Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 2:16
To deliver thee from the strange woman, [even] from the stranger [which] flattereth with her words;
16. strange woman stranger ] i.e. not belonging to thee; a stranger, in right, to any such relationship. Neither of the words, as here used, has any reference to nationality, as though the danger in question arose chiefly from foreign women. They are married women of the true religion ( Pro 2:17), and wives of fellow-citizens (Pro 7:19-20) who are here in view. It is a different Heb. word that is used commonly (e.g. Gen 15:13; Exo 20:10) for a “stranger” in the sense of a foreigner, one sojourning in a land not his own. The “ strange woman” here is so called in the sense which the same Heb. word bears in such passages as Exo 29:33; Exo 30:33 (one who is outside the family of Aaron); Deu 25:5 (one who is outside the family circle). This word for stranger, though it often means a foreigner (Deu 17:15; comp. Exo 2:22; Exo 21:8), is here a proper synonym with the word in the parallel clause, one who is not a man’s own wife; just as in Ecc 6:2 it means one who is not a man’s own child.
flattereth ] Heb. maketh smooth her words, R.V. marg. An example is given in Pro 7:13-21.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The second great evil, the warnings against which are frequent (see the marginal reference). Two words are used to describe the class.
(1) The strange woman is one who does not belong to the family, one who by birth is outside the covenant of Israel.
(2) The stranger is none other than a foreigner.
It is the word used of the strange wives of Solomon 1Ki 11:1, 1Ki 11:8, and of those of the Jews who returned from Babylon (Ezra 10; passim). The two words together, in connection with those which follow, and which imply at once marriage and a profession of religious faith, point to some interesting facts in the social history of Israel. Whatever form the sin here referred to had assumed before the monarchy (and the Book of Judges testifies to its frequency), the contact with Phoenicians and other nations under Solomon had a strong tendency to increase it. The kings example would naturally be followed, and it probably became a fashion to have foreign wives and concubines. At first, it would seem, this was accompanied by some show of proselytism Pro 2:17; but the old pagan leaven (influence) presently broke out; the sensual worship of other gods led the way to a life of harlotry. The stringent laws of the Mosaic code Lev 19:29; Lev 21:9; Deu 23:18 probably deterred the women of Israel from that sin, and led to a higher standard of purity among them than prevailed among other nations.
Most interpreters have, however, generalized the words as speaking of any adulteress. The Septuagint as if reluctant to speak of facts so shameful, has allegorized them, and seen in the temptress the personification of evil counsel.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 2:16
To deliver thee from the strange woman.
Sensual temptation
Gaze not on beauty too much, lest it blast thee; nor too long, lest it blind thee; nor too near lest it burn thee. If thou like it, it deceives thee; if thou love it, it disturbs thee; if thou hunt after it, it destroys thee. If virtue accompany it, it is the hearts paradise; if vice associate it, it is the fools purgatory. It is the wise mans bonfire, and the fools furnace. (Quarles.)
The enticement of women
The deliverance from evil men was described before; now follows the deliverance from evil women, who are as dangerous to the young man, if not more, in regard to their crafty allurements. Men present as enticement unlawful gain; women offer unlawful pleasure.
I. There is a medicine in Scripture for every disease of the soul. Here an antidote against the poison of evil women.
1. There is a fence against several degrees of sin. Against evil thoughts; evil words, evil deeds.
2. There are many remedies for the same sin. Prohibitions, examples, judgments.
II. The danger from evil women is great. Illustrate Samson and Solomon. As good women are modest, so bad women are loud and bold. As good women are tenderly affected, so wicked ones are most cruel. Take heed of being overcome by smooth language. They will tell thee that they love none else, and will die for thee, but they love thy wealth and beauty, and will leave thee when these fail. (Francis Taylor.)
The strange woman
Surely one cannot declare the whole counsel of God and leave out a subject which is interwoven with almost every chapter in the Bible. I am entirely aware of the delicacy of introducing this subject into the pulpit.
