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.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20, 21 That is, an harlot which giveth herself to another…
That is, an harlot which giveth herself to another than to her husband.
By oil and honey he meaneth flattering and crafty enticements.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv3–22 Pro 5:3 For the lips of a strange woman…
Pro 5:3 For the lips of a strange woman drop [as] an honeycomb, and her mouth [is] smoother than oil:
Ver. 3. For the lips of a strange woman drop.] Take heed therefore how thou exchange any words at all with her. But if thou be first set upon, as Joseph was by his mistress, and as Franciscus Junius {a} was by those impudent queans (harlots) at Lyons, in France (whither he was sent by his father for learning’s sake), who night and day solicited him; then to keep thee from the bitter sweet lips of these enchantresses, "let thy lips keep knowledge"; answer them (as Joseph did) with "the words of truth and soberness"; {Act 26:25} with "gracious and wholesome words," {1Ti 6:3} such as have a cooling and healing property in them; with Scripture language, which the devil and his agents cannot answer or away with. When, therefore, thou art tempted to this or any like sin, say No - I may not, I dare not; for it is forbidden in such a place, and again in such a place, "How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" {Gen 39:9} "Lo this is the way, walk in it." Let thy lips keep knowledge, and it shall keep thee from the lips of a strange woman, though they drop as a honeycomb, and seem to have plenty of pleasure and sweetness in them.
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Drop as a honeycomb.] But is like that honey spoken of by Pliny that had poison in it, as being sucked out of poisonous herbs and flowers. In the Cadiz voyage, at Alvelana, three miles from Lisbon, many of our English soldiers, under the Earl of Essex, perished by eating of honey, purposely left in the houses, and spiced with poison, as it was thought. {b} How much better is it to be preserved in brine than to rot in honey! to mortify lusts, than to enjoy them! {Rom 8:13} Voluptatem vicisse voluptas est maxima, saith Cyprian, {c} nec ulla maior est victoria, quam ea, quae cupiditatibus refertur. There is no such pleasure as to have overcome an offered pleasure; neither is there any greater conquest than that which is gotten over a man’s corruptions.
{a} Jun. in Vita sua.
{b} Speed. xii. 10.
{c} De bono pudicit.
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 On vv3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 It concerns thee to get and to use discretion,…
It concerns thee to get and to use discretion, that thou mayst be able to resist and repel those manifold temptations to which thou art exposed.
Drop as an honeycomb; her words and discourses are sweet, and charming, and prevalent.
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 On v15 Solomon, having shown the great evil that there is…
Solomon, having shown the great evil that there is in adultery and fornication, and all such lewd and filthy courses, here prescribes remedies against them.
I. Enjoy with satisfaction the comforts of lawful marriage, which was ordained for the prevention of uncleanness, and therefore ought to be made use of in time, lest it should not prove effectual for the cure of that which it might have prevented. Let none complain that God has dealt unkindly with them in forbidding them those pleasures which they have a natural desire of, for he has graciously provided for the regular gratification of them. "Thou mayest not indeed eat of every tree of the garden, but choose thee out one, which thou pleasest, and of that thou mayest freely eat; nature will be content with that, but lust with nothing." God, in thus confining men to one, has been so far from putting any hardship upon them that he has really consulted their true interest; for, as Mr. Herbert observes, "If God had laid all common, certainly man would have been the encloser." - Church-porch. Solomon here enlarges much upon this, not only prescribing it as an antidote, but urging it as an argument against fornication, that the allowed pleasures of marriage (however wicked wits may ridicule them, who are factors for the unclean spirit) far transcend all the false forbidden pleasures of whoredom.
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1. Let young men marry, marry and not burn. Have a cistern, a well of thy own (Pro 5:15), even the wife of thy youth, Pro 5:18. Wholly abstain, or wed. - Herbert. "The world is wide, and there are varieties of accomplishments, among which thou mayest please thyself."
2. Let him that is married take delight in his wife, and let him be very fond of her, not only because she is the wife that he himself has chosen and he ought to be pleased with his own choice, but because she is the wife that God in his providence appointed for him and he ought much more to be pleased with the divine appointment, pleased with her because she is his own. Let thy fountain be blessed (Pro 5:18); think thyself very happy in her, look upon her as a blessed wife, let her have thy blessing, pray daily for her, and then rejoice with her. Those comforts we are likely to have joy of that are sanctified to us by prayer and the blessing of God. It is not only allowed us, but commanded us, to be pleasant with our relations; and it particularly becomes yoke-fellows to rejoice together and in each other. Mutual delight is the bond of mutual fidelity. It is not only taken for granted that the bridegroom rejoices over his bride (Isa 62:5), but given for law. Ecc 9:9, Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of thy life. Those take not their comforts where God has appointed who are jovial and merry with their companions abroad, but sour and morose with their families at home.
3. Let him be fond of his wife and love her dearly (Pro 5:19): Let her be as the loving hind and the pleasant roe, such as great men sometimes kept tame in their houses and played with. Desire no better diversion from severe study and business than the innocent and pleasant conversation of thy own wife; let her lie in thy bosom, as the poor man's ewe-lamb did in his (Sa2 12:3), and do thou repose thy head in hers, and let that satisfy thee at all times; and seek not for pleasure in any other. "Err thou always in her love. If thou wilt suffer thy love to run into an excess, and wilt be dotingly fond of any body, let it be only of thy own wife, where there is least danger of exceeding." This is drinking waters, to quench the thirst of thy appetite, out of thy own cistern, and running waters, which are clear, and sweet, and wholesome, out of thy own well, Pro 5:15. Co1 7:2, Co1 7:3.
4. Let him take delight in his children and look upon them with pleasure (Pro 5:16, Pro 5:17): "Look upon them as streams from thy own pure fountains" (the Jews are said to come forth out of the waters of Judah, Isa 48:1), "so that they are parts of thyself, as the streams are of the fountain. Keep to thy own wife, and thou shalt have," (1.) "A numerous offspring, like rivers of water, which run in abundance, and they shall be dispersed abroad, matched into other families, whereas those that commit whoredom shall not increase," Hos 4:10. (2.) "A peculiar offspring, which shall be only thy own, whereas the children of whoredom, that are fathered upon thee, are, probably, not so, but, for aught thou knowest, are the offspring of strangers, and yet thou must keep them." (3.) "A creditable offspring, which are an honour to thee, and which thou mayest send abroad, and appear with, in the streets, whereas a spurious brood is thy disgrace, and that which thou art ashamed to own." In this matter, virtue has all the pleasure and honour in it; justly therefore it is called wisdom.
5. Let him then scorn the offer of forbidden pleasures when he is always ravished with the love of a faithful virtuous wife; let him consider what an absurdity it will be for him to be ravished with a strange woman (Pro 5:20), to be in love with a filthy harlot, and embrace the bosom of a stranger, which, if he had any sense of honour or virtue, he would loathe the thoughts of. "Why wilt thou be so sottish, such an enemy to thyself, as to prefer puddle-water, and that poisoned too and stolen, before pure living waters out of thy own well?" Note, If the dictates of reason may be heard, the laws of virtue will be obeyed.
