_SOLOMON PERSUADETH TO A SINCERE AND KIND FAMILIARITY WITH WISDOM. IN AN EXAMPLE OF HIS OWN EXPERIENCE, HE SHEWETH THE CUNNING OF A WHORE, AND THE DESPERATE SIMPLICITY OF A YOUNG WANTON; HE DISSUADETH FROM SUCH WICKEDNESS._... [ Continue Reading ]
MY SON, KEEP MY WORDS— Chastity is a virtue of so much consequence, and impurity such a bane to youth, that the wise man thought he could not too often make mention of the danger of the one, to move men carefully to preserve the other; therefore he repeats with renewed importunities what he had befo... [ Continue Reading ]
CALL UNDERSTANDING THY KINSWOMAN— _Thy relation:_ The LXX have it, _Make wisdom thy acquaintance._ "Say to wisdom, Thou art my sister, my spouse, my beloved, my inclination. Give to her thy heart, that she may preserve thee from the snares of the strange woman." The name of _sister,_ is a name of fr... [ Continue Reading ]
I LOOKED THROUGH MY CASEMENT— _Through the lattice._ In Palestine they had no glass to their windows; they closed them with lattices or curtains.... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE TWILIGHT, &C.— Or, _In the twilight, in the close of the day; when night and darkness were yet in embryo,_ or _just beginning._... [ Continue Reading ]
I HAVE PEACE-OFFERINGS WITH ME— This woman was the more abominable, as she covered her lewdness with the mask of piety and devotion. There were three sorts of _peace-offerings._ See Leviticus 7:11; Leviticus 12:8. Bishop Patrick takes these mentioned here to have been the last of them; offerings of... [ Continue Reading ]
I HAVE PERFUMED, &C.— _I have sprinkled or bedewed my bed with myrrh, cedar-oil, and juice of cinnamon._... [ Continue Reading ]
AT THE DAY APPOINTED— _At the day of full-moon._ Houbigant renders the clause, _Nor will he return to his house before the full moon;_ which the woman plainly gives as a reason for removing all apprehensions and fears of detection from the simple youth whom she is soliciting to destruction.... [ Continue Reading ]
HE GOETH AFTER HER STRAIGHTWAY, &C.— Dr. Grey renders these verses thus: _He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter; as a dog to the chain, and as a deer, till the dart strike through his liver: as a bird hasteth,_ &c. Here are four similes, says he; the ox, the dog, the deer,... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR SHE HATH CAST DOWN— The LXX read, _She hath cast dawn many whom she hath wounded; and they whom she hath slain are innumerable._ There are those who read, _She hath caused many soldiers to fall, and a great many brave,_ or _strong men have been slain by her._ The verse may be paraphrased thus: ... [ Continue Reading ]