Proverbs 5:10 - Exposition

Another temporal consequence of, and deterrent against, a life of profligacy. Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger . The margin reads, "thy strength" for "thy wealth," but the text properly renders the original koakh, which means "substance," "wealth," "riches"—the youth's possessions in money and property (Delitzsch). The primary meaning of the word is "strength" or "might," as appears from the verb kakhakh, "to exert one's self," from which it is derived, but the parallel atsabeyka, "thy toils," rendered "thy labours," determines its use in the secondary sense here. Compare the similar passage in Hosea 7:9 , "Strangers have devoured his strength [ koakh, i.e. ' his possessions'], and he knoweth it not" (see also Job 6:22 ). Koakh is the concrete product resulting from the abstract strength or ability when brought into action. Thy labours ( atsabeyka ); i.e. thy toils, the product of laborious toil, that which you have gotten by the labour of your hands, and earned with the sweat of your brow. Fleischer compares the Italian i miri sudori, and the French mes sueurs. The singular etsev signifies "heavy toilsome labour," and the plural ( atsavim, "labours," things done with toil, and so the idea passes to the resultant of the labour. Compare the very similar expression in Psalms 127:2 , lekhem naatsavim, equivalent to "bread obtained by toilsome labour;" Authorized Version, "the bread of sorrows." The Authorized Version properly supplies the verb "be" against those ( e.g. Holden et alli ) who join on "thy labours" to the previous verb "be filled," as an accusative, and render, "and with thy labours in the house of a stranger." So also the LXX . and the Vulgate, "and thy labours come" ( ἕλθωσι , LXX .) or "be" ( sint, Vulgate) "to the house of strangers" ( εἰς οἴκους ἀλλοτρίων ) or, "in a strange house" ( in aliena domo ) . In the latter case the Vulgate is wrong, as nok'ri in the phrase beyth nok'ri is always personal (Delitzsch), and should be rendered, as in the Authorized Version, "in the house of a stranger." The meaning of the verse is that a life of impurity transfers the profligate's substance, his wealth and possessions, to others, who will be satiated at his expense, and, being strangers, are indifferent to his ruin.