1. One difficulty arises from the sensitiveness of unaffected purity.
2. Another difficulty springs from the nature of the English language, which has hardly been framed in a school where it may wind and fit itself to all the phases of impurity.
3. Another difficulty lies in the confused echoes which vile men create in every community, when the pulpit disturbs them.
4. Another difficulty exists in the criminal fastidiousness of the community upon this subject. The proverbs of Solomon are designed to furnish us a series of maxims for every relation of life. There will naturally be the most said where there is the most needed. If the frequency of warning against any sin measures the liability of man to that sin, then none is worse than impurity.
I. Can language be found which can draw a corrupt beauty so vividly as this: Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God? Look out upon that fallen creature whose gay sally through the street calls out the significant laugh of bad men, the pity of good men, and the horror of the pure! Was not her cradle as pure as ever a loved infant pressed? Love soothed its cries, sisters watched its peaceful sleep, and a mother pressed it fondly to her bosom! Had you afterwards, when spring-flowers covered the earth, and every gale was odour, and every sound was music, seen her, fairer than the lily or the violet, searching them, would you not have said, Sooner shall the rose grow poisonous than she; both may wither, but neither corrupt? And how often, at evening, did she clasp her tiny hands in prayer! Alas, she forsook the guide of her youth! Faint thoughts of evil, like far-off cloud which the sunset gilds, came first; nor does the rosy sunset blush deeper along the heaven than her cheek at the first thought of evil. Now, O mother, and thou, guiding elder sister, could you have seen the lurking spirit embosomed in that cloud, a holy prayer might have broken the spell, a tear have washed its stain! Alas! they saw it not; she spoke it not; she was forsaking the guide of her youth. She thinketh no more of heaven. She breatheth no more prayers. Thou hast forsaken the covenant of thy God. Go down! fall never to rise! Hell opens to be thy home!
II. The next injunction of God to the young is upon the ensnaring danger of beauty. Desire not her beauty in thy heart, neither let her take thee with her eyelids. God did not make so much of nature with exquisite beauty, or put within us a taste for it, without object. He meant that it should delight us. He made every flower to charm us. He never made a colour, nor graceful flying.bird, nor silvery insect, without meaning to please our taste. When He clothes a man or woman with beauty, He confers a favour, did we know how to receive it. Beauty, with amiable dispositions and ripe intelligence, is more to any woman than a queens crown. As moths and tiny insects flutter around the bright blaze which was kindled for no harm, so the foolish young fall down burned and destroyed by the blaze of beauty. If God hath given thee beauty, tremble; for it is as gold in thy house: thieves and robbers will prowl around, and seek to possess it. If God hath put beauty before thine eyes, remember how many strong men have been cast down wounded by it. Art thou stronger than David? Let other mens destruction be thy wisdom; for it is hard to reap prudence upon the field of experience.
III. In the minute description of this dangerous creature, mark next how seriously we are cautioned of her wiles.
1. Her wiles of dress. Coverings of tapestry and the fine linen of Egypt are hers; the perfumes of myrrh, and aloes, and cinnamon. Silks and ribbons, lace and rings, gold and equipage; ah, how mean a price for damnation! The wretch who would be hung simply for the sake of riding to the gallows on a golden chariot, clothed in kings raiment, what a fool was he!
2. Her wiles of speech. Beasts may not speak; this honour is too high for them. To Gods imaged son this prerogative belongs, to utter thought and feeling in articulate sounds. We may breathe our thoughts to thousand ears, and infect a multitude with the worst portions of our soul. How, then, has this souls breath, this echo of our thoughts, this only image of our feelings, been perverted, that from the lips of sin it hath more persuasion than from the lips of wisdom? Purity sounds morose and cross; but from the lips of the harlot words drop as honey, and flow smoother than oil: her speech is fair, her laugh is merry as music. The eternal glory of purity has no lustre; but the deep damnation of lust is made as bright as the gate of heaven!
