Albert Barnes Commentary Proverbs 5
Albert Barnes Commentary
Proverbs 5
Albert Barnes Commentary
Proverbs 5
"My son, attend unto my wisdom; Incline thine ear to my understanding:" — Proverbs 5:1 (ASV)
The formula of a new counsel, introducing another warning against the besetting sin of youth (Proverbs 2:16).
"That thou mayest preserve discretion, And that thy lips may keep knowledge." — Proverbs 5:2 (ASV)
And that thy lips may keep - literally, “and thy lips shall keep.”
"For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, And her mouth is smoother than oil:" — Proverbs 5:3 (ASV)
Smoother than oil - The same comparison is used in a marginal note to describe the treachery of a false friend.
"But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword." — Proverbs 5:4 (ASV)
Wormwood - In Eastern medicine this herb, the absinthium of Greek and Latin botanists, was looked upon as poisonous rather than medicinal. Compare Revelation 8:11.
"So that she findeth not the level path of life: Her ways are unstable, [and] she knoweth [it] not." — Proverbs 5:6 (ASV)
Or (according to the Septuagint and Vulgate), so that she will not ponder the way of life (or, “She ponders not” the way of life), her paths move to and fro (unsteady as an earthquake); she does not know. The words describe with a terrible vividness the state of heart and soul which prostitution brings upon its victims: the reckless blindness that will not think, tottering on the abyss, yet loud in its defiant mirth, ignoring the dreadful future.
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