II. "See the eye of God always upon thee and let his fear rule in thy heart," Pro 5:21. Those that live in this sin promise themselves secresy (the eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight, Job 24:15); but to what purpose, when it cannot be hidden from God? For, 1. He sees it. The ways of man, all his motions, all his actions, are before the eyes of the Lord, all the workings of the heart and all the outgoings of the life, that which is done ever so secretly and disguised ever so artfully. God sees it in a true light, and knows it with all its causes, circumstances, and consequences. He does not cast an eye upon men's ways now and then, but they are always actually in his view and under his inspection; and darest thou sin against God in his sight, and do that wickedness under his eye which thou durst not do in the presence of a man like thyself? 2. He will call the sinner to an account for it; for he not only sees, but ponders all his goings, judges concerning them, as one that will shortly judge the sinner for them. Every action is weighed, and shall be brought into judgment (Ecc 12:14), which is a good reason why we should ponder the path of our feet (Pro 4:26), and so judge ourselves that we may not be judged.
III. "Foresee the certain ruin of those that go on still in their trespasses." Those that live in this sin promise themselves impunity, but they deceive themselves; their sin will find them out, Pro 5:22, Pro 5:23. The apostle gives the sense of these verses in a few words. Heb 13:4, Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. 1. It is a sin which men with great difficulty shake off the power of. When the sinner is old and weak his lusts are strong and active, in calling to remembrance the days of his youth, Eze 23:19. Thus his own iniquities having seized the wicked himself by his own consent, and he having voluntarily surrendered himself a captive to them, he is held in the cords of his own sins, and such full possession they have gained of him that he cannot extricate himself, but in the greatness of his folly (and what greater folly could there be than to yield himself a servant to such cruel task-masters?) he shall go astray, and wander endlessly. Uncleanness is a sin from which, when once men have plunged themselves into it, they very hardly and very rarely recover themselves. 2. It is a sin which, if it be not forsaken, men cannot possibly escape the punishment of; it will unavoidably be their ruin. As their own iniquities do arrest them in the reproaches of conscience and present rebukes (Jer 7:19), so their own iniquities shall arrest them and bind them over to the judgments of God. There needs no prison, no chains; they shall be holden in the cords of their own sins, as the fallen angels, being incurably wicked, are thereby reserved in chains of darkness. The sinner, who, having been often reproved, hardens his neck, shall die at length without instruction. Having had general warnings sufficient given him already, he shall have no particular warnings, but he shall die without seeing his danger beforehand, shall die because he would not receive instruction, but in the greatness of his folly would go astray; and so shall his doom be, he shall never find the way home again. Those that are so foolish as to choose the way of sin are justly left of God to themselves to go in it till they come to that destruction which it leads to, which is a good reason why we should guard with watchfulness and resolution against the allurements of the sensual appetite.
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 On vv3–22 For the lips of a strange woman drop as…
For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb,.... "Mulsa dicta", "honey words", as is Plautus's (e) expression. The Septuagint and Arabic versions premise something here which is not in the Hebrew text,
"do not give heed to a wicked woman;''
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and the Vulgate Latin version,
"to the fallacy of a woman:''
but there is no need to connect the words by such a supplement; since, as they lie, they give a reason why it was necessary to attend to wisdom and understanding, in order to act discreetly and speak knowingly; since there is so much danger of being drawn aside by a wicked woman, a lewd and adulterous one; the kisses of whose lips, her confabulations and songs, are as pleasing to the carnal senses of men as honey is sweet to the taste; she promises them a great deal of pleasure in her embraces, and in the enjoyment of her: so the poet (f) describes an agreeable voice to be sweeter than the honeycomb;
and her mouth is smoother than oil; her fair speeches, enticing words, and flattering fawning language, and amorous expressions, easily find their way and slide into the hearts of men, to prevail upon them to listen to her, and yield to her temptations. Gersom interprets this strange woman of the imaginative faculty; and Jarchi of heresy: it is applicable enough to the whore of Rome; who, by the blandishments of pomp and grandeur, and the allurements of wealth and riches, draws many into her idolatrous practices; which are spiritual adultery, signified by her golden cup, Rev 17:4.
(e) Rudens, Act. 2. Sc. 3. v. 84. Poenulus, 1, 2. v. 112. (f) , Theocrit. Idyll. 21.
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 On vv3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 22 The lips - It concerns thee to get and…
The lips - It concerns thee to get and to use discretion, that thou mayest be able to resist those temptations to which thou art exposed.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22 Verse 3. The lips of a strange woman] One…
Verse 3. The lips of a strange woman] One that is not thy own, whether Jewess or heathen.
Drop as a honey-comb] She uses the most deceitful, flattering, and alluring speeches: as the droppings of the honey out of the comb are the sweetest of all.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv3, 8, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22 Pro 5:3-6. For the lips of a strange woman,…
Pro 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 bitter: after a short pleasure follows long pain, by the impairing men’s health, strength, estates, and credit, which they cannot reflect upon without trouble and vexation, remorse of conscience, and anguish of spirit, for, like a sword that cuts on both sides, she wounds both mind and body. Her feet — Her course, or manner of life, go down to death — Lead those that follow her to an untimely, shameful, and miserable end. Her steps take hold on hell — To have any, the least, converse with her, is to approach to certain, inevitable destruction. Lest thou shouldest ponder — Though thou mayest think to make a retreat in time: thou wilt be deceived, she having more arts than thou canst ever know, (winding and turning herself a thousand ways,) to keep thee from so much as deliberating about thy return to a virtuous course of life.
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 On vv3, 4, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21 Smoother than oil - The same comparison is used…
Smoother than oil - The same comparison is used in marginal reference to describe the treachery of a false friend.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Charles Bridges 1846 · Public Domain On vv15, 20 Desire after forbidden enjoyments naturally springs from dissatisfaction with…
Desire after forbidden enjoyments naturally springs from dissatisfaction with the blessings in possession. Where contentment is not found at home — drinking out of our own cistern†1 — it will be sought for, however vainly, abroad. Conjugal love is chief among the earthly goods in mercy granted by God to his fallen and rebellious creature. Enjoy then with thankfulness thine own, and desire not thy neighbour’s well. (Exo 20:17 . 2Sa 11:2-3 .) If a happy issue is given (Psa 127:3-5 ; Psa 128:1-6 .), let it be as fountains (Compare Num 24:7 ; Deu 33:28 ; Psa 68:26 ; Isa 48:1 ) dispersed abroad, to fertilize with godly influence the way through which their course may be directed. (Compare Zec 8:5 .) Rejoice with the wife of thy youth. (Deu 24:5 . Ecc 9:9 .) Regard her as the special gift of thy Father’s hand. (Pro 19:14 .) Cherish her with gentleness and purity (Gen 24:67 ), as the loving hind and pleasant roe.†2 Whatsoever interrupts the strictest harmony in this delicate relationship, opens the door to imminent temptation. Tender, well-regulated, domestic affection is the best defense against the vagrant desires of unlawful passion. Yea — it is consecrated by the Word of God itself to the high purpose of shadowing out "the great mystery — loving and cherishing our own flesh, even as the Lord the Church." (Eph 5:25, Eph 5:29 .)