3. Her wiles of love. Love is the minds light and heat; it is that tenuous air in which all other faculties exist as we exist in the atmosphere. A mind of the greatest stature without love is like the huge pyramid of Egypt–chill and cheerless in all its dark halls and passages. A mind with love is as a kings palace lighted for a royal festival. Shame that the sweetest of all the minds attributes should be suborned to sin! Devil-tempter! will thy poison never cease? Shall beauty be poisoned? shall language be charmed? shall love be made to defile like pitch, and burn as the living coals? Trust the sea with thy tiny boat, trust the fickle wind, trust the changing skies of April, trust the misers generosity, the tyrants mercy; but, ah! simple man, trust not thyself near the artful woman, armed in her beauty, her cunning raiment, her dimpled smiles.
4. Next beware the wile of her reasonings. To him that wanteth understanding, she saith, Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. I came forth to meet thee, and I have found thee. What says she in the credulous ear of inexperience? Why, she tells him that sin is safe; she swears to him that sin is pure. Out of history she will entice him, and say, Who hath ever refused my meat-offerings and drink-offerings? What king have I not sought? What conqueror have I not conquered? Philosophers have not, in all their wisdom, learned to hate me. I have been the guests of the worlds greatest men. Art thou afraid to tread where Plato trod, and the pious Socrates? Art thou wiser than all that ever lived? Nay, she readeth the Bible to him; she goeth back along the line of history, and readeth of Abraham, and of his glorious compeers; she skippeth past Joseph with averted looks, and readeth of David and of Solomon. Or, if the Bible will not cheat thee, how will she plead thine own nature; how will she whisper, God hath made thee so. How, like her father, will she lure to pluck the apple, saying, Thou shalt not surely die. I will point only to another wile. When inexperience has been beguiled by her infernal machinations, how, like a flock of startled birds, will spring up late regrets, and shame, and fear; and, worst of all, how will conscience ply her scorpion-whip and lash thee, uttering with stern visage, Thou art dishonoured, thou art a wretch, thou art lost! So, God saith, the strange woman shall secure her ensnared victims if they struggle. Lest thou shouldst ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable that thou canst not know them. She is afraid to see thee soberly thinking of leaving her, and entering the path of life; therefore her ways are moveable. She multiplies devices, she studies a thousand new wiles, she has some sweet word for every sense–obsequience for thy pride, praise for thy vanity, generosity for thy selfishness, religion For thy conscience.
IV. Having disclosed her wiles, let me show you what God says of the chances of escape to those who once follow her. None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life. The strength of this language was not meant absolutely to exclude hope. Some may escape–as here and there a mangled sailor crawls out of the water upon the beach–the only one or two of the whole crew. There are many evils which hold their victims by the force of habit; there are others which fasten them by breaking their return to society. Many a person never reforms, because reform would bring no relief. There are other evils which hold men to them, because they are like the beginning of a fire; they tend to burn with fiercer and wider flames, until all fuel is consumed, and go out only when there is nothing to burn. Of this last kind is the sin of licentiousness; and when the conflagration once breaks out, experience has shown what the Bible long ago declared, that the chances of reformation are few indeed.
