1 My son, give attention to my wisdom; let your ear be turned to my teaching:
Let your ear be bent down for hearing my words, and let your heart give thought to knowledge.
My son, give attention to my words; let your ear be turned to my sayings.
Give ear, my sons, to the teaching of a father; give attention so that you may have knowledge:
And say not to yourselves, We have Abraham for our father; because I say to you that God is able from these stones to make children for Abraham.
You have knowledge of this, dear brothers. But let every man be quick in hearing, slow in words, slow to get angry;
He who has ears, let him give ear to what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give of the fruit of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.
He who has ears, let him give ear to what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give of the secret manna, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name, of which no one has knowledge but he to whom it is given.
He who has ears, let him give ear to what the Spirit says to the churches.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Proverbs 5
Commentary on Proverbs 5 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 5
Pr 5:1-23. A warning against the seductive arts of wicked women, enforced by considering the advantages of chastity, and the miserable end of the wicked.
1. This connection of wisdom and understanding is frequent (Pr 2:2; 3:7); the first denotes the use of wise means for wise ends; the other, the exercise of a proper discrimination in their discovery.
2. regard—or, "observe."
keep—preserve constantly.
3. (Compare Pr 2:16). Her enticing promises are deceitful.
4. her end—literally, "her future," in sense of reward, what follows (compare Ps 37:37; 73:17). Its nature is evinced by the use of figures, opposite those of Pr 5:3. The physical and moral suffering of the deluded profligate are notoriously terrible.
5. feet … , steps—that is, course of life ends in death.
6. her ways … know—Some prefer, "that she may not ponder the path of life," &c.; but perhaps a better sense is, "her ways are varied, so as to prevent your knowledge of her true character, and so of true happiness."
8, 9. Avoid the slightest temptation.
9. thine honour—in whatever consisting, strength (Pr 3:13) or wealth.
thy years—by cutting them off in dissipation.
unto the cruel—for such the sensual are apt to become.
10. wealth—literally, "strength," or the result of it.
labours—the fruit of thy painful exertions (Ps 127:2). There may be a reference to slavery, a commuted punishment for death due the adulterer (De 22:22).
11. at the last—the end, or reward (compare Pr 5:4).
mourn—roar in pain.
flesh and … body—the whole person under incurable disease.
12-14. The ruined sinner vainly laments his neglect of warning and his sad fate in being brought to public disgrace.
14. evil—for affliction, as in Ge 19:20; 49:15.
15-20. By figures, in which well, cistern, and fountain [Pr 5:15, 18] represent the wife, and rivers of waters [Pr 5:16] the children, men are exhorted to constancy and satisfaction in lawful conjugal enjoyments. In Pr 5:16, fountains (in the plural) rather denote the produce or waters of a spring, literally, "what is from a spring," and corresponds with "rivers of waters."
17. only thine own—harlots' children have no known father.
18. wife … youth—married in youth.
19. loving … roe—other figures for a wife from the well-known beauty of these animals.
breasts—(Compare So 1:13; Eze 23:3, 8).
ravished—literally, "intoxicated," that is, fully satisfied.
21. The reason, God's eye is on you,
22, 23. and He will cause sin to bring its punishment.
23. without instruction—literally, "in want of instruction," having refused it (compare Job 13:18; Heb 11:24).
go astray—literally, "be drunken." The word "ravished" (Pr 5:19) here denotes fulness of punishment.