Proverbs 6:25 - Exposition

Lust not after her beauty in thine heart . The admonition of this verse embraces the two sides of the subject—the external allurement and the internal predisposition to vice. Lust not after (Hebrew, al-takh)mod ); strictly, desire not, since the verb khamad is properly" to desire, or covet." The same verb is used in Exodus 20:17 , "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife," and Exodus 34:24 , "Neither shall any man desire thy land" (cf. Micah 2:2 and Proverbs 12:12 ). In Psalms 68:19 ; Isaiah 1:29 ; Isaiah 53:2 , it has the sense of taking delight in anything. It may be questioned whether it ever has the strong meaning given in the Vulgate ( non concupiscat ) and adopted in the Authorized Version, "to lust after" (Holden). Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmachus render μὴ ἐπιθυμήσῃς . The use of khamad here reveals the warning of the Decalogue. In thine heart ; Hebrew, bil'va-veka . corresponding to the ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτοῦ of Matthew 5:28 . The admonition is a warning to repress the very first inclinations to unchaste desires. They may be unobserved and undetected by ethers, but they are known to ourselves, and the first duty of repressing them calls for an act of determination and will on our part. Our Lord teaches ( Matthew 5:28 , cited above), "That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." The LXX . reading is ΄ή σε νικήσῃ κάλλους ἐπιθυμία , "Let not the desire of beauty conquer thee." Neither let her take thee with her eyelids; i.e. do not let her captivate thee with her amorous glances. Take. The Hebrew verb, lakakh, is "to captivate" with blandishments, "to allure, beguile" (cf. Proverbs 11:30 ); LXX ; μήδε ἀγρευθῃς . With her eyelids (Hebrew, b'aph'appeyah ); or perhaps more literally, with her eyelashes (Zockler). The eyelids; Hebrew, aph'appayim, dual of aph'aph, so called from their rapid, volatile motion, are here compared with nets, as by Philostratus ('Epistles:' γυναικί ) , who speaks of "the nets of the eyes ( τὰ τῶν ὀμμάτων δίκτυα )." The eyelids are the instruments by which the amorous woman beguiles or catches her victims. She allures him by her glances. So St. Jerome says, "The eye of an harlot is the snare of her lover." The wanton glance is expressed in the Vulgate by nutibus illius ; cf. "The whoredom of a woman may be known in her haughty looks and eyelids" (Ecclesiasticus 26:9). Milton ('Paradise Lost,' 11.620) speaks of the daughters of men "rolling the eye," amongst other things, in order to captivate the sons of God. Piscator and Mercerus understand the eyelids as standing metonymically for the beauty of the eye; and Bayne, for the general adornment of the head in order to attract attention. Allusion may possibly be made to the custom of Eastern women painting the eyelids to give brilliancy and expression; cf. 2 Kings 9:30 (Wordsworth). A striking parallel to the verse before us occurs in Propertius, lib. 1. 'Eleg.' 1; " Cynthia prima suis miserum me cepit ocellis ."