Attire of an Harlot
By Alan Adams
           The Spirit describes (Proverbs 7) an all-too-typical scene; one so common that most anybody can go to the
    “window,” look “through [the] casement (lattice),” (v.6), and watch it unfold. There he is: one of the “simple
    ones,” “among the youths,” “a young man void of understanding” (v.7). It grieves me to admit that we males,
    young and old, are not bright about some things.

            This naïve young man is seen “passing the street near her corner,” and going “the way to her house” (v.8).
    In reality he is –accidentally on purpose—arranging to be where a woman, a temptress, lives. You can guess the
    rest of the story.

            Hanging out in this place, “there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtle of heart” (v.10). A
    “harlot” is a prostitute, a “whorish woman” (6:26). What about this harlot’s “attire”? Something about the way she
    was dressed made it clear to the young man that he had found who he was apparently looking for. Is it true that
    the way a woman dresses implies things about her?

            How would a “whorish woman” dress? Would she carefully cover her breasts, her belly and her thighs?
    Would she avoid wearing tiny and tight pieces of material (otherwise called swimsuits) designed to just barely
    cover her private parts? We know the answer.

            But wait a minute. If a “whorish woman” would not carefully cover her breasts, belly, and thighs; if she would
    delight in wearing swimsuits designed to show herself, then are we supposed to conclude that women who do
    wear things to show their breasts, bellies, and thighs, who do wear swimsuits are “whorish”?

            But wait another minute. If “whorish” women would dress that way; are we supposed to conclude that
    women, say, in Wal-Mart who wear “attire” which shows their breasts, bellies, things and most everything else
    are “whorish”? What about women who go to restaurants, funerals, who even come to church virtually dressed
    that way? Are they “whorish”? If you meet a woman “with the attire of an harlot,” what are you supposed to
    conclude?
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