to call to those who pass by, who go straight on their ways,
“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here.” as for him who is void of understanding, she says to him,
“Stolen water is sweet. Food eaten in secret is pleasant.”
Parallel Translations
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to call to those who pass by, who go straight on their ways,
“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here.” as for him who is void of understanding, she says to him,
“Stolen water is sweet. Food eaten in secret is pleasant.”
-
To call passengers who go right on their ways:
Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him,
Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.
Show all 3 translations
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To call to them that pass by, who go right on their ways:
'Whoso is thoughtless, let him turn in hither'; and as for him that lacketh understanding, she saith to him:
'Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.'
Cross-references (13)
- Proverbs 20:17 (v17) Fraudulent food is sweet to a man, but afterwards his mouth is filled with gravel.
- Proverbs 23:31-32 (v17) Don’t look at the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly. In the end, it bites like a snake, and…
- Proverbs 30:20 (v17) “So is the way of an adulterous woman: She eats and wipes her mouth, and says, ‘I have done nothing wrong.’
- James 1:14-15 (v17) But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed. Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin. The sin, when…
- Genesis 3:6 (v17) When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one…
Show all 13 cross-references
- 2 Kings 5:24-27 (v17) When he came to the hill, he took them from their hand, and stored them in the house. Then he let the men go, and they departed. But he…
- Proverbs 7:18-20 (v17) Come, let’s take our fill of loving until the morning. Let’s solace ourselves with loving. For my husband isn’t at home. He has gone on a…
- Proverbs 7:25-27 (v15) Don’t let your heart turn to her ways. Don’t go astray in her paths, for she has thrown down many wounded. Yes, all her slain are a mighty…
- Proverbs 23:27-28 (v15) 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…
- Romans 7:8 (v17) But sin, finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law, sin is dead.
- Ephesians 5:12 (v17) For it is a shame even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret.
- Proverbs 7:13-15 (v15) So she caught him, and kissed him. With an impudent face she said to him: “Sacrifices of peace offerings are with me. Today I have paid my…
- Proverbs 9:4 (v16) “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” As for him who is void of understanding, she says to him,
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (16 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv15–17 Pro 9:15 To call passengers who go right on…
Pro 9:15 To call passengers who go right on their ways:
Ver. 15. That go right on their way.] She fights at the fairest, seeks to seduce the forwardest. "They shall deceive, if it were possible, the very elect." {Mat 24:24} Flies settle upon the sweetest perfumes when they are cold, and corrupt them.
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 vv15–17 Who were going innocently and directly about their business…
Who were going innocently and directly about their business without any unchaste design; for others needed none of those invitations or offers, but went to her of their own accord. And besides, such lewd persons take a greater pleasure in corrupting the innocent.
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 On vv15–17 To call passengers who go right on their ways.…
To call passengers who go right on their ways. Who have been religiously educated, and trained up in the principles of true Christianity; and who walk outwardly according to the rule of the divine word, and are in a fair way for heaven and eternal happiness. These she has her eye upon as they pass along, and calls unto them, and endeavours to turn them aside out of the way they are going, to make them proselytes to her antichristian religion; which, when she succeeds in, she glories and boasts of; just as harlots are very desirous of seducing and debauching chaste, innocent, and virtuous persons; see Rev 2:20. Saying as follows:
. Saying as follows:
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Proverbs 9:16
pro 9:16
pro 9:16
pro 9:16Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither,.... The harlot's house, Popish chapels and churches. She uses the same form of words that Wisdom does, Pro 9:4; having a form of godliness, a show of religion, but without the power of it; her priests are wolves in sheep's clothing, and speak lies in hypocrisy: and such that she fixes upon as proper persons to work on are the simple, the credulous and unwary; who are not on their guard, and are easily persuaded and imposed on;
and as for him that wanteth understanding; is not well grounded in the principles of Christianity he professes; has not a spiritual and experimental understanding of them:
she saith to him; addresses him in such language as follows:
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 vv15–17 Go right - Who are going innocently about their…
Go right - Who are going innocently about their business.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv16–17 Verse 16. Whoso is simple, let him turn in…
Verse 16. Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither] FOLLY or PLEASURE here personified, uses the very same expressions as employed by Wisdom, Pr 9:4. Wisdom says, "Let the simple turn in to me." No, says Folly, "Let the simple turn in to me." If he turn in to Wisdom, his folly shall be taken away and he shall become wise; if he turn in to Folly, his darkness will be thickened, and his folly will remain.
Wisdom sets up her school to instruct the ignorant:
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Folly sets her school up next door, to defeat the designs of Wisdom.
Thus the saying of the satirist appears to be verified: -
"Wherever God erects a house of prayer,
The devil surely builds a chapel there.
And it is found upon examination,
The latter has the larger congregation."
DE FOE.
