Proverbs 5

The Pulpit Commentary - Proverbs 5:22-23

The fearful end of the adulterer . From the universal statement of God's omniscience and the Divine judgment, the teacher passes to the fate of the profligate. His end is inevitable ruin and misery. The deep moral lesson conveyed is that sin carries with it its own Nemesis. Adultery and impurity, like all sin of which they are forms, are retributive. The career of the adulterer is a career begun, continued, and ended in folly (comp. Proverbs 1:31 , Proverbs 1:32 ; Proverbs 2:5 ; ... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Proverbs 5:22-23

Vice suicidal I. WICKEDNESS ( LIKE GOODNESS ) HAS UNDESIGNED RESULTS . The good comes back to nestle in the bosom of the giver and the doer. We never do right without invoking a blessing on our own heads. Evil, on the other hand, designed and executed, is like a snare set for one's self, a net in the meshes of which the crafty is entangled, self-overreached. II. WICKEDNESS AND IGNORANCE ARE IN CLOSE CONNECTION . "He shall die for want of instruction"—the... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Proverbs 5:22-23

The end of an evil course There are two fearful evils in which Impenitent sin is sure to end, two classes of penalty which the wrong doer must make up his mind to pay. He has to submit to— I. AS INWARD TYRANNY OF THE MOST CRUEL CHARACTER . ( Proverbs 5:22 .) We may never have seen the wild animal captured by the hunter, making violent efforts to escape its tolls, failing, desperately renewing the attempt with fierce and frantic struggles, until at length it yielded... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Proverbs 5:23

He shall die without instruction. The phrase, "without instruction," is in the original b'eyu musar, literally, "in there not being instruction." The obvious meaning is, because he gave no heed to instruction. So Aben Ezra and Gersom. The Authorized Version is at least ambiguous, and seems to imply that the adulterer has been without instruction, without any to reprove or counsel him. But such is not the case. He has been admonished of the evil consequences of his sin, but to these... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Proverbs 5

We have in this chapter, A.M. 3004. B.C. 1000. (1,) A further exhortation to Wisdom , vv1, vv2. (2,) A caution against whoredom, Proverbs 5:3-14 . (3,) Remedies against it, Proverbs 5:15-23 . read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Proverbs 5:1-2

Proverbs 5:1-2. My son, attend unto my wisdom “There being nothing,” says Bishop Patrick, “to which youth is so prone as to give up themselves to satisfy their fleshly desires, and nothing proving so pernicious to them; the wise man gives a new caution against those impure lusts which he had taken notice of before: (Proverbs 2:16-19,) as great obstructions to wisdom; and, with repeated entreaties, begs attention to so weighty an argument: which here he prosecutes more largely, and presses... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Proverbs 5:3-6

Proverbs 5:3-6. For the lips of a strange woman, &c. It concerns thee to get and to use discretion, that thou mayest be able to resist those manifold temptations to which thou art exposed; drop as a honeycomb Her words and discourses are sweet, pleasing, and prevalent. But her end is bitter as wormwood Her design, and the effect of that lewdness to which she entices men, are the sinner’s destruction. So that the beginning of this intercourse is not so sweet as the conclusion is... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Proverbs 5:8-14

Proverbs 5:8-14. Come not nigh the door of her house Lest thine eyes affect thy heart, and her allurements prevail over thee. Lest thou give thine honour Thy dignity and reputation, the strength and vigour of thy body and mind; unto others Unto whores, and their base attendants; and thy years The flower of thine age, and thy precious time, unto the cruel To the harlot, who, though she pretends love, yet, in truth, is one of the most cruel creatures in the world, wasting thy estate... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Proverbs 5:15

Proverbs 5:15. Drink waters out of thine own cistern “The allegory here begun is carried on through several verses. It has been differently understood; but the interpretation which seems most generally followed, is that of those who conceive that the wise man here subjoins a commendation of matrimony, and the chaste preservation of the marriage- bed, for the propagation of a legitimate offspring, to his dehortation from illegitimate embraces, and stolen waters; and Schultens observes, that... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Proverbs 5:16-17

Proverbs 5:16-17. Let thy fountains Rather, thy streams, as Dr. Waterland renders the word, that is, thy children, proceeding from thy wife, called thy fountain, Proverbs 5:18, and from thyself; be dispersed abroad They shall be multiplied, and in due time appear abroad in the world, to thy comfort and honour, and for the good of others; whereas harlots are commonly barren, and men are ashamed to own the children of whoredom. Let them be only thine own “Children that acknowledge no... read more

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