Proverbs 5:5 - Exposition

Proverbs 5:5 and Proverbs 5:6 continue the description of the harlot. Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell . She leads her victims to ruin. She hastens to death and the grove, and so do all those who listen to her. In all instances where the teacher speaks of the harlot at length he gives the same description of her (cf. Proverbs 2:18 ; Proverbs 7:27 ; Proverbs 9:18 ). An intensifying of the language is observable in the second hemistich. The descending progress to death becomes the laying hold of the grave, the underworld, as if nothing could turn her steps aside. And it is not only death, as the cessation of life, but death as a punishment, that is implied, just as the grave has in it the idea of corruption. (On "hell," sheol, see Proverbs 1:12 .)