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 v16 Pro 9:16-18. Whoso is simple — Which title is…
Pro 9:16-18. Whoso is simple — Which title is not given to them by her; for such a reproach would not have allured them, but driven them away; but by Solomon, who represents the matter of her invitation in his own words, that he might discover the truth of it, and thereby dissuade and deter those whom she invited. Stolen waters are sweet — A proverbial expression for unlawful pleasures, which are said to be sweet, partly from the difficulty of obtaining them, and partly because the very prohibition renders them more agreeable to man’s corrupt nature. But he knoweth not — He doth not consider it seriously, (whereby he proves his folly,) that the dead are there — The dead in sin, the spiritually dead, and those who are in the high road to be eternally dead. In other words, she invites him to his utter ruin, both of soul and body: for her guests are in the depths of hell — She sinks all those who accept of her invitation down to the very bottom of that pit from whence there is no redemption. “One of the profitable lessons to be learned from this chapter is, that there is nothing more inconsistent with wisdom than the service of those impure lusts which have been the ruin of all those who have been led by them; and therefore with this the wise man concludes his preface to the book of Proverbs, again repeating, Pro 9:10, that first principle on which all religion is built, and wherewith he began this preface, that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Indeed there is no true wisdom but religion.”
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 v17 The besetting sin of all times and countries, the…
The besetting sin of all times and countries, the one great proof of the inherent corruption of man’s nature. Pleasures are attractive because they are forbidden (compare Rom 7:7).
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 On v17 Pleasant. Impure pleasures are more delightful (Calmet) to sensual…
Pleasant. Impure pleasures are more delightful (Calmet) to sensual men. (Haydock) --- The prohibition increases appetite. (Menochius)
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 vv15, 17 to allure those who are right-minded, and who are…
to allure those who are right-minded, and who are addressed as in Pro 9:4, as
simple--that is, easily led (Pro 1:4) and unsettled, though willing to do right.
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 vv15–17 15. To call passengers — This is her object,…
15. To call passengers — This is her object, to draw even those aside into her haunts of folly and impurity who are going straight forward to the school of wisdom and virtue. She is, in this respect, a fair representative of the modern “saloon keeper.”
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 vv15, 17 15. who go right on their ways] who are…
15. who go right on their ways] who are not putting themselves in the way of temptation by loitering or straying into by-ways, but who, though in the path of duty, are unwary and unsuspecting, and so need warning.
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 vv16–17 (16) Whoso is simple . . .—She imitates Wisdom…
(16) Whoso is simple . . .—She imitates Wisdom closely in her address: Satan, too, transforms himself into an “angel of light” (2Co_11:14). Folly attracts those undecided characters who are in the right track, but have not the constancy to persevere in it; who, “in time of temptation, fall away.”
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 vv15–17 To call passengers who go right on their ways.…
To call passengers who go right on their ways. With shameless effrontery she cries to all that pass by, she addresses her solicitations to persons who are going straight on their way, thinking nothing of her, having no idea of deviating from their pursued object. As they walk in the path of right and duty, she tries to turn them aside. Septuagint, "Calling to herself (proskaloumenh ) those that pass by and are keeping straight in their ways." The Fathers find here a picture of the seductions of heretical teaching, which puts on the mask of orthodoxy and deceives the unwary. Wordsworth notes that, in the Apocalypse, the false teacher bears some emblems of the Lamb. (Rev_13:11) All false doctrine retains some element of truth, and it is because of this admixture that it procures adherents and thrives for a time.
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 vv15, 17 To call passengers who go right on their ways.
Pro_9:15
To call passengers who go right on their ways.
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The tempted ones
Who are the tempted? Young people who have been well-educated; these she will triumph most in being the ruin of.
I. What their real character is. Passengers that go right on their ways; that have been trained up in the paths of religion and virtue, and set out very hopefully and well; that seemed determined and designed for good, and are not (as that young man in Pro_7:8) going the way to her house. Such as these she has a design upon, and lays snares for, and uses all her arts, all her charms, to pervert them; if they go right on, and will not look toward her, she will call after them, so urgent are these temptations.
II. How the foolish woman represents them. She calls them simple and wanting understanding, and therefore courts them to her school, that they may be cured of the restraints and formalities of their religion. This is the method of the stage, where the sober young man that has been virtuously educated is the fool in the play, and the plot is to make him seven times more a child of hell than his profane companions, under colour of polishing and refining him, and setting him up for a wit and a beau. What is justly charged upon sin and impiety (Pro_9:4) that it is folly, is here very unjustly retorted upon the ways of virtue; but the day will declare who are the fools. (Matthew Henry.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v16 is naive
is naive
"is inexperienced or immature"
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turn aside here
"leave his path and come here"
she says
This is the foolish woman who was introduced in Proverbs 9:13.
those who have no sense
"those who do not have wisdom" or "those who are not wise"
Stolen waters are sweet, and bread of secrecy is delicious
The foolish woman speaks of the pleasure of stolen waters and bread of secrecy to tell men that if they sleep with her, they will have pleasure. This can be stated clearly in a simile: "You can enjoy me just as you enjoy water that you have stolen or bread that is secret" (See: Metaphor)
that the dead are there
"that the men who have gone to her are now dead"
in the depths of Sheol
"Sheol" refers to the world of the dead.
translationWords
die
Hades
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 v17 9:17 Like Wisdom, Folly has prepared a banquet for…
9:17 Like Wisdom, Folly has prepared a banquet for her guests (cp. 9:2-5). However, this meal is dishonest and perverse.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.