V. We are repeatedly warned against the strange womans house. Her house has been cunningly planned by an evil architect to attract and please the attention. It stands in a vast garden full of enchanting objects; it shines in glowing colours, and seems full of peace and full of pleasure. All the signs are of unbounded enjoyment–safe, if not innocent. Though every beam is rotten, and the house is the house of death, and in it are all the vicissitudes of infernal misery, yet to the young it appears a palace of delight. They will not believe that death can lurk behind so brilliant a fabric. That part of the garden which borders on the highway of innocence is carefully planted. There is not a poison-weed, nor thorn, nor thistle there. Ten thousand flowers bloom, and waft a thousand odours. A victim cautiously inspects it; but it has been too carefully patterned upon innocency to be easily detected. Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither. Will the youth enter? Will he seek her house? To himself he says, I will enter only to see the garden–its fruits, its flowers, its birds, its arbours, its warbling fountains! He is resolved in virtue. He seeks wisdom, not pleasure! Dupe! you are deceived already; and this is your first lesson of wisdom. He passes, and the porter leers behind him! He is within an enchanters garden! He ranges the outer garden near to the highway, thinking as he walks, How foolishly have I been alarmed at pious lies about this beautiful place! I heard it was hell: I find it is paradise! Emboldened by the innocency of his first steps, he explores the garden further from the road. The flowers grow richer; their odours exhilarate. Ridiculous priest, to tell me that death was here, where all is beauty, fragrance, and melody! Surely, death never lurked in so gorgeous apparel as this! When our passions enchant us, how beautiful is the way to death! Where are his resolutions now? This is the virtuous youth who came to observe! He has already seen too much! but he will see more; he will taste, feel, regret, weep, wail, die! It is too late! He has gone in–who shall never return. He goeth after her straightway as an ox goeth to the slaughter; or as a fool to the correction of the stocks . . . and knoweth not that it is for his life. Enter with me, in imagination, the strange womans house, where, God grant, you may never enter in any other way.
There are five wards–Pleasure, Satiety, Discovery, Disease, Death.
1. Ward of Pleasure. The eye is dazzled with the magnificence of its apparel–elastic velvet, glossy silks, burnished satin, crimson drapery, plushy carpets. Exquisite pictures glow upon the wall; carved marble adorns every niche.
2. Ward of Satiety. Overflushed with dance, sated with wine and fruit, a fitful drowsiness vexes them. They wake, to crave; they taste, to loathe; they sleep, to dream; they wake again from unquiet visions. They long for the sharp taste of pleasure, so grateful yesterday. The glowing garden and the banquet now seem all stripped and gloomy.
3. The Ward of Discovery. In the third ward no deception remains. The floors are bare; the naked walls drip filth; the air is poisonous with sickly fumes, and echoes with mirth, concealing hideous misery. None supposes that he has been happy. The past seems like the dream of the miser who gathers gold spilt like rain upon the road, and wakes, clutching his bed, and crying, Where is it?
4. Ward of Disease.
5. Ward of Death. No longer does the incarnate wretch pretend to conceal her cruelty. She thrusts, aye, as if they were dirt–she shovels out the wretches. Some fall headlong through the rotten floor–a long fall to a fiery bottom. The floor trembles to deep thunders which roll below. Here and there jets of flame sprout up, and give a lurid light to the murky hall.
Oh, that the young might see the end of vice before they see the beginning!
1. I solemnly warn you against indulging a morbid imagination. In that busy and mischievous faculty begins the evil.
2. Next to evil imaginations, I warn the young of evil companions. Decaying fruit corrupts the neighbouring fruit.
3. But I warn you, with yet more solemn emphasis, against evil books and evil pictures.
4. Once more, let me persuade you that no examples in high places can justify imitation in low places.
5. Let me beseech you, lastly, to guard your heart-purity. Never lose it. If it be gone, you have lost from the casket the most precious gift of God. (H. W. Beecher.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 16. The stranger which flattereth with her words] hechelikah, she that smooths with her words. The original intimates the glib, oily speeches of a prostitute. The English lick is supposed to be derived from the original word.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
From the strange woman; from the adulteress or whore; called strange, partly because such persons were commonly heathens, or are supposed to be such by reason of that severe law against these practices in Israelitish women, Deu 23:17, or are justly reputed heathens, as being degenerate Israelites, which are oft called strangers, as hath been noted in the Book of the Psalms; and partly because conversation with such persons is forbidden to men; as those Israelites which were not Levites are called strangers, Num 1:51, in respect of the holy things which they were prohibited to touch; and forbidden fire is called strange fire, Num 3:4.
