The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit. He who is under Yahweh’s wrath will fall into it.
Parallel Translations
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The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit. He who is under Yahweh’s wrath will fall into it.
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The mouth of strange women is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the LORD shall fall therein.
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The mouth of strange women is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the LORD shall fall therein.
Cross-references (10)
Passages linked to Proverbs 22:14 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Ecclesiastes 7:26 I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and traps, whose hands are chains. Whoever pleases God shall escape from her; but the sinner will be ensnared by her.
- Proverbs 23:27 For a prostitute is a deep pit; and a wayward wife is a narrow well.
- Proverbs 6:24-29 to keep you from the immoral woman, from the flattery of the wayward wife’s tongue. Don’t lust after her beauty in your heart, neither let her captivate you with her eyelids. For a prostitute reduces you to a piece of bread. The adulteress hunts for your precious life. Can a man scoop fire into his lap, and his clothes not be burned? Or can one walk on hot coals, and his feet not be scorched? So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife. Whoever touches her will not be unpunished.
- Nehemiah 13:26 Didn’t Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? Yet among many nations there was no king like him, and he was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless foreign women caused even him to sin.
- Proverbs 7:5-27 that they may keep you from the strange woman, from the foreigner who flatters with her words. For at the window of my house, I looked out through my lattice. I saw among the simple ones. I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding, passing through the street near her corner, he went the way to her house, in the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the middle of the night and in the darkness. Behold, there a woman met him with the attire of a prostitute, and with crafty intent. She is loud and defiant. Her feet don’t stay in her house. Now she is in the streets, now in the squares, and lurking at every corner. So she caught him, and kissed him. With an impudent face she said to him: “Sacrifices of peace offerings are with me. Today I have paid my vows. Therefore I came out to meet you, to diligently seek your face, and I have found you. I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry, with striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. Come, let’s take our fill of loving until the morning. Let’s solace ourselves with loving. For my husband isn’t at home. He has gone on a long journey. He has taken a bag of money with him. He will come home at the full moon.” With persuasive words, she led him astray. With the flattering of her lips, she seduced him. He followed her immediately, as an ox goes to the slaughter, as a fool stepping into a noose. Until an arrow strikes through his liver, as a bird hurries to the snare, and doesn’t know that it will cost his life. Now therefore, sons, listen to me. Pay attention to the words of my mouth. Don’t let your heart turn to her ways. Don’t go astray in her paths, for she has thrown down many wounded. Yes, all her slain are a mighty army. Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the rooms of death.
- Judges 16:20-21 She said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” He awoke out of his sleep, and said, “I will go out as at other times, and shake myself free.” But he didn’t know that Yahweh had departed from him. The Philistines laid hold on him and put out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with fetters of bronze; and he ground at the mill in the prison.
- Proverbs 2:16-19 to deliver you from the strange woman, even from the foreigner who flatters with her words, who forsakes the friend of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God; for her house leads down to death, her paths to the departed spirits. None who go to her return again, neither do they attain to the paths of life.
- Deuteronomy 32:19 Yahweh saw and abhorred, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.
- Psalms 81:12 So I let them go after the stubbornness of their hearts, that they might walk in their own counsels.
- Proverbs 5:3-23 For the lips of an adulteress drip honey. Her mouth is smoother than oil, but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death. Her steps lead straight to Sheol. She gives no thought to the way of life. Her ways are crooked, and she doesn’t know it. Now therefore, my sons, listen to me. Don’t depart from the words of my mouth. Remove your way far from her. Don’t come near the door of her house, lest you give your honor to others, and your years to the cruel one; lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich another man’s house. You will groan at your latter end, when your flesh and your body are consumed, and say, “How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor turned my ear to those who instructed me! I have come to the brink of utter ruin, among the gathered assembly.” Drink water out of your own cistern, running water out of your own well. Should your springs overflow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares? Let them be for yourself alone, not for strangers with you. Let your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth. A loving doe and a graceful deer— let her breasts satisfy you at all times. Be captivated always with her love. For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another? For the ways of man are before Yahweh’s eyes. He examines all his paths. The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly. He will die for lack of instruction. In the greatness of his folly, he will go astray.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (19 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain So God punisheth one sin by another, when he…
So God punisheth one sin by another, when he suffereth the wicked to fall into the acquaintance of an harlot.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Pro 22:14 The mouth of strange women [is] a…
Pro 22:14 The mouth of strange women [is] a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the LORD shall fall therein.