Footnotes:
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†1 The beauty of the figure is illustrated from the circumstance, that the houses of the East appear each to have had their own cistern. 2Ki 18:31 .
†2 Compare 2Sa 12:3 . The hind and the roe were objects of special delight (Song of Son 2:17 ; Song of Son 3:5 ) and endearment — a picture of the lively delight, which the wife naturally engages; relaxing in her society from severer duties, and taking the liveliest pleasure in her company. As Bishop Davenant beautifully observes — ’Abroad the man may consider himself as tossing in the waves; but at home with the wife, in repose, as in a desired haven.’ — On Col 3:19 .
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 On vv4, 6, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22 Sword. "It is a crime even to hearken." (St.…
Sword. "It is a crime even to hearken." (St. Ambrose, de Abrah. ii. 11.) She seeks thy ruin, ver. 5., and chap. ii. 16.
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 On vv3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22 (Compare Pro 2:16). Her enticing promises are deceitful.
(Compare Pro 2:16). Her enticing promises are deceitful.
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 On vv3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21 3. Strange woman — See note on Pro_2:16. The…
3. Strange woman — See note on Pro_2:16. The terms lips and mouth are, of course, used tropically — speech, words. She uses persuasive, delusive, and fascinating arts and modes of speech. Compare Pro_7:14, etc.
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 On vv3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 19, 21 3. strange woman] See Pro_2:16, note.
3. strange woman] See Pro_2:16, note.
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 On vv3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22 (3) Her mouth is smoother than oil.—The experience of…
V.
(3) Her mouth is smoother than oil.—The experience of David also with Ahitophel (Psa_55:21).
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 On vv3–22 The teacher enters upon the subject of his warning,…
The teacher enters upon the subject of his warning, and under two familiar figures common alike to Oriental and Greek writers describes the nature of the "strange woman"s" allurements. For the lips of a strange woman drop as a honeycomb. The conjunction "for" (Hebrew ki) here, like the LXX gar , states the reason why the preceding exhortation is worthy of attention. Some commentators render "although," "albeit," as corresponding with the antithetical "but" in ver. 4. The lips; siphthey, the construct case of saphah in ver. 2. The organ of speech is here used for the speech itself, like the parallel "mouth." A strange woman (zarah); i.e. the harlot. The word occurs before in Pro_2:16, and again in Pro_5:20 Pro_7:5 Pro_22:14 Pro_23:33. She is extranea, a stranger with respect to the youth whom she would beguile, either as being of foreign extraction, or as being the wife of another man, in which capacity she is so represented in Pro_7:19. In this sense she would be an adulteress. St. Jerome, in Ezekiel 6., takes her as the representative of the allurements from sound doctrine, and of corrupt worship (Wordsworth). Drop as a honeycomb (nopheth tithoph" nah); rather, distil honey. The Hebrew nophteth is properly a "dropping," distillatio, and so the honey flowing from the honeycombs (tsuphim). Kimchi explains it as the honey flowing from the cells before they are broken, and hence it is the pure fine virgin honey. Exactly the same phrase occurs in Son_4:11, "Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as a honeycomb (nopheth tithoph"nah)." The only other places where we meet with the word nopheth are Psa_24:10 (there combined with tsuphim, which helps to determine its meaning) and Pro_24:13 Pro_27:7. The meaning is the same as she "flattereth with her words" of Pro_7:5, in which chapter the teacher gives an example of the alluring words which the strange woman uses. (Pro_7:14-20) As honey is sweet and attractive to the taste, so in a higher degree are her words pleasant to the senses. Her mouth is smoother than oil; i.e. her words are most plausible and persuasive. The Hebrew khik is properly "the palate," though it also included the corresponding lower part of the mouth (Gesenius). It is used as the instrument or organ of speech in Pro_8:7, "For my mouth (khik) shall speak truth;" and in Job_31:30, "I have not suffered my mouth (khik) to sin." Under the same figure David describes the treachery of his friend in Psa_55:22, "His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords."
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv3, 6, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 21, 22 For the lips of a strange woman drop as…
Pro_5:3-5
For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb.
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A strange woman
One outside of the true family bonds and relationships. This description has been regarded by expositors as having a double sense.
1. It is a portrait of a harlot, especially one of foreign extraction.
2. It is a representation of the allurements of unsound doctrine and corrupt worship.
I. We have here a description of the strange woman.
1. Her vile, unclean, flattering, enticing speech.
2. Her fate: her end bitter, physical suffering, mental anguish, spiritual distress.
II. A word to her.
1. You are somebodys child; think of the old time, etc.
2. You are ruining soul and body.
3. Ruining others as well.
4. The woman that was a sinner found mercy, and there is mercy for you. (Anon.)
Evil companionship
It would not be complaisance, but cowardice--it would be a sinful softness, which allowed affinity in taste to imperil your faith or your virtue. It would be the same sort of courtesy which in the equatorial forest, for the sake of its beautiful leaf, lets the liana with its strangling arms run up the plantain or the orange, and pays the forfeit in blasted boughs and total ruin. It would be the same sort of courtesy which, for fear of appearing rude and inhospitable, took into dock an infested vessel, or welcomed, not as a patient, but a guest, the plague-stricken stranger. (J. Hamilton, D. D.)
The consequences of profligacy
This chapter consists of caution and warning against licentiousness--the lawless and irregular indulgence of the passions--Youthful lusts that war against the soul. Inhumanity is the union of two opposite natures--the animal with the impulses and appetites of the brute, the spiritual with Godlike aspirations and capacities of intelligence and religion. Whatever may be the aspirations of the soul, we find there is an animal nature as really and truly us as the spiritual itself. In man the conjugal relation is associated with all pure ideas, and is the source and fountain of the purest joy; the family circle is the nursing-mother of all virtue. Licentiousness would subvert all these connections. The Jewish law was so framed as not to suffer any of the daughters of Israel to sink into harlotry; the text speaks of a strange woman, because such were usually persons from the surrounding nations.
1. There is nothing so expensive as sin. How many constitutions, how many fortunes have been blasted and wasted through early subjugation to lust!
2. God urges obedience to His laws by the happiness, purity, and beauty of a well-ordered, wise, and prudent conjugal connection. The young man is surrounded by Gods omniscience. If he does not ponder his ways, God will. Iniquity, and especially sins of this sort, tend to gain a fixed habit. There is nothing so utterly repulsive as the picture of one who has grown old in habits of grossness. (T. Binney.)
Her steps take hold on hell.
