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Selected Verse: Proverbs 5:1 - Strong Concordance
Verse |
Translation |
Text |
Pr 5:1 |
Strong Concordance |
My son [01121], attend [07181] unto my wisdom [02451], and bow [05186] thine ear [0241] to my understanding [08394]: |
|
King James |
My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding: |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
A warning against the seductive arts of wicked women, enforced by considering the advantages of chastity, and the miserable end of the wicked. (Pro. 5:1-23)
This connection of wisdom and understanding is frequent (Pro 2:2; Pro 3:7); the first denotes the use of wise means for wise ends; the other, the exercise of a proper discrimination in their discovery. |
Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
The formula of a new counsel, introducing another warning against the besetting sin of youth Pro 2:16. |
Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
Here a fourth rule of life follows the three already given, Pro 4:24, Pro 4:25, Pro 4:26-27 :
1 My son, attend unto my wisdom,
And incline thine ear to my prudence,
2 To observe discretion,
And that thy lips preserve knowledge.
3 For the lips of the adulteress distil honey,
And smoother than oil is her mouth;
4 But her end is bitter like wormwood,
Sharper than a two-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death,
Her steps cleave to Hades.
6 She is far removed from entering the way of life,
Her steps wander without her observing it.
Wisdom and understanding increase with the age of those who earnestly seek after them. It is the father of the youth who here requests a willing ear to his wisdom of life, gained in the way of many years' experience and observation. In Pro 5:2 the inf. of the object is continued in the finitum, as in Pro 2:2, Pro 2:8. מזמּות (vid., on its etymon under Pro 1:4) are plans, projects, designs, for the most part in a bad sense, intrigues and artifices (vid., Pro 24:8), but also used of well-considered resolutions toward what is good, and hence of the purposes of God, Jer 23:20. This noble sense of the word מזמּה, with its plur., is peculiar to the introductory portion (chap. 1-9) of the Book of Proverbs. The plur. means here and at Pro 8:12 (placing itself with חכמות and תּבוּנות, vid., p. 68) the reflection and deliberation which is the presupposition of well-considered action, and שׁמר is thus not otherwise than at Pro 19:8, and everywhere so meant, where it has that which is obligatory as its object: the youth is summoned to careful observation and persevering exemplification of the quidquid agas, prudenter agas et respice finem. In 2b the Rebia Mugrash forbids the genitive connection of the two words דּעתו שׂפתיך; we translate: et ut scientiam labia tua tueantur. Lips which preserve knowledge are such as permit nothing to escape from them (Psa 17:3) which proceeds not from the knowledge of God, and in Him of that which is good and right, and aims at the working out of this knowledge; vid., Khler on Mal 2:7. שׂפתיך (from שׂפה, Arab. shafat, edge, lip, properly that against which one rubs, and that which rubs itself) is fem., but the usage of the language presents the word in two genders (cf. 3a with Pro 26:23). Regarding the pausal ינצרוּ for יצּרוּ, vid., under Mal 3:1; Mal 2:11. The lips which distil the honey of enticement stand opposite to the lips which distil knowledge; the object of the admonition is to furnish a protection against the honey-lips.
Pro 5:3
זרה denotes the wife who belongs to another, or who does not belong to him to whom she gives herself or who goes after her (vid., Pro 2:16). She appears here as the betrayer of youth. The poet paints the love and amiableness which she feigns with colours from the Song of Songs, Sol 4:11, cf. Sol 5:16. נפת denotes the honey flowing of itself from the combs (צוּפים), thus the purest and sweetest; its root-word is not נוּף, which means to shake, vibrate, and only mediately (when the object is a fluid) to scatter, sprinkle, but, as Schultens has observed, as verb נפת = Arab. nafat, to bubble, to spring up, nafath, to blow, to spit out, to pour out. Parchon places the word rightly under נפת (while Kimchi places it under נוּף after the form בּשׁת), and explained it by חלות דבשׁ היצאים מי הכוורת קודם ריסוק (the words דבשׁ היוצא should have been used): the honey which flows from the cells before they are broken (the so-called virgin honey). The mouth, חך = Arab. ḥink (from חנך, Arab. hanak, imbuere, e.g., after the manner of Beduins, the mouth of the newly-born infant with date-honey), comes into view here, as at Pro 8:7, etc., as the instrument of speech: smoother than oil (cf. Psa 55:22), it shows itself when it gives forth amiable, gentle, impressive words (Pro 2:16, Pro 6:24); also our "schmeicheln" (= to flatter, caress) is equivalent to to make smooth and fair; in the language of weavers it means to smooth the warp.