Ver. 14. The month of a strange woman.] Diabolus capite blanditur, ventre oblectat, cauda ligat, saith Rupertus. These she sinners, as their gallants call them, are most dangerous. {See Trapp on "Pro 2:16"} {See Trapp on "Pro 5:3"} Solomon had the woeful experience of it; {Ecc 7:26} and Samson, {Jdg 16:18-21} who
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“Lenam non potuit, potuit superare lesenam,
Quem fera non potuit vincere, vicit hera.”
How did David muddy himself in this deep pit, and there might have stuck in the mire, had not God drawn him out by a merciful violence, and purged him with hyssop from that abhorred filth? {Psa 51:7}
He that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein.] As the Jesuits, those odious Connubisanctifugae Commeretricitegae, too often do; though they boast that they can talk and dally with the fairest women without danger, and the people must believe no otherwise, but that when they are kissing a woman, they are giving her good counsel. David George, that execrable heretic, was so far from accounting adulteries, fornications, incests, &c., for being any sins, that he did recommend them to his most perfect scholars as acts of grace and mortification; and was confident that the whole world would submit to his doctrine. {a} Peccatum peccatum trahit, as the Hebrew proverb hath it. One sin draws on another, and the latter is oft a punishment of the former; God, by a peculiar kind of revenge, delivering up such to a reprobate sense, or a mind disallowed or abhorred of God, as the apostle’s word {b} {Rom 1:28} signifies.
{a} Hist. David. Georgii.
{b} εις νουν αδοκιμον.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The mouth; her fair and flattering speeches, wherewith she…
The mouth; her fair and flattering speeches, wherewith she enticeth him to gross filthiness, as it is noted, Pro 7:21.
A deep pit; into which it is easy to fall, but hard, if not impossible, to get out of it. It is a rare thing for any person, once entered into the course of whoredom, sincerely to repent of it, and turn from it. See Pro 2:19.
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That is abhorred of the Lord, to wit, in a high and singular manner; who by his former impieties, and contempt of God and of his grace, hath provoked God to leave and loathe him, and to punish one sin with another; for otherwise all sinners, as such, are abhorred by God.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain This is designed to warn all young men against…
This is designed to warn all young men against the lusts of uncleanness. As they regard the welfare of their souls, let them take heed of strange women, lewd women, whom they ought to be strange to, of the mouth of strange women, of the kisses of their lips (Pro 7:13), of the words of their lips, their charms and enticements. Dread them; have nothing to do with them; for, 1. Those who abandon themselves to that sin give proof that they are abandoned of God: it is a deep pit, which those fall into that are abhorred of the Lord, who leaves them to themselves to enter into that temptation, and takes off the bridle of his restraining grace, to punish them for other sins. Value not thyself upon thy being in favour with such women, when it proclaims thee under the wrath of God. 2. It is seldom that they recover themselves, for it is a deep pit; it will be hard getting out of it, it so besots the mind and debauches the conscience, by pleasing the flesh.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain The mouth of strange women is a deep pit,....…
The mouth of strange women is a deep pit,.... The mouth of harlots; the kisses of their mouth, their fair speech and flattering words, their amorous talk, and lascivious and wanton language, ensnare and draw unwary persons to commit lewdness with them, which bring them into a pit of ruin and destruction; a filthy one, and very deep, out of which it is not easy nor usual to be extricated: the allusion is to beasts taken in a pit dug for them; and these are as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed;
he that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein; who has been guilty of other sins, and such as have caused the Lord to abhor him, and therefore leaves him to fall into this: one sin not only leads on to another, but is the punishment of another; men are seldom guilty of this sin of whoredom, but who have been first abandoned to other vices very provoking to. God; see Ecc 7:26. Jarchi interprets all this of idolatry; and it may be very well applied to the whore of Rome, and the harlots she is mother of; who, by her fair words and false doctrines, by her mouth speaking blasphemies and lies in hypocrisy, by her golden cup in her hand full of abomination and filthiness of fornication, and by her sorceries, have deceived many, and brought them into the pit of perdition and ruin: and these are such whose names are not written in the Lamb's book of life; but are rejected of God, and given up to believe a lie, that they might be damned, Rev 17:4.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain The mouth - Her fair and flattering speeches.
The mouth - Her fair and flattering speeches.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 14. The mouth of strange women is a…
Verse 14. The mouth of strange women is a deep pit] In Pr 23:27, he says, A whore is a DEEP DITCH:, and a strange woman is a NARROW PIT. The allusions in these three places are too plain to be misunderstood. Virgil's hell has been adduced in illustration: -
----------------Sate sanguine Divum,
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Tros Anchisiade, facilis decensus Averni;
Noctes atque dies patet atri janua Ditis:
Sed revocare gradum, superasque evadere ad auras,
HOC OPUS, hic LABOR est. Pauci quos aequus amavit
Jupiter, aut ardens evexit ad aethera virtus,
Dis geniti potuere.
