Proverbs 5:20-21

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Proverbs 5:15-23

Solomon, having shown the great evil that there is in adultery and fornication, and all such lewd and filthy courses, here prescribes remedies against them. I. Enjoy with satisfaction the comforts of lawful marriage, which was ordained for the prevention of uncleanness, and therefore ought to be made use of in time, lest it should not prove effectual for the cure of that which it might have prevented. Let none complain that God has dealt unkindly with them in forbidding them those pleasures... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Proverbs 5:20

And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman ,.... Or "err with her" F25 "Errares", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "aberrares", Cocceius. ; after all those inconveniences and miseries that follow upon a conversation with a harlot, and all those advantages of a marriage state set before thee; why wilt thou be, so foolish and mad as to have a fondness for an harlot and dote upon her, and neglect entering into a marriage state, or forsake the wife of youth? and yet... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Proverbs 5:21

For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord ,.... Both good and bad; the ways of a chaste and virtuous man, who cleaves to his own wife and shuns the harlot, which are approved of by the Lord; and the ways of a lewd man, all the impure thoughts, desires, and contrivances of his mind, and all the steps he takes to commit lewdness, and all the filthy actions he is guilty of, these are all open and naked to the omniscient God: the adulterer seeks the twilight, and flatters himself... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Proverbs 5:21

For the ways of a man - Whether they are public or private, God sees all the steps thou takest in life. read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Proverbs 5:1-20

Victims of vice One particular vice is here denounced; it is necessary to warn the young against its snares and sorrows. What is here said, however, of this sin is applicable, in most if not all respects, to any kind of unholy indulgence; it is an earnest and faithful warning against the sin and shame of a vicious life. I. ITS SINFULNESS . The woman who is a sinner is a "strange" woman ( Proverbs 5:3 ). The temptress is all too common amongst us, but she is strange in the... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Proverbs 5:1-23

8. Eighth admonitory discourse. Warning against adultery, and commendation of marriage. The teacher, in this discourse, recurs to a subject which he has glanced at before in Proverbs 2:15-19 , and which he again treats of in the latter part of the sixth and in the whole of the seventh chapters. This constant recurrence to the same subject, repulsive on account of its associations, shows, however, the importance which it had in the teacher's estimation as a ground of warning, and that... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Proverbs 5:15-21

Fidelity and bliss in marriage The counterpart of the foregoing warning against vice, placing connubial joys in the brightest light, of poetic fancy. I. IMAGES OF WIFEHOOD . The wife is described: 1 . As a spring, and as a cistern. Property in a spring or well was highly, even sacredly, esteemed. Hence a peculiar force in the comparison. The wife is the husband's peculiar delight and property; the source of pleasures of every kind and degree; the fruitful origin of the... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Proverbs 5:20

And why ; i.e. what inducement is there, what reason can be given, for conjugal infidelity, except the lewd and immoral promptings of the lower nature, except sensuality in its lowest form? Ravished . The verb shagah recurs, but in a lower sense, as indicating "the foolish delirium of the libertine hastening after the harlot" (Zockler). With a strange woman (Hebrew, b'zarah ); i.e. with a harlot. On zarah, see Proverbs 2:16 and Proverbs 7:5 . The be ( בְּ ) localizes... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Proverbs 5:20-21

The adulterer to be restrained by the fact of God ' s omniscience and the Divine punishment. Proverbs 5:20 and Proverbs 5:21 should apparently be taken together. The teaching assumes a higher tone, and rises from the lower law which regulates fidelity to the wife, based upon personal attractions, to the higher law, which brings the husband's conduct into relation with the duty he owes to Jehovah. Not merely is his conduct to be regulated by love and affection alone, but it is to be... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Proverbs 5:21

For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord. The obvious meaning here is that as "the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good" ( Proverbs 15:3 ), there is no possibility of any act of immorality escaping God's notice. The consciousness of this fact is to be the restraining motive, inasmuch as he who sees will also punish every transgression. The great truth acknowledged here is the omniscience of God, a truth which is borne witness to in almost... read more

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