A beautiful hell
One memorable night, a young lad and an old Scotchman being in Paris together, found themselves in front of one of the dens of infamy; the fragrance of the spices of Araby seemed to float in the air, and the sound of music and dancing broke upon the ear. The glitter and dazzle of fairyland was at the door; and the Scotch boy said, What is that? The body of the friend to whom he spoke now moulders in the dust; the voice that answered is now singing praises to God on high; but the hand of that Scotchman came like a vice to the wrist of the lad who was with him, and the voice hardened to a tone that he never forgot, as he said, Man, that is hell! What! It was a new idea to the country lad. Hell with an entrance like that!--with all the colours of the rainbow; with all the flowers and beauty, and the witching scenery and attractions! I thought hell was ugly; I thought I would get the belch of sulphur at the pits mouth; I thought harpies on infernal wing would be hovering above the pit: but here like this? Yes, I saw above the gate--and I knew French enough to know what it meant--Nothing to pay. That was on the gate; but, though there be nothing to pay to get in, what have you to pay to get out? That is the question. Character blasted! soul lost! Mind that. Just examine your ways. Do not be taken in by the flowers and music, and the beautiful path that is at your feet this afternoon. (John Robertson.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v22 "His own iniquities shall take the wicked, And he…
CHAPTER 6
THE WAYS AND ISSUES OF SIN
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"His own iniquities shall take the wicked, And he shall be holden with the cords of his sin. He shall die for lack of instruction; And in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray." Pro_5:22-23
IT is the task of Wisdom, or, as we should say, of the Christian teacher, -and a most distasteful task it is, -to lay bare with an unsparing hand
(1) the fascinations of sin, and
(2) the deadly entanglements in which the sinner involves himself, -
"there is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." {Pro_14:12} It would be pleasanter, no doubt, to avoid the subject, or at least to be content with a general caution and a general denunciation; one is tempted to take refuge in the opinion that to mention evils of a certain kind with any particularity is likely to suggest rather than to suppress, to aggravate rather than to lessen, them. But Wisdom is not afraid of plain speaking; she sees that shame is the first result of the Fall, and behind the modest veil of shame the devil works bravely. There is a frankness and a fullness in the delineations of this chapter and of chapter seven which modern taste would condemn; but the motive cannot be mistaken. Holiness describes the ways of sin in detail to create a horror and a hatred of them; she describes exactly what is within the tempting doors, -all the glamour, all the softness, all the luxury, all the unhallowed raptures, -and shows distinctly how these chambers are on the incline of death, in order that curiosity, the mother of prurience, may be stifled, and the unwary may be content to remove his way far from the temptress, and to come not nigh the door of her house. {Pro_5:8}
But this, it may be said, is the plea urged by a certain school of modern Realism in Art. Let us depict-such is the argument-in all its hideous literalness the sinful life, and leave it to work its own impressions, and to act as a warning to those who are entering on the seductive but dangerous ways. From this principle-so it may be said-has sprung the school of writers at whose head is M. Zola. Yes, but to counteract vice by depicting it is so hazardous a venture that none can do it successfully who is not fortified in virtue himself, and constantly led, directed, and restrained by the Holy Spirit of God. Just in this point lies the great difference between the realism of the Bible and the realism of the French novel. In the first the didactic purpose is at once declared, and the writer moves with swift precision through the fascinating scene, to lift the curtain and show death beyond; in the last the motive is left doubtful, and the writer moves slowly, observantly, even gloatingly, through the abomination and the filth, without any clear conception of the Divine Eye which watches, or the Divine Voice which condemns.
There is a corresponding difference in the effects of the two. Few men could study these chapters in the book of Proverbs without experiencing a healthy revolt against the iniquity which is unveiled; while few men can read the works of modern realism without contracting a certain contamination, without a dimming of the moral sense and a weakening of the purer impulses.
We need not then complain that the powers of imaginative description are summoned to heighten the picture of the temptation, because the same powers are used with constraining effect to paint the results of yielding to it. We need not regret that the Temptress, Mistress Folly, as she is called, is allowed to utter all her blandishments in full, to weave her spells before our eyes, because the voice of Wisdom is in this way made more impressive and convincing. Pulpit invectives against sin often lose half their terrible cogency because we are too prudish to describe the sins which we denounce.
I. The glamours of sin and the safeguard against them.- There is no sin which affords so vivid an example of seductive attraction at the beginning, and of hopeless misery at the end as that of unlawful love. The illustration which we generally prefer, that drawn from the abuse of alcoholic drinks, occurs later on in the book, at Pro_23:31-32; but it is not so effectual for the purpose, and we may be thankful that the Divine Wisdom is not checked in its choice of matter by our present-day notions of propriety. There are two elements in the temptation: there is the smooth and flattering speech, the outpouring of compliment and pretended affection expressed in Pro_7:15, the subtle and inflaming suggestion that "stolen waters are sweet"; {Pro_9:17} and there is the beauty of form enhanced by artful painting of the eyelids, {Pro_6:25} and by all those gratifications of the senses which melt the manhood and undermine the resisting power of the victim. {Pro_7:16-17} In our own time we should have to add still further elements of temptation, -sophistical arguments and oracular utterances of a false science, which encourages men to do for health what appetite bids them do for pleasure.
After all, this is but a type of all temptations to sin. There are weak points in every character; there are places in every life where the descent is singularly easy. A siren voice waylays us with soft words and insinuating arguments; gentle arms are thrown around us, and dazzling visions occupy our eyes; our conscience seems to fade away in a mist of excited feeling; there is a sort of twilight in which shapes are uncertain, and the imagination works mightily with the obscure presentations of the senses. We are taken unawares; the weak point happens to be unguarded; the fatal bypath with its smooth descent is, as it were, sprung upon us.
Now the safeguard against the specific sin before us is presented in a true and whole-hearted marriage. {Pro_5:15-19} And the safeguard against all sin is equally to be found in the complete and constant preoccupation of the soul with the Divine Love. The author is very far from indulging in allegory, -his thoughts are occupied with a very definite and concrete evil, and a very definite and concrete remedy; but instinctively the Christian ear detects a wider application, and the Christian heart turns to that strange and exigent demand made by its Lord, to hate father and mother, and even all human ties, in order to concentrate on Him an exclusive love and devotion. It is our method to state a general truth and illustrate it with particular instances; it is the method of a more primitive wisdom to dwell upon a particular instance in such a way as to suggest a general truth. Catching, therefore, involuntarily the deeper meanings of such a thought, we notice that escape from the allurements of the strange woman is secured by the inward concentration of; a pure wedded love. In the permitted paths of connubial intimacy and tenderness are to be found raptures more sweet and abiding than those which are vainly promised by the ways of sin.
"Here Love his golden shafts employs, here lights His constant lamp, and waves his purple wings,
Reigns here and revels; not in the bought smile of harlots, loveless, joyless, unendeared."
Forbidding to marry is a device of Satan; anything, which tends to degrade or to desecrate marriage bears on its face the mark of the Tempter. It is at our peril that we invade the holy mystery, or brush away from its precincts the radiant dews which reflect the light of God. Nay, even the jest and the playful teasing which the subject sometimes occasions are painfully inappropriate and even offensive. We do ill to smile at the mutual absorption and tender endearments of the young married people; we should do better to pray that their love might grow daily more absorbing and more tender. I would say to brides and bridegrooms: Magnify the meaning of this sacred union of yours; try to understand its Divine symbolism. Labor diligently to keep its mystical passion pure and ardent and strong. Remember that love needs earnest, humble, self-suppressing cultivation, and its bloom is at first easily worn off by negligence or laziness. Husbands, labor hard to make your assiduous and loving care more manifest to your wives as years go by. Wives, desire more to shine in the eyes of your husbands, and to retain their passionate and chivalrous admiration, than you did in the days of courtship.