Which flattereth with her words; which useth all arts and ways to allure men to unchaste actions; one kind being put for all the rest.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
16-19. Deliverance from anotherdanger.
the strange womanThisterm is often used for harlot, or loose woman (Jdg 11:1;Jdg 11:2), married (Pro 7:5;Pro 7:19) or not (1Ki11:1), so called, because such were, perhaps at first,foreigners, though “strange” may also denote whatever isopposed to right or proper, as “strange fire” (Nu3:4); “strange incense” (Ex30:9).
flatterethliterally,”smooths.”
her words (Ps5:9).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
To deliver thee from the strange woman,…. As the Gospel of Christ and its doctrines, or the instructions of wisdom, are a means of delivering persons from the evil man, his company, ways, and works; so from a naughty woman, an adulteress, called a “strange” woman; not because of another nation, or unknown, but because she belongs to another person, and not to him whom she entices into her embraces. Gersom interprets this of the sensitive appetite, and Jarchi of idolatry; as others do also of superstition and all false doctrine, and everything that is contrary to true wisdom; and the whole that is here and afterwards said may well enough be applied to the whore of Rome, from whose fornication, or spiritual adultery, that is, idolatry, will worship, and antichristian doctrines, the Gospel delivers men; see Pr 7:5, c.
[even] from the stranger [which] flattereth with her words that useth smooth and soft words to work upon the passions, move the affections, and win the hearts of men; and ensnare them and draw them to commit wickedness with her; see Pr 5:3; and so antichrist, and all false teachers and heretics, with good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple, Ro 16:18.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
With the resumption of , the watchful protection which wisdom affords to its possessors is further specified in these verses:
16 To save thee from the strange woman,
From the stranger who useth smooth words;
The subject here continued is the fourfold wisdom named in Pro 2:10, Pro 2:11. signifies alienus , which may also be equivalent to alius populi , but of a much wider compass – him who does not belong to a certain class ( e.g., the non-priestly or the laity), the person or thing not belonging to me, or also some other than I designate; on the other hand, , peregrinus , scarcely anywhere divests itself of the essential mark of a strange foreign origin. While thus is the non-married wife, designates her as non-Israelitish. Prostitution was partly sanctioned in the cultus of the Midianites, Syrians, and other nations neighbouring to Israel, and thus was regarded as nothing less than customary. In Israel, on the contrary, the law (Deu 23:18.) forbade it under a penalty, and therefore it was chiefly practised by foreign women (Pro 23:27, and cf. the exception, Rth 2:10),
(Note: In Talmudic Heb. (Aramean) has this meaning for the Biblical .)
an inveterate vice, which spread itself particularly from the latter days of Solomon, along with general ungodliness, and excusing itself under the polygamy sanctioned by the law, brought ruin on the state. The Chokma contends against this, and throughout presents monogamy as alone corresponding to the institution and the idea of the relation. Designating marriage as the “covenant of God,” it condemns not only adulterous but generally promiscuous intercourse of the sexes, because unhallowed and thus unjustifiable, and likewise arbitrary divorce. Regarding the ancient ceremonies connected with the celebration of marriage we are not specially informed; but from Pro 2:17, Mal 2:14 (Ewald, Bertheau, Hitzig, but not Khler), it appears that the celebration of marriage was a religious act, and that they who were joined together in marriage called God to witness and ratify the vows they took upon themselves. The perf. in the attributive clause proceeds on the routine acquired in cajoling and dissembling: who has smoothed her words, i.e., learned to entice by flattering words (Fl.).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Deliverance From the Evil Woman
(Pro 2:16-19)
Vs. 16-19 describe the evils of the immoral woman from whom wisdom delivers (a topic dealt with repeatedly in Proverbs, reflecting God’s firm disapproval of violations of moral standards). In this passage the strange woman is an adulteress who:
1) uses seductive words to entice, Vs. 16.
2) has forsaken the husband of her youth in disregard of her marriage vow sworn before God, Vs. 17; Mar 10:9; Rom 7:2; 1Co 7:10.
3) shortens her own life and leads others to death, Vs. 18; 7:27; 5:5 and to judgment and Hell, Heb 13:4; 1Co 6:9-10.
