but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword.
Parallel Translations
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but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword.
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But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.
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But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
Cross-references (11)
Passages linked to Proverbs 5:4 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.
- Psalms 55:21 His mouth was smooth as butter, but his heart was war. His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords.
- Psalms 57:4 My soul is among lions. I lie among those who are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.
- Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
- Proverbs 9:18 But he doesn’t know that the departed spirits are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.
- Judges 16:4-6 It came to pass afterward that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. The lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Entice him, and see in which his great strength lies, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him; and we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.” Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and what you might be bound to afflict you.”
- Judges 16:15-21 She said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and have not told me where your great strength lies.” When she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, his soul was troubled to death. He told her all his heart and said to her, “No razor has ever come on my head; for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will go from me and I will become weak, and be like any other man.” When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up this once, for he has told me all his heart.” Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hand. She made him sleep on her knees; and she called for a man and shaved off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him. 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 6:24-35 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. Men don’t despise a thief if he steals to satisfy himself when he is hungry; but if he is found, he shall restore seven times. He shall give all the wealth of his house. He who commits adultery with a woman is void of understanding. He who does it destroys his own soul. He will get wounds and dishonor. His reproach will not be wiped away. For jealousy arouses the fury of the husband. He won’t spare in the day of vengeance. He won’t regard any ransom, neither will he rest content, though you give many gifts.
- Proverbs 7:22-23 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.
- Proverbs 23:27-28 For a prostitute is a deep pit; and a wayward wife is a narrow well. Yes, she lies in wait like a robber, and increases the unfaithful among men.
- Hebrews 12:15-16 looking carefully lest there be any man who falls short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and many be defiled by it, lest there be any sexually immoral person, or profane person, like Esau, who sold his birthright for one meal.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Pro 5:4 But her end is bitter as wormwood,…
Pro 5:4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.
Ver. 4. But her end is bitter as wormwood.] The pleasure passeth, the sting remaineth; for in the froth of this filthy pleasure is bred that hell worm of guilt that never dieth. {a}
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“ Principium dulce est, sed finis amoris amarus:
Laeta venire Venus, tristis abire solet. ”
Diana of the Ephesians was so artificially portrayed, that she seemed to smile most pleasantly upon such as came into her temple, but to frown at those that went out. So doth sensual pleasure. Heus tu scholastiae, dulce et amarum gustulum carpis, &c., said the harlot to Apuleius; hark, scholar, it is but a bitter sweet that you are so fond of. {b} Plus aloes quam mellis habet; { c} knowest thou not that there will be bitterness in the end? The chroniclers {d} have observed of our Edward III that he had always fair weather at his passage into France, and foul upon his return. Such is the way of the harlot; the sin committed with her is as the poison of asps. When an asp stings a man, it doth first tickle him so as it makes him laugh, till the poison by little and little get to the heart, and then it pains him more than ever before it delighted him. See Luk 6:25; Luk 16:25 Heb 12:15-16 Job 13:26 Ecc 7:27-28.
{a} In amore multum est amari.
{b} Dulcis acerbitas amarissima voluptas. - Tertul.
{c} Plutarch.
{d} Speed, Walsing.
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 Her design, and the effect of that lewdness to…
Her design, and the effect of that lewdness to which she enticeth men, is the sinner’s destruction.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain But her end is bitter as wormwood,.... Which is…
But her end is bitter as wormwood,.... Which is opposed to the honeycomb her lips are said to drop; so that, as Juvenal says (g), "plus aloes quam mellis habet": the end which she brings persons to, or the issue of complying with her, is bitterness; such as loss of credit, substance, and health, remorse of conscience, and fear of death, corporeal and eternal; see Ecc 7:26;
sharp as a twoedged sword; which cuts every way; as committing sin with an harlot hurts both soul and body; and the reflection upon it is very cutting and distressing, and destroys all comfort and happiness. This is the reverse of her soothing and softening speech, which is as oil. Such also will be the sad case of the worshippers of the beast, or whore of Rome; who will gnaw their tongues for pain, and be killed with the twoedged sword that proceedeth out of the mouth of Christ, Rev 16:10.
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(g) Satyr. 6. v. 180. "Lingua dicta dulcia dabis, corde amara facilis", Plauti Truculentus, Act. 1. Sc. 1. v. 77. Cistellaria, Act. 1. Sc. 1. v. 70, 71, 72.
