3 For honey is dropping from the lips of the strange woman, and her mouth is smoother than oil;
4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword;
5 Her feet go down to death, and her steps to the underworld;
6 She never keeps her mind on the road of life; her ways are uncertain, she has no knowledge.
7 Give ear to me then, my sons, and do not put away my words from you.
8 Go far away from her, do not come near the door of her house;
9 For fear that you may give your honour to others, and your wealth to strange men:
10 And strange men may be full of your wealth, and the fruit of your work go to the house of others;
11 And you will be full of grief at the end of your life, when your flesh and your body are wasted;
12 And you will say, How was teaching hated by me, and my heart put no value on training;
13 I did not give attention to the voice of my teachers, my ear was not turned to those who were guiding me!
14 I was in almost all evil in the company of the people.
15 Let water from your store and not that of others be your drink, and running water from your fountain.
16 Let not your springs be flowing in the streets, or your streams of water in the open places.
17 Let them be for yourself only, not for other men with you.
18 Let blessing be on your fountain; have joy in the wife of your early years.
19 As a loving hind and a gentle doe, let her breasts ever give you rapture; let your passion at all times be moved by her love.
20 Why let yourself, my son, go out of the way with a strange woman, and take another woman in your arms?
21 For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he puts all his goings in the scales.
22 The evil-doer will be taken in the net of his crimes, and prisoned in the cords of his sin.
23 He will come to his end for need of teaching; he is so foolish that he will go wandering from the right way.
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.