Let thy fountain be blessed - ברוך מקורך יהי yehi mekorecha baruch . Sit vena tua benedicta. Thy vein; that which carries off streams from the fountain of animal life, in order to disperse them abroad, and through the streets. How delicate and correct is the allusion here! But anatomical allusions must not be pressed into detail in a commentary on Scripture. read more
The loving hind and pleasant roe - By אילת aiyeleth , the deer; by יעלה yaalah , the ibex or mountain goat, may be meant. Let her breasts satisfy thee - As the infant is satisfied with the breasts of its mother; so shouldst thou be with the wife of thy youth. read more
For the ways of a man - Whether they are public or private, God sees all the steps thou takest in life. read more
He shall be holden with the cords of his sins - Most people who follow unlawful pleasures, think they can give them up whenever they please; but sin repeated becomes customary; custom soon engenders habit; and habit in the end assumes the form of necessity; the man becomes bound with his own cords, and so is led captive by the devil at his will. read more
He shall die without instruction - This is most likely, and it is a general case; but even these may repent and live. read more
The admonitory address is very similar to that in Proverbs 4:20 , except that here the teacher says," Attend to my wisdom, bow down thine ear to my understanding, " instead of "Attend to my words, and incline thine ear unto my saying ." It is not merely "wisdom" and "understanding" in the abstract, but wisdom which he has appropriated to himself, made his own, and which he knows by experience to be true wisdom. It may therefore have the sense of experience and observation, both of... read more
Meretricious pleasures and their results I. GENERAL ADMONITION . ( Proverbs 5:1-3 .) Similar prefaces to warnings against unchastity are found in Proverbs 6:20 , etc.; Proverbs 7:1 , etc. The same forms of iteration for the sake of urgency are observed. A fresh expression is, "That thy lips may keep insight." That is, let the lessons of wisdom be oft conned over; to keep them on the lips is to "get them by heart." "Consideration" ( Proverbs 7:2 ), circumspection,... read more
Victims of vice One particular vice is here denounced; it is necessary to warn the young against its snares and sorrows. What is here said, however, of this sin is applicable, in most if not all respects, to any kind of unholy indulgence; it is an earnest and faithful warning against the sin and shame of a vicious life. I. ITS SINFULNESS . The woman who is a sinner is a "strange" woman ( Proverbs 5:3 ). The temptress is all too common amongst us, but she is strange in the... read more
8. Eighth admonitory discourse. Warning against adultery, and commendation of marriage. The teacher, in this discourse, recurs to a subject which he has glanced at before in Proverbs 2:15-19 , and which he again treats of in the latter part of the sixth and in the whole of the seventh chapters. This constant recurrence to the same subject, repulsive on account of its associations, shows, however, the importance which it had in the teacher's estimation as a ground of warning, and that... read more
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Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Proverbs 5:17
Let them be only thine own - The off-spring of a legitimate connection; a bastard brood, however numerous, is no credit to any man. read more