_My son, attend unto my wisdom, [and] bow thine ear to my understanding:_ Ver. 1. _My son, attend unto my wisdom._] Aristotle _a_ could say that young men are but cross and crooked hearers of moral philosophy, and have much need to be stirred up to diligent attendance. Fornication is by many of the... [ Continue Reading ]
That thou mayest regard discretion, and [that] thy lips may keep knowledge. Ver. 2. _That thou mayest regard discretion._] Or, That thou mayest keep in thy thoughts, as Job did, Job 31:1 "Why then should I think upon a maid?" "Out of the hearts of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications... [ Continue Reading ]
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_... [ Continue Reading ]
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_ “ _Principium dulce est, sed finis amoris amarus:_... [ Continue Reading ]
Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell. Ver. 5. _Her feet go down to death._] The Romans were wont to have their funerals at the gates of Venus's temple, to signify that lust was the harbinger and hastener of death, saith Plutarch. As for whores, they were of old shut out of the cit... [ Continue Reading ]
Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, [that] thou canst not know [them]. Ver. 6. _Lest thou shouldest ponder,_] _q.d., _ Lest thou shouldest persuade thyself that thou mayest embrace the bosom of a stranger, and yet lay hold upon the paths of life by repenting thee of... [ Continue Reading ]
Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth. Ver. 7. _O ye children._] See Proverbs 4:1. Shechem, though at ripeness of age, yet is called a child. Gen 39:19 _Neque distulit puer._ And the young man, or the child, deferred not to do the thing. A child he is calle... [ Continue Reading ]
Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house: Ver. 8. _Remove thy way far from her._] The Jesuits boast (but believe them who will) that they can dally with the fairest women without danger. But he that would not be burnt must dread the fire; he that would not hear the bell,... [ Continue Reading ]
Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel: Ver. 9. _Lest thou give thine honour,_] _i.e., _ Whatsoever within thee, or without thee, may make thee honourable or esteemed, as the flower of thine age, the comeliness of thy body, the excellency of thy wit, thy possibility o... [ Continue Reading ]
Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours [be] in the house of a stranger; Ver. 10. _Lest strangers be filled._] This sin is a purgatory to the purse, though a paradise to the desires. How soon had the prodigal _Aσωτος_ _, Luke 15:13_ _, quasi_ ασωστος wasted his portion when once h... [ Continue Reading ]
And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, Ver. 11. _And thou mourn at the last._] Heb., And thou roar; as being upon the rack of an evil conscience, and in the suburbs of hell, as it were: while "the just Lord" Zep 3:5 makes thee, even here, possess the sins of thy youth... [ Continue Reading ]
_And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;_ Ver. 12. _And say, How have I hated, &c._] When cast out with the prodigal, and hath nothing left him but a diseased body, a distressed soul, then, all too late, he fills the air with doleful complaints of his former folly, and... [ Continue Reading ]
And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me! Ver. 13. _Nor inclined mine ear._] I would not so much as hear them, nmch less obey their voice. _Intus existens prohibet alienum._ The songs of those syrens had so enchanted him, that it was past time o... [ Continue Reading ]
I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly. Ver. 14. _I was almost in all evil._] Abraham Ben Ezra reads it in the future tense, _Brevi ero in omni malo,_ I shall shortly be in all evil; and so his repentance here appears to be _poenitentia sera, Iscariotica,_ such as wa... [ Continue Reading ]
Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well. Ver. 15. _Drink waters out of thine own cistern._] After other preservatives from fornication, as not to think of or speak with the harlot, not to come near the doors of her house, &c., but to consider the many mischie... [ Continue Reading ]
_Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, [and] rivers of waters in the streets._ Ver. 16. _Let thy fountains be dispersed._] "Thy fountains," that is, thy children. Let thine end in marrying be, that thou mayest have a numerous offspring, that may be as an infantry to the kingdom of heaven. Lawful m... [ Continue Reading ]
_Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee._ Ver. 17. _Let them be only thine own._] _Sint, vel erunt; _ Let them be, or they shall be. It is both an exhortation and a promise; _q.d., _ Far be it from thee to be a pander to thine own bed, as the Lituanians, of whom Maginus relates th... [ Continue Reading ]
Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. Ver. 18. _Let thy fountain be blessed._] Or, Thy fountain shall be blessed, thy wife shall be fruitful, as Psalms 128:3, that psalm for Solomon, whose many wives brought him but few children. We read but of one son that he had, wh... [ Continue Reading ]
Proverbs 5:19 [Let her be as] the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love. Ver. 19. _Let her be as the loving hind, &c._] The hind and the roe are the females of the hart and roebuck, of which creatures it is noted that of a... [ Continue Reading ]
And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger? Ver. 20. _And why wilt thou, my son?_] The premises considered, there is no reason for it, but all against it. Nothing is more irrational than irreligion, and yet nothing more usual with the devil than... [ Continue Reading ]
For the ways of man [are] before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings. Ver. 21. _For the ways of man, &c._] _Turpe quid acturus te sine teste time._ _a_ A man that is about any evil should stand in awe of himself; how much more of God, since he is πανοφθαλμος, all eye, and beholdet... [ Continue Reading ]
His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins. Ver. 22. _His own iniquities shall take the wicked._] As so many sergeants set on by God; who will surely hamper these unruly beasts, that think to shift and escape his fingers, with the cords of th... [ Continue Reading ]
He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray. Ver. 23. _He shall die without instruction._] To spend the span of this transitory life after the ways of one's own heart, is to perish for ever. But, oh, what madmen are they that bereave themselves of a room i... [ Continue Reading ]