Proverbs 5:1-23

Proverbs 5:1; Proverbs 5:10; Proverbs 5:20. Three hortatory discourses exactly similar to those in Proverbs 5:2 and Proverbs 5:3. The subject is the praise of Wisdom, and the description of the blessings she confers.

Proverbs 5:3 f. One of the few passages referring to Heb. educational methods (pp. 109f.). Instruction is oral, given by the father or the mother (Proverbs 1:8). Books are not mentioned, and it is difficult to infer the nature of the teaching, whether it consisted of instruction in the Law, or merely the advice of experience given to youth. The date may be about the third century B.C.

Proverbs 5:7. Heb. yields no good sense, the beginning of wisdom is, get wisdom. LXX probably correctly omits the verse.

Proverbs 5:9. crown of beauty: lit. glorious crown (cf. Isaiah 28:1; Job 19:9). The figure is from the custom of wearing wreaths on festal occasions, hardly, as Isaiah 28:1 shows, a sign of Greek or Roman influence.

Proverbs 5:10. A discourse describing the way of life and the way of death (cf. The Two Ways, the earlier Jewish portion of the Didache).

Proverbs 5:12 a. cf. Job 18:7 a, the idea being the cramping and hindering of one's steps by a narrow and rocky path.

Proverbs 5:13 b. cf. Deuteronomy 32:47. Note the gradual deepening of the sense of life, beginning with prolonging of days, as in Deuteronomy 32:47, and gaining in spiritual content until it comes to mean the knowledge of God and communion with Him (John 17:3; cf. the life which is life indeed, 1 Timothy 6:19).

Proverbs 5:14. Probably the same class as that described in Proverbs 1:10, belonging to city life rather than to an agricultural or nomad state of society.

Proverbs 5:18. unto the perfect day: lit. until the day is established, which may mean either the full morning light or the noon-day. The reference may be to the good old age of a righteous life, its radiant culmination, or, less probably, to the Day of the Lord, which will be light for the righteous (cf. Isaiah 30:26; Isaiah 34:8).

Proverbs 5:20. A third discourse exhorting the young man to heed the instruction of the sage and adhere to the path of uprightness.

Proverbs 5:23. heart: in Heb. the seat not of the emotions but of the intellect (cf. Hosea 7:11, where without heart means without intelligence). The seat of the emotions in the OT is represented by the bowels, the will and moral perceptions by the reins (cf. Jeremiah 4:19; Psalms 16:7). issues: lit. goings forth (cf. Psalms 68:20). it: i.e. the obedience recommended in Proverbs 5:23 a, life, whether material or spiritual, is the result of obedience (cf. Deuteronomy 32:47).

Proverbs 5:1. The first discourse against sexual vice, and exhortation to purity and conjugal fidelity (cf. Proverbs 6:24, Proverbs 7, Proverbs 9:13). A comparison of the later codes (e.g. Leviticus 18, 20, H) with the earlier, shows the increasing stress laid on sexual purity, and increasing prevalence of adultery.

Proverbs 5:3. Description of the strange woman (Proverbs 2:16 *).

Proverbs 5:4. wormwood (Amos 5:7; Jeremiah 9:15): a bitter and poisonous herb, probably a species of Artemisia. In Revelation 8:10 f. it has become an eschatological abstraction. For the thought of bitterness and poison in the present connexion cf. the water of jealousy (Numbers 5).

Proverbs 5:6. Corrupt. Read She does not tread the way of life, her paths waver.

Proverbs 5:7. The evil results of relations with the strange woman. These fall into three divisions loss of wealth and position (Proverbs 5:9 f.), physical deterioration (Proverbs 5:11), legal penalties (Proverbs 5:14; cf. Proverbs 6:33 *). Adultery is treated as more serious and dangerous than intercourse with a harlot. H (Leviticus 20:10), Ezekiel 23:45, and D (Deuteronomy 22:22) sentence both parties to death. The story of David and Bathsheba implies the death penalty. In later practice the punishment appears to have been less severe (cf. Sir_23:18-26). John 8:5 implies that the older regulation was still in force, although it might be relaxed. (Probably the ordeal for the suspected wife (Numbers 5:11 *) was older still.) (See Gray, Numbers, ICC.)

Proverbs 5:7 a. Read son.

Proverbs 5:9. the cruel: the text, if correct, refers apparently to the outraged husband, but to foreigners (Targ.) suits the parallelism better. The reference would then be general to the circle of foreign courtesans and panders.

Proverbs 5:14. Render I had almost fallen into all evil, i.e. legal penalties inflicted by the local synagogue.

Proverbs 5:15. Exhortation to conjugal fidelity. For the metaphor of the well and the cistern cf. Ca. Proverbs 4:12; Proverbs 4:15, and for that of the roe cf. Ca. Proverbs 4:5. Some find a parallel to Proverbs 5:15 a in Ecclesiastes 12:1, reading remember thy well in the days of thy youth.

Proverbs 5:21. Closing remarks on the retributive nature of the Divine moral government.

Proverbs 5:21. maketh level: the same word as in Proverbs 5:6 a; read mg. here. The primary meaning is weigh (cf. the noun in Isaiah 40:12, scales).

Proverbs 5:22. the wicked (LXX omits): probably a gloss, as the passage is a general statement of the principle of retribution, a man suffers for his own sin.