Pro 5:4-5
In Pro 5:4 the reverse of the sweet and smooth external is placed opposite to the attraction of the seducer, by whose influence the inconsiderate permits himself to be carried away: her end, i.e., the last that is experienced of her, the final consequence of intercourse with her (cf. Pro 23:32), is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. The O.T. language regards bitterness and poison as related both in meaning and in reality; the word לענה (Aq. ἀψίνθιον = wormwood) means in Arab. the curse. חרב פּיּות is translated by Jerome after the lxx, gladius biceps; but פּיפיּות means double-edged, and חרב שׁני פיות (Jdg 3:16) means a doubled-edged sword. Here the plur. will thus poetically strengthen the meaning, like ξίφος πολύστομον, that which devours, as if it had three or four edges (Fl.). The end in which the disguised seduction terminates is bitter as the bitterest, and cutting as that which cuts the most: self-condemnation and a feeling of divine anger, anguish of heart, and destructive judgment. The feet of the adulteress go downward to death. In Hebr. this descendentes ad mortem is expressed by the genitive of connection; מות is the genitive, as in יורדי בור, Pro 1:12; elsewhere the author uses יורדות אל, Pro 7:27; Pro 2:18. Death, מות (so named from the stretching of the corpse after the stiffness of death), denotes the condition of departure from this side as a punishment, with which is associated the idea of divine wrath. In שׁאול (sinking, abyss, from שׁאל, R. של, χαλᾶν, vid., under Isa 5:14), lie the ideas of the grave as a place of corruption, and of the under-world as the place of incorporeal shadow-life. Her steps hold fast to Hades is equivalent to, they strive after Hades and go straight to it; similar to this is the Arab. expression, hdhâ âldrb yâkhdh âly âlbld: this way leads straight forward to the town (Fl.).
Pro 5:6
If we try to connect the clause beginning with פּן with 5b as its principal sentence: she goes straight to the abyss, so that by no means does she ever tread the way of life (thus e.g., Schultens), or better, with 6b: never more to walk in the way of life, her paths fluctuate hither and thither (as Gr. Venet. and Kamphausen in Bunsen's Bibelwerk, after Bertheau and Ewald, translate); then in the former case more than in the latter the difference of the subject opposes itself, and in the latter, in addition, the לא תדע, only disturbing in this negative clause. Also by the arrangement of the words, 6a appears as an independent thought. But with Jewish expositors (Rashi, Aben-Ezra, Ralbag, Malbim, etc.) to interpret תּפּלּס, after the Talmud (b. Mod katan 9a) and Midrash, as an address is impracticable; the warning: do not weigh the path of life, affords no meaning suitable to this connection - for we must, with Cartwright and J. H. Michaelis, regard 6a as the antecedent to 6b: ne forte semitam vitae ad sequendum eligas, te per varios deceptionum meandros abripit ut non noveris, ubi locorum sis; but then the continuation of the address is to be expected in 6b. No, the subject to תפלם is the adulteress, and פּן is an intensified לא. Thus the lxx, Jerome, Syr., Targ., Luther, Geier, Nolde, and among Jewish interpreters Heidenheim, who first broke with the tradition sanctioned by the Talmud and the Midrash, for he interpreted 6a as a negative clause spoken in the tone of a question. But פּן is not suitable for a question, but for a call. Accordingly, Bttcher explains: viam vitae ne illa complanare studeat! (פּלּס in the meaning complanando operam dare). But the adulteress as such, and the striving to come to the way of life, stand in contradiction: an effort to return must be meant, which, because the power of sin over her is too great, fails; but the words do not denote that, they affirm the direct contrary, viz., that it does not happen to the adulteress ever to walk in the way of life. As in the warning the independent פּן may be equivalent to cave ne (Job 32:13), so also in the declaration it may be equivalent to absit ut, for פּן (from פּנה, after the forms בּן = Arab. banj. עץ = Arab. 'aṣj) means turning away, removal. Thus: Far from taking the course of the way of life (which has life as its goal and reward) - for פּלּס, to open, to open a road (Psa 78:50), has here the meaning of the open road itself - much rather do her steps wilfully stagger (Jer 14:10) hither and thither, they go without order and without aim, at one time hither, at another time thither, without her observing it; i.e., without her being concerned at this, that she thereby runs into the danger of falling headlong into the yawning abyss. The unconsciousness which the clause לא תדע esu expresses, has as its object not the falling (Psa 35:8), of which there is here nothing directly said, but just this staggering, vacillation, the danger of which she does not watch against. נעו has Mercha under the ע with Zinnorith preceding; it is Milra [an oxytone] (Michlol 111b); the punctuation varies in the accentuations of the form without evident reason: Olsh. 233, p. 285. The old Jewish interpreters (and recently also Malbim) here, as also at Pro 2:16, by the זרה [strange woman] understand heresy (מינות), or the philosophy that is hostile to revelation; the ancient Christian interpreters understood by it folly (Origen), or sensuality (Procopius), or heresy (Olympiodorus), or false doctrine (Polychronios). The lxx, which translates, Pro 5:5, רגליה by τῆς ἀφροσύνης οἱ πόδες, looks toward this allegorical interpretation. But this is unnecessary, and it is proved to be false from Pro 5:15-20, where the זרה is contrasted with the married wife. |
Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
Attend unto my wisdom - Take the following lessons from my own experience. |
7 Be not wise [02450] in thine own eyes [05869]: fear [03372] the LORD [03068], and depart [05493] from evil [07451].
2 So that thou incline [07181] thine ear [0241] unto wisdom [02451], and apply [05186] thine heart [03820] to understanding [08394];
16 To deliver [05337] thee from the strange [02114] woman [0802], even from the stranger [05237] which flattereth [02505] with her words [0561];
15 Drink [08354] waters [04325] out of thine own cistern [0953], and running waters [05140] out of [08432] thine own well [0875].
16 Let thy fountains [04599] be dispersed [06327] abroad [02351], and rivers [06388] of waters [04325] in the streets [07339].
17 Let them be only thine own, and not strangers [02114] ' with thee.
18 Let thy fountain [04726] be blessed [01288]: and rejoice [08055] with the wife [0802] of thy youth [05271].
19 Let her be as the loving [0158] hind [0365] and pleasant [02580] roe [03280]; let her breasts [01717] satisfy [07301] thee at all times [06256]; and be thou ravished [07686] always [08548] with her love [0160].
20 And why wilt thou, my son [01121], be ravished [07686] with a strange woman [02114], and embrace [02263] the bosom [02436] of a stranger [05237]?
5 Her feet [07272] go down [03381] to death [04194]; her steps [06806] take hold [08551] on hell [07585].
16 To deliver [05337] thee from the strange [02114] woman [0802], even from the stranger [05237] which flattereth [02505] with her words [0561];
8 Let destruction [07722] come [0935] upon him at unawares [03045] [03808]; and let his net [07568] that he hath hid [02934] catch [03920] himself: into that very destruction [07722] let him fall [05307].
10 Thus saith [0559] the LORD [03068] unto this people [05971], Thus have they loved [0157] to wander [05128], they have not refrained [02820] their feet [07272], therefore the LORD [03068] doth not accept [07521] them; he will now remember [02142] their iniquity [05771], and visit [06485] their sins [02403].
50 He made [06424] a way [05410] to his anger [0639]; he spared [02820] not their soul [05315] from death [04194], but gave [05462] their life [02416] over [05462] to the pestilence [01698];
13 Lest ye should say [0559], We have found out [04672] wisdom [02451]: God [0410] thrusteth him down [05086], not man [0376].
6 Lest thou shouldest ponder [06424] the path [0734] of life [02416], her ways [04570] are moveable [05128], that thou canst not know [03045] them.
14 Therefore hell [07585] hath enlarged [07337] herself [05315], and opened [06473] her mouth [06310] without measure [02706]: and their glory [01926], and their multitude [01995], and their pomp [07588], and he that rejoiceth [05938], shall descend [03381] into it.
18 For her house [01004] inclineth [07743] unto death [04194], and her paths [04570] unto the dead [07496].
27 Her house [01004] is the way [01870] to hell [07585], going down [03381] to the chambers [02315] of death [04194].
12 Let us swallow them up [01104] alive [02416] as the grave [07585]; and whole [08549], as those that go down [03381] into the pit [0953]:
16 But Ehud [0164] made [06213] him a dagger [02719] which had two [08147] edges [06366], of a cubit [01574] length [0753]; and he did gird [02296] it under his raiment [04055] upon his right [03225] thigh [03409].
