Proverbs 6:26 - Exposition

For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread. From this verse onwards to the end of the chapter the discourse consists of a series of arguments, each calculated to deter youth from the sins of fornication and adultery, by exhibiting the evil consequences of such indulgence. The first is the poverty and extreme beggary to which a man is brought. For by means of ; Hebrew, ki v'ad. Lee gives the preposition vaad the force of "after," i.e. after associating with. The radical idea of the preposition is that of nearness, by, near, and easily passes to that of "because" (Gesenius) or "by means of," as in the Authorized Version. It is here used for per, "through," as in Joshua 2:15 ; 2 Samuel 20:23 , and so indicates the transit through the way of fornication to extreme beggary (Gejerus). A whorish woman ; Hebrew, ishshah zonah ; Vulgate, scortum ; LXX ; πόρνη ; "a harlot," here corresponding to "the adulteress" ( esheth ish ), since the root zonah, "to commit fornication," is attributed both to married and unmarried women ( Genesis 38:24 ; Leo. Genesis 19:29 ; Hosea 3:3 ). The word zonah is sometimes written alone, as in Genesis 38:15 and Deuteronomy 23:19 . The fuller expression, as here, occurs in Le Deuteronomy 21:7 ; Joshua 2:1 ; 11:1 . To a piece of bread ; Hebrew, adkikkar lakhem. It will be noticed that there is an ellipsis in the Hebrew, which, however, may be easily supplied, as in the Authorized Version. Delitzsch supplies "one cometh down to;" so Zockler. "A piece of bread' is properly "a circle of bread, a small round piece of bread, such as is still baked in Italy ( pagnotta ) and in the East (Arabic kurs ) , here an expression for the smallest piece" (Fleischer). The term occurs in Exodus 29:23 ; 1 Samuel 2:36 , in the latter of which passages it expresses the extreme destitution to which the members of the house of Eli were to be reduced. As illustrating the term, see also Exodus 38:21 and Ezekiel 13:19 . The LXX . and Vulgate singularly render, "For the price of a harlot is scarcely that of a bit of bread," which may mean, as Castalio, that she is of so little value; but the context is opposed to this rendering, where the Point brought out is not the vile character of the harlot as the ruin she inflicts or is the cause of. Besides, the Hebrew ad does not mean ever "scarcely," or "hardly," which the Vulgate vix gives to it. And the adulteress will hunt for the precious life. The adulteress is isheth ish, literally, "the woman of a man," or "a man's wife," as in the margin—as, therefore, strictly an adulteress here (cf. Le Ezekiel 20:10 ). Will hunt ; Hebrew, thatsud ; LXX ; ἀγρεύει ; Vulgate, capit. The Hebrew verb tsud , "to lie in wait for," "to hunt," also signifies "to take, or capture," like the Vulgate capere , The verb in its metaphorical use also occurs in Lamentations 3:52 ; Micah 7:2 ; Psalms 140:12 , and refers to those beguilements resorted to by the adulteress to seduce youth. In Ezekiel 13:18 it carries with it the idea of death, and if understood in this sense here it may have reference to the death penalty inflicted on adulterer and adulteress by the Mosaic Law (Le Ezekiel 20:10 ), and introduces what is said more fully in verses 32, 34, 35. The precious life ; Hebrew, nephesh y'karah The epithet y'karah is appropriately added to nephesh, as indicating the high value of the life. All is implied in the nephesh, "the life," moral dignity of character, the soul of man. It is the ever-existing part of the man, and therefore is precious—nothing can exceed it in value. Our Lord says ( Matthew 16:26 ), "What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" and the psalmist ( Psalms 49:8 ), "For the redemption of their life is precious." But it is for this life, or soul, that the adulteress hunts, and which she destroys. Lives of fornication and adultery, therefore, carry with them the severest penalties, the loss of temporal possessions, for the enjoyment of a transient passion, and far beyond this the loss of life both temporal and eternal. We cannot imagine a more deterrent warning.