Blessedness of Overcoming
(Pro 2:20-22)
Vs. 20-22 contrast the blessedness of those who through wisdom escape the wiles of evil, Vs. 20, 21; Psa 1:1-3; Psa 37:29; with the unhappy state and end of the wicked, Vs. 22; Psa 1:4-6; Psa 37:28.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(16) To deliver thee from the strange woman.Another work of wisdom, to save from profligacy. Of the two epithets here used, strange (zrah) and stranger (nokhryyah), the first implies that she belonged to another family, the second to another nation. It would seem as if the evil example of Solomon (1Ki. 11:1), in marrying foreign women, had become common in Israel, and that they, by their vicious lives, had become a deadly source of corruption. Brought up in the lax views of morality which prevailed among heathen nations at this time, they would not consider themselves bound by the high standard of purity which was enjoined upon Hebrew women by the Law.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
(16-19) Besides the literal sense of this passage, as given above, commentators have very generally found in it a spiritual meaning, a warning against idolatry and apostasy. The union of Israel to God is so frequently spoken of in the prophets under the figure of a marriage, and their rejection of Him for idols as adultery, that the passage may well bear this further sense, especially as Jeremiah (Jer. 3:4) has borrowed this very phrase, guide of her youth, for a passage in which he is reproving the Jews for their faithlessness. The figure is also very common in the New Testament, as descriptive of the union of Christ and the Church.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
16. From the strange woman Solomon here proceeds to show that this wisdom of which he speaks will also preserve from the snares of the dissolute woman. Such a woman is described. She is , ( zarah,) and , ( nokhriyyah,) a strange woman, an adulteress; that is, a foreigner either as to nation or to the household; another woman than the man’s wife. It is probable that those women who surrendered themselves to licentious practices among the Hebrews were mostly foreigners, and hence the words corresponding to our words harlot, prostitute, and the term stranger or foreign woman, came to be nearly synonymous. By the Canaanites, especially the Phoenicians, women were consecrated to prostitution as priestesses of their impure goddess of love. In periods of her corruption Israel received these foreign women, and temples of licentious rites, scattered through Palestine, reduced the young Israelites to debauchery.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Deliverance From The Temptations Of Women ( Pro 2:16-20 ).
Solomon was very conscious of the fact that one of a man’s greatest dangers in walking in the way of wisdom was the allurement and attraction of women. It is a subject that he brings up a number of times in the prologue in some detail (see also Pro 5:1-23; Pro 6:24-35; Pro 7:6-27; Pro 9:13-18). And it was an attraction that would bring about his own downfall (1Ki 11:1-8). Indeed he was clearly aware of his own weakness. In a day when women were more closely guarded, and allowed little freedom in meeting with men, the great dangers for a young man lay in prostitutes and loose women who sought openly to attract men, or lonely and sexually experienced wives who would seek to take advantage of young men whom they fancied. Solomon deals with both.
For the young man in the Western world today the dangers are far greater, for he lives in a world where there is more freedom in sexual matters, where women dress themselves in a manner that will cause men the maximum temptation, and where incitements to succumb abound, both in real life and on the internet. For modern man Solomon’s words must be seen in that light. (It is, of course, equally true that in the same way men can allure women, and cause them to fall in a similar way. But that is not a matter that Solomon deals with, for in his day women were not allowed the same freedom as men, and were more protected from their wiles).
On the other hand we must not overlook the contrast between the godly woman Wisdom who calls to men with the truth (Pro 1:22-33), and the ‘strange (and therefore foreign) woman who comes with her own deceptive appeal, bringing flattering words. It may well be a warning against ‘foreign wisdom’ of the wrong kind. Indeed this deliberate contrast is brought out in chapter 9 where woman Wisdom is contrasted with woman Folly.