VIRG. AEn. lib. vi., ver. 125.
"O glorious prince of brave Anchises' line!
Great godlike hero! sprung from seed divine,
Smooth lies the road to Pluto's gloomy shade;
And hell's black gates for ever stand display'd:
But 'tis a long unconquerable pain,
To climb to these ethereal realms again.
The choice-selected few, whom favouring Jove,
Or their own virtue, rais'd to heaven above,
From these dark realms emerged again to day;
The mighty sons of gods, and only they.
PITT.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Pro 22:14. The mouth of strange women — Their…
Pro 22:14. The mouth of strange women — Their fair and flattering speeches, wherewith they entice men into sin, as is observed Pro 7:21, into which it is easy to fall, but out of which it is hard, if not impossible, to be rescued. For it is a rare thing for any person, who has once entered into a course of lewdness: to recover himself from it, Pro 2:19. He that is abhorred of the Lord — Namely, in a high and singular manner; who by his former impieties, and contempt of God and his grace, hath provoked God to leave him to his own heart’s lusts, and to punish one sin with another; shall fall therein — And, without a miracle of grace, shall perish everlastingly.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain The fall of the man into the snare of…
The fall of the man into the snare of the harlot seems to be the consequence of the abhorrence or wrath of Yahweh. That abhorrence is, however, the result of previous evil. The man is left to himself, and sin becomes the penalty of sin.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Charles Bridges 1846 · Public Domain This fearful temptation has been already frequently opened.†1 But…
This fearful temptation has been already frequently opened.†1 But in a book specially for the young, who that knows the power of "youthful lusts" (2Ti 2:22 ), and the seductive witcheries of sin, will deem a fresh warning needless? Is it not the voice of mercy? For what but unbounded compassion could stand as it were at the edge of the pit, and unfold to the unwary its awful peril? A deep pit indeed it is,†2 easy to fall into; hard, next to impossible, to get out of.†3 So besotting is this sin to the flesh, to the mind, and to the conscience!†4 It is the mouth of a pit far deeper. "For her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell."†5 What more humbling proof can there be of the total depravity of the nature, than the fact, that those affections, originally given as the purest enjoyments of life, should become the corrupt spring of such a defilement. The sin and snare would seem to be a judicial infliction for those, whose willful rejection of God has made them abhorred of him.†6 They have turned away from instruction, hated reproof, resisted conviction, been given up to their abomination; they give therefore too plain proof that they are abandoned by God, (Rom 1:28 ) — abhorred of the LORD! Is the embrace of the strange woman a compensation for such a judgment? Every curse, eternal frown and banishment, the weight of infinite unmingled wrath, is involved in this awful name. Not that he willeth the death of the vilest sinner. (Eze 18:32 .) But must not his justice and his holiness be in array against those, who of their own will choose evil, and reject alike the warnings of his wrath, and the invitations of his love?
Footnotes:
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†1 Pro 2:16-19; Pro 5:3 ; Pro 6:24-29 ; Pro 7:5, &c. Pro 9:16-18 .
†2 Pro 23:27.
†3 Pro 2:19. Ecc 7:26 .
†4 Jdg 16:19-20. Neh 13:26 . Hos 4:11 .
†5 Pro 5:5; 2Pe 2:10-12 . Rev 21:8 .
†6 Rom 1:28. Psa 81:11-12.
Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs (1846) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain It. Debauchery resembles hell, chap. xxiii. 23. (Calmet) ---…
It. Debauchery resembles hell, chap. xxiii. 23. (Calmet) --- Facilis descensus Averni, &c. (Virgil, Æneid vi.)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain The mouth--or flattering speeches (Pro 5:3; Pro 7:5) ensnare…
The mouth--or flattering speeches (Pro 5:3; Pro 7:5) ensnare man, as pits, beasts. God makes their own sin their punishment.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 14. Mouth of strange women is a deep pit…
14. Mouth of strange women is a deep pit — What their mouth utters is as dangerous and destructive to the unwary youth as a deep pit into which he is liable to fall. The difficulty, perhaps impossibility, of escaping from a deep pit, suggests also what is taught elsewhere in the book — the hopelessness of those who form licentious habits. The fall of a man into the snare of a harlot is conceived of as a curse from Jehovah. He is given over to destruction. Compare Pro_2:16; Pro_5:3; Pro_6:24; Pro_7:5, et seq.; Pro_23:27.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 14. a deep pit] such as is dug by…
14. a deep pit] such as is dug by a hunter for his prey. Comp. Pro_23:27.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (14) Strange women.—See above on Pro_2:16.
