Proverbs 2:18

her house&c. It is a steep descent, ending in death. The rendering of R.V. marg., she sinketh down unto death which is her house, is less forcible and impairs the parallelism.

the dead Lit. the Rephaim. The Rephaim were among the Aborigines of Canaan (Genesis 14:5; Genesis 15:20) and were people of giant stature (Deuteronomy 2:11; Deuteronomy 2:20-21, R.V.). They may have come to be identified in the popular mind in the dim retrospect of the past, with the shadowy spectres that loomed large in Sheol (Isaiah 14:9, R.V. marg.). See Smith's Dict. of Bible, Art. Rephaim.