Where marriage is held honorable, -a sacrament of heavenly significance, -where it begins in a disinterested love, grows in educational discipline, and matures in a complete harmony, an absolute fusion of the wedded souls, you have at once the best security against many of the worst evils which desolate society, and the most exquisite type of the brightest and loveliest spiritual state which is promised to us in the world to come.
Our sacred writings glorify marriage, finding in it more than any other wisdom or religion has found. The Bible, depicting the seductions and fascinations of sin, sets off against them the infinitely sweeter joys and the infinitely more binding fascinations of this condition which was created and appointed in the time of mans innocence, and is still the readiest way of bringing back the Paradise which is lost.
II. The binding results of sin.- It is interesting to compare with the teaching of this chapter the doctrine of Karma in that religion of Buddha which was already winning its victorious way in the far East at the time when these introductory chapters were written. The Buddha said in effect to his disciple, "You are in slavery to a tyrant set up by yourself. Your own deeds, words, and thoughts, in the former and present states of being, are your own avengers through a countless series of lives. If you have been a murderer, a thief, a liar, impure, a drunkard, you must pay the penalty in your next birth, either in one of the hells, or as an unclean animal, or as an evil spirit, or as a demon. You cannot escape, and I am powerless to set you free. Not in the heavens," so says the Dhammapada, "not in the midst of the sea, not if thou hidest thyself in the clefts of the mountains, wilt thou find a place where thou canst escape the force of thy own evil actions."
"His own iniquities shall take the wicked, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sin." This terrible truth is illustrated with mournful emphasis in the sin of the flesh which has been occupying our attention, a sin which can only be described as "taking fire into the bosom or walking upon hot coals," with the inevitable result that the clothes are burnt and the feet are scorched. {Pro_6:27-28} There are four miseries comparable to four strong cords which bind the unhappy transgressor. First of all, there is the shame. His honor is given to others, {Pro_5:9} and his reproach shall not be wiped away. {Pro_6:33} The jealous rage of the offended husband will accept no ransom, no expiation; {Pro_6:34-35} with relentless cruelty the avenger will expose to ruin and death the hapless fool who has transgressed against him. Secondly, there is the loss of wealth. The ways of debauchery lead to absolute want, for the debauchee, impelled by his tormenting passions, will part with all his possessions in order to gratify his appetites, {Pro_5:10} until, unnerved and "feckless," incapable of any honest work, he is at his wits end to obtain even the necessities of life. {Pro_6:26} For the third binding cord of the transgression is the loss of health; the natural powers decay, the flesh and the body are consumed with loathsome disease. {Pro_5:11} Yet this is not the worst. Worse than all the rest is the bitter remorse, the groaning and the despair at the end of the shortened life. "How have I hated instruction, and nay heart despised reproof!" {Pro_5:12-14} "Going down to the chambers of death," wise too late, the victim of his own sins remembers with unspeakable agony the voice of his teachers, the efforts of those who wished to instruct him.
There is an inevitableness about it all, for life is not lived at a hazard; every path is clearly laid bare from its first step to its last before the eyes of the Lord; the ups and downs which obscure the way for us are all level to Him. {Pro_5:21} Not by chance, therefore, but by the clearest interworking of cause and effect, these fetters of sin grow upon the feet of the sinner, while the ruined soul mourns in the latter days. The reason why Wisdom cries aloud, so urgently, so continually, is that she is uttering eternal truths, laws which hold in the spiritual world as surely as gravitation holds in the natural world; it is that she sees unhappy human beings going astray in the greatness of their folly, dying because they are without the instruction which she offers. {Pro_5:23} But now, to turn to the large truth which is illustrated here by a particular instance, that our evil actions, forming evil habits, working ill results on us and on others, are themselves the means of our punishment.
"The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
Make instruments to plague us."
We do not rightly conceive God or Judgment or Hell until we recognize that in spiritual and moral things there is a binding law, which is no arbitrary decree of God, but the essential constitution of His universe. He does not punish, but sin punishes; He does not make hell, but sinners make it. As our Lord puts it, the terrible thing about all sinning is that one may become involved in an eternal sin. {Mar_3:26} It is by an inherent necessity that this results from a sin against the Holy Spirit within us.
We cannot too frequently, or too solemnly, dwell upon this startling fact. It is a fact established, not by a doubtful text or two, nor by a mere ipse dixit of authority, but by the widest possible observation of life, by a concurrent witness of all teachers and all true religions. No planetary movement, no recurrence of the seasons, no chemical transformation, no physiological growth, no axiom of mathematics, is established on surer or more irrefutable grounds. Sin itself may even be defined, from an induction of facts, as "the act of a human will which, being contrary to the Divine Will, reacts with inevitable evil upon the agent." Sin is a presumptuous attempt on the part of a human will to disturb the irresistible order of the Divine Will, and can only draw down upon itself those lightnings of the Divine power, which otherwise would have flashed through the heavens beautiful and beneficent.
Let us, then, try to impress upon our minds that, not in the one sin of which we have been speaking only, but in all sins alike, certain bands are being woven, certain cords twisted, certain chains forged, which must one day take and hold the sinner with galling stringency.
Every sin is preparing for us a band of shame to be wound about our brows and tightened to the torture-point. There are many gross and generally condemned actions which when they are exposed bring their immediate penalty. To be discovered in dishonorable dealing, to have our hidden enormities brought into the light of day, to forfeit by feeble vices a fair and dignified position, will load a conscience which is not quite callous with a burden of shame that makes life quite intolerable. But there are many sins which do not entail this scornful censure of our fellows, sins with which they have a secret sympathy, for which they cherish an ill-disguised admiration, -the more heroic sins of daring ambition, victorious selfishness, or proud defiance of God. None the less these tolerated iniquities are weaving the inevitable band of shame for the brow: we shall not always be called on only to fade our fellows, for we are by our creation the sons of God, in whose image we are made, and eventually we must confront the children of Light, must look straight up into the face of God, with these sins-venial as they were thought-set in the light of His countenance. Then will the guilty spirit burn with an indescribable and unbearable shame, -"To hide my head! To bury my eyes that they may not see the rays of the Eternal Light," will be its cry. May we not say with truth that the shame which comes from the judgment of our fellows is the most tolerable of the bands of shame?
Again, every sin is preparing for us a loss of wealth, of the only wealth which is really durable, the treasure in the heavens; every sin is capable of "bringing a man to a piece of bread," {Pro_6:26} filching from him all the food on which the spirit lives. It is too common a sight to see a young spendthrift who has run through his patrimony in a few years, who much pass through the bankruptcy court, and who has burdened his estate and his name with charges and reproaches from which he can never again shake himself free. But that is only a superficial illustration of a spiritual reality. Every sin is the precursor of spiritual bankruptcy; it is setting ones hand to a bill which, when it comes in, must break the wealthiest signatory.
That little sin of yours, trivial as it seems, the mere inadvertence, the lighthearted carelessness, the petty spleen, the innocent romancing, the gradual hardening of the heart, -is, if you would see it, like scratching with a pen through and through a writing on a parchment. What is this writing? What is this parchment? It is a title-deed to an inheritance, the inheritance of the saints in light. You are quietly erasing your name from it and blotching its fair characters. When you come to the day of account, you will show your claim, and it will be illegible. "What," you will say, "am I to lose this great possession for this trifling scratch of the pen?" "Even so," says the Inexorable; "it is precisely in this way that the inheritance is lost; not, as a rule, by deliberate and reckless destruction of the mighty treasure, but by the thoughtless triviality, the indolent easefulness. See you, it is, the work of your own hand. His own iniquities shall take the wicked."
