the adulterous woman (or women) in 7:11–12. If your language has a way to show that this verse is resuming the story, you should use it here.

The verb seizes means here that she abruptly hugged him. Another way to translate this meaning is:

She threw her arms around the young man

7:13b

she brazenly: The expression that the Berean Standard Bible translates here as she brazenly is literally “she makes bold/strong her face.” It means that the woman had a brazen or impudent look on her face as she spoke to the young man. The Good News Translation expresses this as:

She…looked him straight in the eye (Good News Translation)

It may also mean that she spoke to him without a proper sense of shame. For example:

Without shame (New Century Version)

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