Proverbs 5

The Pulpit Commentary - Proverbs 5:11

The last argument is the mental anguish which ensues when health is ruined and wealth is squandered. And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed. The Hebrew v'nahamta' is rather "and thou groan." It is not the plaintive wailing or the subdued grief of heart which is signified, but the loud wail of lamentation, the groaning indicative of intense mental suffering called forth by the remembrance of past folly, and which sees no remedy in the future. The verb naham ... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Proverbs 5:12

Self-reproach accompanies the unavailable groaning. And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof! i.e. how could it ever come to pass that I have acted in such a senseless and inexcusable manner, that I have hated instruction ( musar, disciplina, παιδεία ), the warning voice which dissuaded me from going with the harlot, and in my heart despised, i.e. rejected inwardly, whatever my outward demeanour may have been, the reproof which followed after I had been... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Proverbs 5:13

And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me. The ruined profligate admits he was not without teachers and advisers, but that he gave no heed to their warnings and reproofs. Have not obeyed the voice ( lo-shama'ti b'kol ) . The same phrase occurs in Genesis 27:13 ; Exodus 18:19 ; Deuteronomy 26:14 ; 2 Samuel 12:18 . The verb shama is primarily "to hear," and then "to obey," "to give heed to," like the Greek ἀκούω . read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Proverbs 5:14

I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly; i.e. such was my shamelessness that there was scarcely any wickedness which I did not commit, unrestrained even by the presence of the congregation and assembly. The fact which the ruined youth laments is the extent and audacity of his sins. It is not that he accuses himself of hypocrisy in religion (Delitzsch), but he adds another clement in his career of vice. He has disregarded the warnings and reproofs of his... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Proverbs 5:15

Drink waters out of thine own cistern, etc.; i.e. in the wife of your own choice, or in the legitimate sphere of marriage, seek the satisfaction of your natural impulses. The pure, innocent, and chaste nature of such pleasures is appropriately compared with the pure and wholesome waters of the cistern and the wellspring. The "drinking" carries with it the satisfying of a natural want. Agreeably with oriental and scriptural usage, "the wife" is compared with a "cistern" and "well." Thus in... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Proverbs 5:15

Home joys I. THE HOME IS A DIVINE INSTITUTION OF THE FIRST IMPORTANCE FOR THE WELFARE OF MANKIND . Here and throughout the Bible the sanctity of the home is insisted on as something to be guarded inviolably. It is evident that this beautiful institution is in harmony with our nature. To live according to nature is not to indulge ill-regulated passions, to follow chance impulses, to subordinate reason and conscience to instinct and appetite. It is to live so as... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Proverbs 5:15-19

Commendation of the chaste intercourse of marriage. In this section the teacher passes from admonitory warnings against unchastity to the commendation of conjugal fidelity and pure love. The allegorical exposition of this passage, current at the period of the Revision of the Authorized Version in 1612, as referring to liberality, is not ad rem . Such an idea had no place certainly in the teacher's mind, nor is it appropriate to the context, the scope of which is, as we have seen, to warn... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Proverbs 5:15-21

Fidelity and bliss in marriage The counterpart of the foregoing warning against vice, placing connubial joys in the brightest light, of poetic fancy. I. IMAGES OF WIFEHOOD . The wife is described: 1 . As a spring, and as a cistern. Property in a spring or well was highly, even sacredly, esteemed. Hence a peculiar force in the comparison. The wife is the husband's peculiar delight and property; the source of pleasures of every kind and degree; the fruitful origin of the... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Proverbs 5:16

Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets. The figurative language is still continued, and under the terms "fountains" and "rivers of waters," are to be understood children, the legitimate issue of lawful marriage. So Aben Ezra and the majority of modern commentators, Schultens, Doderlein, Holden, Muenscher, Noyes, Wardlaw, etc. The meaning appears to be, "Let thy marriage be blessed with many children, who may go forth abroad for the public good." Other... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Proverbs 5:17

Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee. By confining yourself to chaste intercourse with your lawful wife, be assured that your offspring is your own. Promiscuous and unlawful intercourse throws doubt upon the paternity of children. Thy children may be thine, they may belong to another. The natural pride which is felt in a legitimate offspring is the motive put forward to commend the husband to confine himself exclusively to his wife. Grotius on this verse remarks, "Ibi... read more

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