Tenth Address. Chap. 5. Proverbs 5:1 The subject of this chapter, of which the seventh commandment might be the title, is one throughout. Against the unholy passion to be shunned (Proverbs 5:1) is set the holy love to be cherished (Proverbs 5:15). 1. _bow_ Rather, INCLINE, R.V., because the same H... [ Continue Reading ]
_regard_ Rather, PRESERVE, R.V. Comp. _keep_in the parallel clause of the verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
_strange_woman] See Proverbs 2:16, note.... [ Continue Reading ]
_wormwood_ The reference is perhaps not merely to the _bitterness_, but to the _noxiousness_of this herb. See Deuteronomy 29:18, and Revelation 8:10-11, where "many men died of the waters" into which the star named "wormwood" had fallen.... [ Continue Reading ]
_hell_ SHEOL, R.V. "which signifies the abode of departed spirits, and corresponds to the Greek Hades" (εἰς τὸν ᾅδην, LXX., _ad inferos_, Vulg. here). See R.V. Preface.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Lest thou shouldest ponder_ The rendering of A.V. or of R.V. marg. (_Lest thou find the level path_, or, _Lest thou weigh carefully the path_) is to be preferred to R.V. text which connects the words with the preceding verse and makes them refer to the strange woman: _so that she findeth not the le... [ Continue Reading ]
_ye children_ Rather, MY SONS, R.V., as the same Heb. word is rendered throughout these exhortations.... [ Continue Reading ]
_others_ instead of to _thine own, Proverbs 5:15; Proverbs 5:17_. Comp. Proverbs 5:10 . _the cruel_ The Heb. noun is masc. sing. and is intended perhaps vividly to describe the sin with its cruel consequences (Proverbs 6:26; Proverbs 6:31-35; Proverbs 7:22-23; Proverbs 7:26) as a merciless personal... [ Continue Reading ]
_wealth_ The word may mean either that which a man acquires, his _wealth_(A.V. text, R.V. marg.), or that by which he acquires it, his _strength_(R.V. text, A.V. marg.) of mind and body. Genesis 49:3 would seem to favour the latter rendering here. σῆς ἰσχύος, LXX., _viribus tuis_, Vulg. The suggesti... [ Continue Reading ]
The pangs of remorse and the upbraidings of conscience form the terrible climax to the loss of honour and health and substance. " -Going down to the chambers of death," wise too late, the victim of his own sins remembers with unspeakable agony the voice of his teachers, the efforts of those who wis... [ Continue Reading ]
_I was almost in all evil_ Ewald and other commentators take this to mean, I had a narrow escape from incurring the extreme penalty which the law of Moses prescribes for this sin (Leviticus 20:10): I almost, or well nigh, was convicted and stoned to death in public, "in the midst of the congregation... [ Continue Reading ]
The remedy against sin is to be found in the holy estate which God has ordained. "The resemblance between the two Books (the Song of Solomon and the Book of Proverbs) in their treatment of this subject is singularly striking." _Speaker's Comm., ad loc_.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Let thy fountains_ This rendering (retained in R.V. marg.) gives a good sense: purity of married life (Proverbs 5:15) will diffuse itself abroad like streams from a fountain, in a numerous family, and in wholesome influences: but only by such purity can these advantages be secured (Proverbs 5:17).... [ Continue Reading ]
Let her be as] These words, which are not in the Hebrew, are not wanted. Read "A loving hind &c." The imagery again, which is thoroughly Oriental, reappears in the Song of Solomon (Proverbs 2:9; Proverbs 2:17; Proverbs 7:3; Proverbs 8:14).... [ Continue Reading ]
_For_; as an additional reason for avoiding sin. _pondereth_ The primary sense of the Heb. word, which is the same as in Proverbs 5:6 of this chapter, is adhered to in R.V. text: HE MAKETH LEVEL, i.e. however intricate and tortuous man makes them, before God's all-seeing eye they lie spread out like... [ Continue Reading ]
_without_ Rather, FOR LACK OF, R.V.; quia non habuit disciplinam, Vulg. Do you ask the cause of this dread catastrophe? The end, "he shall die," and the road which led to it, "he shall go astray," are alike due to "lack of instruction" and to "folly." Said I not well then, "Attend to my wisdom, and... [ Continue Reading ]