Proverbs 5:10

wealth The word may mean either that which a man acquires, his wealth(A.V. text, R.V. marg.), or that by which he acquires it, his strength(R.V. text, A.V. marg.) of mind and body. Genesis 49:3 would seem to favour the latter rendering here. σῆς ἰσχύος, LXX., viribus tuis, Vulg. The suggestion of Ewald and others that these verses (9, 10) point to the commutation of the capital sentence into one of slavery, whether voluntarily undergone by the adulterer to escape death, or exacted by the injured husband, and that thus the guilty man's years would be given unto the cruel, and his labours would be in the house of an alien, is not supported by any proof that such commutation was practised. On the contrary the holy law (Deuteronomy 22:22) appears to nave been strictly maintained (Ezekiel 16:38; Ezekiel 16:40; John 8:5); and in Proverbs 6:34-35 we are expressly told that the husband will accept no compensation. While escaping, probably because undetected, the penalty of death, the victim of lust would like the prodigal son "devour his living with harlots," and so come to be in want and misery.