Again, every sin is the gradual undermining of the health, not so much the bodys, as the souls health. Those are, as it were, the slightest sins by which "the flesh and the body are consumed." "Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes?" Who is stricken and hurt and beaten, bitten as if by an adder, stung as if by a serpent? {Pro_23:29; Pro_23:32} It is the victim of drink, and every feature shows how he is holden, by the cords of his sin. But there is one who is drunk with the blood of his fellowmen, and has thriven at the expense of the poor, who yet is temperate, healthy, and strong. The disease of his soul does not come to the light of day. None the less it is there. The sanity of soul which alone can preserve the life in the Eternal World and in the presence of God is fatally disturbed by every sin. A virus enters the spirit; germs obtain a lodgment there. The days pass, the years pass. The respected citizen, portly, rich, and courted, goes at last in a good old age from the scene of his prosperity here, -surely to a fairer home above?
Alas, the soul if it were to come into those fadeless mansions would be found smitten with a leprosy. This is no superficial malady; through and through the whole head is sick, the whole heart faint. Strange that men never noticed it down there in the busy world. But the fact is, it is the air of heaven which brings out these suppressed disorders. And the diseased soul whispers, "Take me out of this air, I beseech you, at all costs. I must have change of climate. This atmosphere is intolerable to me. I can only be well out of heaven." "Poor spirit," murmur the angels, "he says the truth; certainly he could not live here."
Finally the worst chain forged in the furnace of sin is Remorse: for no one can guarantee to the sinner an eternal insensibility; rather it seems quite unavoidable that someday he must awake, and standing shamed before the eyes of his Maker, stripped of all his possessions and hopelessly diseased in soul, must recognize clearly what might have been and now cannot be. Memory will be busy. "Ah! that cursed memory!" he cries. It brings back all the gentle pleadings of his mother in that pure home long ago; it brings back all his fathers counsels; it brings back the words which were spoken from the pulpit, and all the conversations with godly friends. He remembers how he wavered" Shall it be the strait and hallowed road, or shall it be the broad road to destruction?" He remembers all the pleas and counterpleas, and how with open eyes he chose the way which, as he saw, went down to death. And now? Now it is irrevocable. He said he would take his luck and he has taken it. He said God would not punish a poor creature like him. God does not punish him. No, there is God making level all his paths now as of old. This punishment is not Gods; it is his own. His own iniquities have taken the wicked; he is held with the cords of his sin.
Here then is the plain, stern truth, -a law, not of Nature only, but of the Universe. As you look into a fact so solemn, so awful; as the cadence of the chapter closes, do you not seem to perceive with a new clearness how men needed One who could take away the sins of the world, One who could break those cruel, bonds which men have made for themselves?
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v21 Pro_5:21. Pondereth, or “marketh out.”
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Pro_5:21. Pondereth, or “marketh out.”
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Pro_5:22. Shall be holden, rather “is holden.”
Pro_5:23. Without, “for lack of.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Pro_5:21-23
These verses contain three reasons why the way of sin should be avoided, and the way which God has appointed should be followed.
I. Because there is no place secret enough to commit sin. The sinner often comforts himself with the thought that what he has done, or is in the habit of doing, is not known—that the actors of the deed were the only persons privy to it. The text declares that there is no such thing as a secret place, because there is no place where the eyes of the Eternal do not penetrate. God is a witness of every crime committed in secret. He is not only a witness after the deed, but of the deed. Therefore there is no place secret enough to be a place of sin. The thought of the ever-present God should deter the sinnner.
1. Because the Divine presence is a pure presence. People who are in the habit of committing the sin against which the whole of this chapter is directed, would possibly shrink from being guilty of it in the presence of a pure man or woman. How much more should they be deterred by the fact that the eye of the pure and holy God is upon them.
2. Because the presence of God is the presence of One who has authority to punish. The presence of the chief magistrate of a nation would be sufficient to prevent the most hardened criminal from committing crime. A thief would not steal before the face of the man whom he knew could punish him. The presence of God is the presence of the highest authority in the universe, of One who is irresponsible to any other for His acts (Job_9:12), of One who hast power most terrible, of One who has always visited this sin with penalty. The presence of such an Authority ought surely to make the adulterer quake at the very thought of his sin.
II. Because, though the sinner may not be apprehended by human law, he shall be laid hold of and bound by his own deeds (Pro_5:22). Many sinners of this kind go at large in the world, and are never reached by human law. No officer of justice will ever lay his hand upon them, and no material chains will ever bind them. But they are already taken and imprisoned by their own evil habits, which have bound them in chains of increasing thickness as the acts of sin have been repeated. This is a thraldom from which escape can come in only two ways. A man must either cease to be, or he must repent, before he can be free. Annihilation would set him free, because in ceasing to be he would cease to sin. But the repentance demanded by God is the only thing which will break his chains and permit him to retain his existence. We have no proof that there will ever be any way of escape by the first means, but we have abundant proof that the second is open to all men on this side of death.
III. Because the unrepentant adulterer will die as he has lived—a fool (Pro_5:23). A fool is a man without knowledge, one who acts from impulse rather than from reason. The sinner here pourtrayed is not a fool because he has not had instruction, but because he has not heeded it. Nature, History, Revelation and Conscience were his instructors, but he has disregarded them all. If he had listened to them he would have gained an experimental knowledge of the blessedness of godliness and purity, of which he must now go out of the world as ignorant as he entered it.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro_5:21. Practical atheism is the root of human depravity. The eye, even of a child, is a check upon a man, but the thought of an all-seeing God inspires no alarm.—Bridges.
The sin is not against man, nor dependent on man’s detection only. The secret sin is open before the eyes of Jehovah. In the balance of His righteous judgment are weighed all human acts, this not excepted. There is a significant emphasis in the recurrence of the word used of the harlot herself in Pro_5:6 : “She ponders not, but God does.”—Plumptre.
Because the ways of a sinful man are not before his own eyes, therefore are they before the eyes of God; because sinful man doth not ponder his goings, therefore the Lord pondereth them; because man doth not look on his ways with the eye of care, therefore the Lord looketh on them with the eye of wrath; because man doth not weigh his goings in the balance of due consideration, therefore God doth weigh them in the balance of severe justice. The opening of our eyes over our sins is the shutting of God’s eye towards them; the shutting of our eyes upon them is the opening of God’s eyes against them. For though we hide our ways from ourselves, we cannot hide them from God. We hide Him from ourselves; we do not hide ourselves from Him.—Jermin.
The meaning is, that directly in God’s eyes are the ways of every man, as though there were no other creature in the universe; as though the wise man were saying, “Why, because the way seems smooth, and you seem helped in your folly, do you go on in your impenitency, and embrace the bosom of this wanton?” “For” the way of every man is directly in the sight of God. He takes the most emphatic interest in our schemes, whether we are doing well or ill. He helps us either in sinning or doing right, for “He levels all (one’s) paths” (see Critical Notes). Not that we are to involve Him in the folly of any sin, but if a man desires to drink, He levels the way for Him. If he wishes liquor, He gives it; if he desires to steal, He gives the eye and the nerve.… The Divinity seems to help the struggling, whether saint or sinner, but the impenitent must not therefore imagine that it is righteous to go on.—Miller.