32 At the last [0319] it biteth [05391] like a serpent [05175], and stingeth [06567] like an adder [06848].
4 But her end [0319] is bitter [04751] as wormwood [03939], sharp [02299] as a twoedged [06310] sword [02719].
4 But her end [0319] is bitter [04751] as wormwood [03939], sharp [02299] as a twoedged [06310] sword [02719].
5 Her feet [07272] go down [03381] to death [04194]; her steps [06806] take hold [08551] on hell [07585].
24 To keep [08104] thee from the evil [07451] woman [0802], from the flattery [02513] of the tongue [03956] of a strange woman [05237].
16 To deliver [05337] thee from the strange [02114] woman [0802], even from the stranger [05237] which flattereth [02505] with her words [0561];
22 Cast [07993] thy burden [03053] upon the LORD [03068], and he shall sustain [03557] thee: he shall never [05769] suffer [05414] the righteous [06662] to be moved [04131].
7 For my mouth [02441] shall speak [01897] truth [0571]; and wickedness [07562] is an abomination [08441] to my lips [08193].
16 His mouth [02441] is most sweet [04477]: yea, he is altogether lovely [04261]. This is my beloved [01730], and this is my friend [07453], O daughters [01323] of Jerusalem [03389].
11 Thy lips [08193], O my spouse [03618], drop [05197] as the honeycomb [05317]: honey [01706] and milk [02461] are under thy tongue [03956]; and the smell [07381] of thy garments [08008] is like the smell [07381] of Lebanon [03844].
16 To deliver [05337] thee from the strange [02114] woman [0802], even from the stranger [05237] which flattereth [02505] with her words [0561];
3 For the lips [08193] of a strange woman [02114] drop [05197] as an honeycomb [05317], and her mouth [02441] is smoother [02509] than oil [08081]:
11 Judah [03063] hath dealt treacherously [0898], and an abomination [08441] is committed [06213] in Israel [03478] and in Jerusalem [03389]; for Judah [03063] hath profaned [02490] the holiness [06944] of the LORD [03068] which he loved [0157], and hath married [01166] the daughter [01323] of a strange [05236] god [0410].
1 Behold, I will send [07971] my messenger [04397], and he shall prepare [06437] the way [01870] before [06440] me: and the Lord [0113], whom ye seek [01245], shall suddenly [06597] come [0935] to his temple [01964], even the messenger [04397] of the covenant [01285], whom ye delight [02655] in: behold, he shall come [0935], saith [0559] the LORD [03068] of hosts [06635].
23 Burning [01814] lips [08193] and a wicked [07451] heart [03820] are like a potsherd [02789] covered [06823] with silver [03701] dross [05509].
7 For the priest's [03548] lips [08193] should keep [08104] knowledge [01847], and they should seek [01245] the law [08451] at his mouth [06310]: for he is the messenger [04397] of the LORD [03068] of hosts [06635].
3 Thou hast proved [0974] mine heart [03820]; thou hast visited [06485] me in the night [03915]; thou hast tried [06884] me, and shalt find [04672] nothing; I am purposed [02161] that my mouth [06310] shall not transgress [05674].
8 He that getteth [07069] wisdom [03820] loveth [0157] his own soul [05315]: he that keepeth [08104] understanding [08394] shall find [04672] good [02896].
12 I wisdom [02451] dwell [07931] with prudence [06195], and find out [04672] knowledge [01847] of witty inventions [04209].
20 The anger [0639] of the LORD [03068] shall not return [07725], until he have executed [06213], and till he have performed [06965] the thoughts [04209] of his heart [03820]: in the latter [0319] days [03117] ye shall consider [0995] it perfectly [0998].
8 He that deviseth [02803] to do evil [07489] shall be called [07121] a mischievous [04209] person [01167].
4 To give [05414] subtilty [06195] to the simple [06612], to the young man [05288] knowledge [01847] and discretion [04209].
8 He keepeth [05341] the paths [0734] of judgment [04941], and preserveth [08104] the way [01870] of his saints [02623].
2 So that thou incline [07181] thine ear [0241] unto wisdom [02451], and apply [05186] thine heart [03820] to understanding [08394];
2 That thou mayest regard [08104] discretion [04209], and that thy lips [08193] may keep [05341] knowledge [01847].
26 Ponder [06424] the path [04570] of thy feet [07272], and let all thy ways [01870] be established [03559].
27 Turn [05186] not to the right hand [03225] nor to the left [08040]: remove [05493] thy foot [07272] from evil [07451].
25 Let thine eyes [05869] look [05027] right on [05227], and let thine eyelids [06079] look straight [03474] before thee.
24 Put away [05493] from thee a froward [06143] mouth [06310], and perverse [03891] lips [08193] put far [07368] from thee.