(14) Strange women.—See above on Pro_2:16.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The mouth of strange women is a deep pit.…
The mouth of strange women is a deep pit. The hemistich reappears in a slightly altered form at Pro_23:27. (For "strange woman" as equivalent to "a harlot" or "adulteress," see note on Pro_2:16) By her "mouth" is meant her wanton, seductive words, which entice a man to destruction of body and soul. It may be that theology rather than morals is signified here rather false doctrines than evil practice. In this ease the mention of the strange or foreign woman is very appropriate, seeing that perversions of belief and worship were always introduced into Israel from external sources. He that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein. He who has incurred the width of God by previous unfaithfulness and sin is left to himself to fall a prey to the allurements of the wicked woman. (comp. Ecc_7:26) Septuagint, "The mouth of a transgressor (paranomou ) is a deep ditch; and he that is hated of the Lord shall fall therein." Then are added three lines not in the Hebrew, which, however, seem to be reminiscences of other passages: "There are evil ways before a man, and be loveth not to turn away from them; but it is needful to turn away item a perverse and evil way."
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_22:14
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_22:14
A DEEP PIT
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This verse treats of two classes of character, both of which have been depicted before. (See on chaps. Pro_2:16-19, page 24, Pro_6:24, page 89, Pro_6:6-27, page 15).
I. The tempter. The strange woman—the woman who has been so deaf to the voice of all that is womanly as no longer to be worthy of the name, who instead of being man’s helpmeet and endeavouring to win him to tread the path to heaven, is his curse and makes it her aim to drag him down to hell. Notice the main instrument of her destructive power—the mouth. It is by her words of flattery and deception and persuasion that she ensnares her victim and compasses his ruin. History and experience confirm Solomon’s words, for, although external beauty is often a powerful ingredient in the temptation, it is not always so, and counts for very little if it is unaccompanied by that fascination of manner and of speech which have been used by so many bad women with such fatal effect. If we look at the portraits of some of those women who have exerted so mighty a power for evil in the world, we can seldom see sufficient beauty to account for the spell which they seemed to cast around their victims, and we must conclude therefore that it was rather to he found where Solomon puts it,—who may be here speaking from bitter personal experience—viz., in the tongue. This proverb adds one more testimony to the many that have gone before of the immense power for evil or for good that is exerted by that “little member” of our bodily organism.
II. The tempted. He is here depicted as an unwary traveller along life’s highway easily deceived by the appearance of things, and, too careless or too unsuspecting to look beneath the surface, following the bent of his inclination and yielding to the voice of the charmer until he finds the ground giving way beneath his feet, and darkness and hopelessness all around him. Notice the fearful name here given to such an one—to one who is led away by such a tempter. He is abhorred of the Lord. Here is full evidence that God does not look upon human creatures with indifference as to their moral character—that merciful Father though He is, He does not extend to men that indiscriminating and therefore worthless tenderness which some would have us believe is His main attribute—that if men look upon sin as mere obedience to the dictates of nature, and therefore blameless, He does not so regard it. And if men will not attach any weight to the words of Scripture—not believing them to be infallible—they can read the same truth in their every-day experience. The terrible retribution which comes upon those who listen to the words of the “strange woman” is a sufficient testimony to the abhorrence in which the Creator of men holds the sin to which she allures the unwary and the licentious man.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
To what do the fearful words amount? To this: that in His righteous displeasure, there is not a heavier curse which an offended God can allow to fall upon the object of His wrath, than leaving him to be a prey to the seductive blandishments of an unprincipled woman:—that if God held any one in abhorrence, this would be the severest vengeance He could take on him.—Wardlaw.
The mouth of a strange woman is but the mouth of a far deeper pit, the pit of hell into which it openeth. The one is digged by the wickedness of men, the other by the justice of God.—Jermin.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain v. 14. The mouth of strange women, for so…
v. 14. The mouth of strange women, for so the harlots were commonly designated in the midst of God’s people, is a deep pit, on account of the alluring and seductive language which they use in pursuing their intended victims; he that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein, in just punishment of his wickedness, the curse of Jehovah thereby going into effect.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 22:14 An immoral woman, using flattery and seduction, tries…
22:14 An immoral woman, using flattery and seduction, tries to trap a young man to commit sin.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.