Pro_5:22. The licentious flatter themselves that in old age, when the passions are less fiery, they will easily extricate themselves from the dominion of their lusts, and repent and seek salvation. But Job_20:11 declares that the old sinner’s “bones are full of the sins of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.” Augustine, after experience, says: “While lust is being served the habit is formed, and whilst the habit is not being resisted necessity is formed.”—Fausset.
Pro_5:23. Surely it is most just that he who lived without following instruction should die without having instruction; he that in his life would not do as he was instructed, deserveth that at death he should not be instructed what to do.—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.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v22
Proverbs
THE CORDS OF SIN
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Pro 5:22.
In Hosea’s tender picture of the divine training of Israel which, alas! failed of its effect, we read, ‘I drew them with cords of a man,’ which is further explained as being ‘with bands of love.’ The metaphor in the prophet’s mind is probably that of a child being ‘taught to go’ and upheld in its first tottering steps by leading-strings. God drew Israel, though Israel did not yield to the drawing. But if these gentle, attractive influences, which ever are raying out from Him, are resisted, another set of cords, not now sustaining and attracting, but hampering and fettering, twine themselves round the rebellious life, and the man is like a wild creature snared in the hunter’s toils, enmeshed in a net, and with its once free limbs restrained. The choice is open to us all, whether we will let God draw us to Himself with the sweet manlike cords of His educative and forbearing love, or, flinging off these, which only foolish self-will construes into limitations, shall condemn ourselves to be prisoned within the narrow room of our own sins. We may choose which condition shall be ours, but one or other of them must be ours. We may either be drawn by the silken cord of God’s love or we may be ‘holden by the cords’ of our sins.
In both clauses of our text evil deeds done are regarded as having a strange, solemn life apart from the doer of them, by which they become influential factors in his subsequent life. Their issues on others may be important, but their issues on him are the most important of all. The recoil of the gun on the shoulder of him who fired it is certain, whether the cartridge that flew from its muzzle wounded anything or not. ‘His own iniquities shall take the wicked’-they ring him round, a grim company to whom he has given an independent being, and who have now ‘taken’ him prisoner and laid violent hands on him. A long since forgotten novel told of the fate of ‘a modern Prometheus,’ who made and put life into a dreadful creature in man’s shape, that became the curse of its creator’s life. That tragedy is repeated over and over again. We have not done with our evil deeds when we have done them, but they, in a very terrible sense, begin to be when they are done. We sow the seeds broadcast, and the seed springs up dragon’s teeth.
The view of human experience set forth, especially in the second clause of this text, directs our gaze into dark places, into which it is not pleasant to look, and many of you will accuse me of preaching gloomily if I try to turn a reflective eye inwards upon them, but no one will be able to accuse me of not preaching truly. It is impossible to enumerate all the cords that make up the net in which our own evil doings hold us meshed, but let me point out some of these.
I. Our evil deeds become evil habits.
We all know that anything once done becomes easier to do again. That is true about both good and bad actions, but ‘ill weeds grow apace,’ and it is infinitely easier to form a bad habit than a good one. The young shoot is green and flexible at first, but it soon becomes woody and grows high and strikes deep. We can all verify the statement of our text by recalling the tremors of conscience, the self-disgust, the dread of discovery which accompanied the first commission of some evil deed, and the silence of undisturbed, almost unconscious facility, that accompanied later repetitions of it. Sins of sense and animal passion afford the most conspicuous instances of this, but it is by no means confined to these. We have but to look steadily at our own lives to be aware of the working of this solemn law in them, however clear we may be of the grosser forms of evil deeds. For us all it is true that custom presses on us ‘with a weight, heavy as frost and deep almost as life,’ and that it is as hard for the Ethiopian to change his skin or the leopard his spots as for those who ‘are accustomed to do evil’ to ‘do good.’
But experience teaches not only that evil deeds quickly consolidate into evil habits, but that as the habit grips us faster, the poor pleasure for the sake of which the acts are done diminishes. The zest which partially concealed the bitter taste of the once eagerly swallowed morsel is all but gone, but the morsel is still sought and swallowed. Impulses wax as motives wane, the victim is like an ox tempted on the road to the slaughter-house at first by succulent fodder held before it, and at last driven into it by pricking goads and heavy blows. Many a man is so completely wrapped in the net which his own evil deeds have made for him, that he commits the sin once more, not because he finds any pleasure in it, but for no better reason than that he has already committed it often, and the habit is his master.
There are many forms of evil which compel us to repeat them for other reasons than the force of habit. For instance, a fraudulent book-keeper has to go on making false entries in his employer’s books in order to hide his peculations. Whoever steps on to the steeply sloping road to which self-pleasing invites us, soon finds that he is on an inclined plane well greased, and that compulsion is on him to go on, though he may recoil from the descent, and be shudderingly aware of what the end must be. Let no man say, ‘I will do this doubtful thing once only, and never again.’ Sin is like an octopus, and if the loathly thing gets the tip of one slender filament round a man, it will envelop him altogether and drag him down to the cruel beak.
Let us then remember how swiftly deeds become habits, and how the fetters, which were silken at first, rapidly are exchanged for iron chains, and how the craving increases as fast as the pleasure from gratifying it diminishes. Let us remember that there are many kinds of evil which seem to force their own repetition, in order to escape their consequences and to hide the sin. Let us remember that no man can venture to say, ‘This once only will I do this thing.’ Let us remember that acts become habits with dreadful swiftness, and let us beware that we do not forge chains of darkness for ourselves out of our own godless deeds.
II. Our evil deeds imprison us for good.
The tragedy of human life is that we weave for ourselves manacles that fetter us from following and securing the one good for which we are made. Our evil past holds us in a firm grip. The cords which confine our limbs are of our own spinning. What but ourselves is the reason why so many of us do not yield to God’s merciful drawings of us to Himself? We have riveted the chains and twined the net that holds us captive, by our own acts. It is we ourselves who have paralysed our wills, so that we see the light of God but as a faint gleam far away, and dare not move to follow the gleam. It is we who have smothered or silenced our conscience and perverted our tastes, and done violence to all in us that ‘thirsteth for God, even the living God.’ Alas! how many of us have let some strong evil habit gain such a grip of us that it has overborne our higher impulses, and silenced the voice within us that cries out for the living God! We are kept back from Him by our worse selves, and whoever lets that which is lowest in him keep him from following after God, who is his ‘being’s end and aim,’ is caught and prisoned by the cords woven and knitted out of his sins. Are there none of us who know, when they are honest with themselves, that they would have been true Christians long since, had it not been for one darling evil that they cannot make up their minds to cast off? Wills disabled from strongly willing the good, consciences silenced as when the tongue is taken out of a bell-buoy on a shoal, tastes perverted and set seeking amid the transitory treasures of earth for what God only can give them, these are the ‘cords’ out of which are knotted the nets that hold so many of us captive, and hinder our feet from following after God, even the living God, in following and possessing whom is the only liberty of soul, the one real joy of life.