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 But - The effect of that to which she…
But - The effect of that to which she entices men, is destruction.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 4. Bitter as wormwood] כלענה Kelanah, like the…
Verse 4. Bitter as wormwood] כלענה Kelanah, like the detestable herb wormwood, or something analogous to it: something as excessive in its bitterness, as honey is in its sweetness.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Wormwood - In Eastern medicine this herb, the absinthium…
Wormwood - In Eastern medicine this herb, the absinthium of Greek and Latin botanists, was looked upon as poisonous rather than medicinal. Compare Rev 8:11.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain 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 her end--literally, "her future," in sense of reward, what…
her end--literally, "her future," in sense of reward, what follows (compare Psa 37:37; Psa 73:17). Its nature is evinced by the use of figures, opposite those of Pro 5:3. The physical and moral suffering of the deluded profligate are notoriously terrible.
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 4. Bitter as wormwood — As the accursed or…
4. Bitter as wormwood — As the accursed or poisonous herb or root. The ancients regarded this herb, whatever it was, as poisonous. There are sundry passages referring to it as noxious. See Deu_29:18; Heb_12:15; Rev_8:10-11. “Wormwood,” says Zockler, “is a plant about two feet high, belonging to the genus artemesia, (artemesia absinthium,) which produces a very firm stock with many branches, grayish leaves, and small, almost round, pendent blossoms. It has a bitter and saline taste, and seems to have been regarded as a poison.” It was a fitting popular emblem of the results of illicit love. Such love is full of poison, and in the end will be as destructive as a double-edged sword. This is more plainly stated in the following verse.
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 4. wormwood] The reference is perhaps not merely to…
4. wormwood] The reference is perhaps not merely to the bitterness, but to the noxiousness of this herb. See Deu_29:18, and Rev_8:10-11, where “many men died of the waters” into which the star named “wormwood” had fallen.
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 (4) Bitter as wormwood.—The absinthium of Rev_8:11, where, apparently,…
(4) Bitter as wormwood.—The absinthium of Rev_8:11, where, apparently, it is considered as a poison. So God’s message to St. John (Rev_10:10) was in his mouth sweet as honey (comp. Psa_19:10), but made his belly bitter: that is, he met with much sorrow and trouble in making it known to men, but through this “much tribulation” (Act_14:22) he “entered into the kingdom of heaven.”
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 contrast is drawn with great vividness between the…
The contrast is drawn with great vividness between the professions of the "strange woman" and the disastrous consequences which overtake those who listen to her enticements. She promises enjoyment, pleasure, freedom from danger, but her end is bitter as wormwood. "Her end," not merely with reference to herself, which may be and is undoubtedly true, but the last of her as experienced by those who have intercourse with her her character as it stands revealed at the last. So it is said of wine, "At the last," i.e. its final effects, if indulged in to excess, "it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder". (Pro_23:22) Bitter as wormwood. The Hebrew, laanah , "wormwood," Gesenius derives from the unused root laan, "to curse." It is the equivalent to the absinthium of the Vulgate. So Aquila, who has aqinyion . The LXX improperly renders colh , "gall." In other places the word laanah is used as the emblem of bitterness, with the superadded idea of its being poisonous, also according to the Hebrew notion, shared in also by the Greeks, that the plant combined these two qualities. Thus in Deu_29:18 it is associated with rosh, "a poisonful herb" (margin), and the Targum terms it, agreeably with this notion, "deadly wormwood." The same belief is reproduced in Rev_8:11, "And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and many men died of the waters because they were made bitter". (cf. Jer_9:15 Amo_5:7:6:12) The apostle, no doubt, has it in mind when he speaks of any "root of bitterness," in Heb_12:15. The herb is thus described by Umbreit: "It is a plant toward two feet high, belonging to the genus Artemisia (species Artemisia absinthium), which produces a very firm stalk with many branches, grayish leaves, and small, almost round, pendent blossoms. It has a bitter and saline taste, and seems to have been regarded in the East as also a poison, of which the frequent combination with rosh gives an intimation." Terence has a strikingly similar passage to the one before usIn melle sunt linguae sitae vestrae atque orations Lacteque; corda felle sunt lita atque acerbo aceto.
"Your tongues are placed in honey and your speech is milk; your hearts are besmeared with gall and sharp vinegar" ("Trucul.," 1:11. 75). Sharp as a two-edged sword; literally, as a sword of edges (kherev piphiyyoth), which may mean a sword of extreme sharpness. Her end is as sharp as the sharpest sword. But it seems better to take the term as it is understood in the Authorized Version, which has the support both of the Vulgate, gladius biceps, and the LXX, macaira distomov , i.e. "a two-edged sword." Compare "a two-edged sword" (kherev piphiyyoth) of Psa_149:6. The meaning is, the last of her is poignancy of remorse, anguish of heart, and death. In these she involves her victims.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.