III. Our evil deeds work their own punishment.
I do not venture to speak of the issues beyond the grave. It is not for a man to press these on his brethren. But even from the standpoint of this Book of Proverbs, it is certain that ‘the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth, much more the wicked and the sinner.’ Probably it was the earthly consequences of wrongdoing that were in the mind of the proverb-maker. And we are not to let our Christian enlightenment as to the future rob us of the certainty, written large on human life here and now, that with whatever apparent exceptions in regard to prosperous sin and tried righteousness, it is yet true that ‘every transgression and disobedience receives its just recompense of reward.’ Life is full of consequences of evil-doing. Even here and now we reap as we have sown. Every sin is a mistake, even if we confine our view to the consequences sought for in this life by it, and the consequences actually encountered. ‘A rogue is a roundabout fool.’ True, we believe that there is a future reaping so complete that it makes the partial harvests gathered here seem of small account. But the framer of this proverb, who had little knowledge of that future, had seen enough in the meditative survey of this present to make him sure that the consequences of evil-doing were certain, and in a very true sense, penal. And leaving out of sight all that lies in the dark beyond, surely if we sum up the lamed aspirations, the perverted tastes, the ossifying of noble emotions, the destruction of the balance of the nature, the blinding of the eye of the soul, the lowering and narrowing of the whole nature, and many another wound to the best in man that come as the sure issue of evil deeds, we do not need to doubt that every sinful man is miserably ‘holden with the cords of his sin.’ Life is the time for sowing, but it is a time for reaping too, and we do not need to wait for death to experience the truth of the solemn warning that ‘he who soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.’ Let us, then, do no deeds without asking ourselves, What will the harvest be? and if from any deeds that we have done we have to reap sorrow or inward darkness, let us be thankful that by experience our Father is teaching us how bitter as well as evil a thing it is to forsake Him, and cast off His fear from our wayward spirits.
IV. The cords can be loosened.
Bitter experience teaches that the imprisoning net clings too tightly to be stripped from our limbs by our own efforts. Nay rather, the net and the captive are one, and he who tries to cast off the oppression which hinders him from following that which is good is trying to cast off himself. The desperate problem that fronts every effort at self-emendation has two bristling impossibilities in it: one, how to annihilate the past; one, how to extirpate the evil that is part of my very self, and yet to keep the self entire. The very terms of the problem show it to be insoluble, and the climax of all honest efforts at making a clean thing of an unclean by means within reach of the unclean thing itself, is the despairing cry, ‘O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?’ But to men writhing in the grip of a sinful past, or paralysed beyond writhing, and indifferent, because hopeless, or because they have come to like their captivity, comes one whose name is ‘the Breaker,’ whose mission it is to proclaim liberty to the captives, and whose hand laid on the cords that bind a soul, causes them to drop harmless from the limbs and sets the bondsman free. Many tongues praise Jesus for many great gifts, but His proper work, and that peculiar to Himself alone, is His work on the sin and the sins of the world. He deals with that which no man can deal with for himself or by his own power. He can cancel our past, so that it shall not govern our future. He can give new power to fight the old habits. He can give a new life which owes nothing to the former self, and is free from taint from it. He can break the entail of sin, the ‘law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus’ can make any of us, even him who is most tied and bound by the chain of his sins, ‘free from the law of sin and death.’ We cannot break the chains that fetter us, and our own struggles, like the plungings of a wild beast caught in the toils, but draw the bonds tighter. But the chains that cannot be broken can be melted, and it may befall each of us as it befell the three Hebrews in the furnace, when the king ‘was astonished’ and asked, ‘Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?’ and wonderingly declared, ‘Lo, I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire, and the aspect of the fourth is like a son of the gods.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v5 Heb. "Sheol," (See Scofield "Hab 2:5")
hell
Heb. "Sheol," (See Scofield "Hab 2:5")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v15 Chastity Contrasted with Unchastity
Chastity Contrasted with Unchastity
v. 15. Drink waters out of thine own cistern and running waters out of thine own well, seeking the satisfaction of permitted desire and intercourse only and alone within the bounds of holy wedlock.
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v. 16. Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad and rivers of waters in the streets, in the proper enjoyment of marital love.
v. 17. Let them be only thine own, that is, the waters of this fountain in lawful wedlock, and not strangers’ with thee, in illegitimate intercourse.
v. 18. Let thy fountain be blessed, the children of lawful wedlock being gifts of the Lord, and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. Cf Deu 24:5; Ecc 9:9.
v. 19. Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe, or the graceful gazelle, emblems of the graceful, fascinating, lively nature of a young wife; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times, her bosom charming her husband, and be thou ravished always with her love, said of the ecstatic joy of the loving husband which meets with the glad approval of God within holy wedlock.
v. 20. And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, with a wanton harlot, professing the same delight in her company which he might and should lawfully have with the wife given him by the Lord, and embrace the bosom of a stranger? of one in whose case such familiarity is excluded by the prohibition of the Sixth Commandment.
v. 21. For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and He pondereth all his goings, His omniscience marking the conduct of every person and noting every unchaste desire, thought, word, and act.
v. 22. His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, overtake every evil-doer, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins, as fetters holding him captive and keeping him securely for the final punishment.
v. 23. He shall die without instruction, for want of correction, because he would not accept it, and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray, thus bringing destruction upon himself. Such is the way of the libertine, a few years of forbidden voluptuousness followed by everlasting condemnation.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 18, 20, 22 the lips of an adulteress drip with honey
the lips of an adulteress drip with honey
Possible meanings are 1) the word "lips" represents the words of the adulteress and the writer speaks of the attractiveness of her words as if her lips dripped with honey. AT: "the words of an adulteress are sweet, as if dripping with honey" or 2) the writer speaks of the allure of kissing the adulteress as if her lips dripped with honey. AT: "the kisses of an adulteress are sweet, as if her lips dripped with honey" (See: Metonymy and Metaphor)
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her mouth is smoother than oil
Possible meanings are 1) the word "mouth" represents the speech of the adulteress and the writer speaks of the persuasiveness of her speech as if her mouth were smoother than olive oil. AT: "her speech is persuasive and smoother than olive oil" or 2) the writer speaks of the pleasure of kissing the adulteress as if her mouth were smoother than oil. AT: "her kisses are smoother than olive oil" (See: Metonymy and Metaphor)
but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood
The writer speaks of the harm that comes from having a relationship with an adulteress as if she tasted as bitter as wormwood. AT: "but in the end, she is like bitter-tasting wormwood and will cause you harm" (See: Metaphor)
wormwood
a plant that tastes bitter
cutting like a sharp sword
The writer speaks of the pain that the adulteress will cause to the one who has a relationship with her as if she were a sharp weapon that cuts the person. AT: "she wounds a person, as if she were a sharp sword" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
adultery
honey
oil
sword
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv3, 5, 9, 11, 15, 19, 21, 22 5:3-4 The lips of the immoral woman seem sweet…
5:3-4 The lips of the immoral woman seem sweet and enticing but are actually bitter and deadly. Sexual activity often begins with a kiss, and flattering words can entice.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.