Note how these verses parallel Pro 2:12-15, which were spoken of being delivered from those who encouraged evil:
‘To deliver you from the way of evil (Pro 2:12) —- to deliver you from the foreign woman (Pro 2:16).’ ‘From the man who speaks perverse things (Pro 2:12) — from the stranger who flatters with her word (Pro 2:16).’ ‘Who forsake the paths of uprightness (Pro 2:13) — who forsakes the friend of her youth (Pro 2:17).’ ‘To walk in the ways of darkness, — who are crooked in their ways, and perverse in their paths (Pro 2:13; Pro 2:15) — ‘her paths (incline) unto the dead, — nor do they attain to the paths of life, that you may walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous (Pro 2:19-20).’
There is thus a deliberate repeated pattern. As we have observed, the young man is faced with conflicting voices. First we had the voice of his mentor urging him in the upright path. Then the voice of the one who speaks perverse things. Now we have the voice of the foreign woman who flatters with her word. And he is faced with conflicting choices. On the one hand ‘the way of evil — the ways of darkness –crooked ways — perverse paths — paths to the dead’ and on the other ‘the paths of uprightness — the paths of life — the way of good men — the paths of the righteous.’ In a clamorous world it is important which voice we heed, and which way we choose. The importance of our choices comes out in the warnings given.
Once again the passage may be seen chiastically:
A To deliver you from the strange woman, even from the foreigner who flatters with her words, who forsakes the friend of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God’ (Pro 2:16-17).
B For as for her house it sinks down into death, and her paths to the dead (Pro 2:18).
B None who go to her return again, nor do they attain to the paths of life (Pro 2:19).
A That you may walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous (Pro 2:20).
In A he is to be delivered from the ‘strange woman’ who forgets the covenant of her God, and in the parallel he is rather to walk in the way of the good man, and keep the paths of the righteous (those who observe the covenant). In B her house sinks to death, and her paths to the dead, in the parallel none who go to her return again, nor attain to the paths of life. The ‘strange woman’ is the one who is outside his normal sphere of life. She opens up a new world, and a very dangerous one. She is the opposite of woman Wisdom.
Pro 2:16-17
‘To deliver you from the strange woman,
Even from the foreigner who flatters with her words,’
Who forsakes the friend of her youth,
And forgets the covenant of her God.’
Another purpose of God’s wisdom is to deliver the one who is conversant with God’s wisdom, and who walks in the fear of God, from the openly expressed attractions of seductive women. Such a man will not dally with those who seek to sexually allure. He will heed the warnings of God. In the modern day that will involve keeping away from places where such allurements may be offered, and learning to flee from whatever arouses youthful desires (2Ti 2:22). Avoidance is better than cure.
In those days the greatest danger came from those women who made themselves available to men, and were skilled in the art of allurement. They were ‘strange’ in that they were outside the young man’s normal sphere of life. They were often foreign women (see Rth 2:10) who, being separated from their husbands, were either lonely, or had to seek to live somehow. That the problem was widespread in many countries over many centuries comes out in the Egyptian Instruction of Ani, who declares, ‘Be on your guard against a woman from abroad, — a deep water whose windings you know not, a woman who is far away from her husband’ (ANET Pritchard p.420). The Torah forbade an Israelite woman to be a prostitute (Deu 23:17), but unquestionably some were. There is no specific sanction against such, except for the laws on adultery, whilst other older women who were lonely might well have sought sexual consolation.
‘The foreigner who flatters with her words (who causes her words to be smooth).’ In the words of Pro 5:3, ‘her mouth is smoother than oil’. Compare Psa 5:9 d; Pro 5:21. She knows how to be persuasive and make sin seem delectable.
‘She forsakes the friend of her youth’, that is, her natural husband. And she ‘forgets the covenant of her God’. Thus she betrays both man and God, as is so often the case when men break God’s covenant, for God is concerned about man’s behaviour towards man, as well as towards Himself. This last phrase is especially significant in that it establishes God’s wisdom firmly in the covenant. The idea in mind may be the marriage covenant (Mal 2:14). But there is no suggestion that she is married. It is therefore more likely, in view of the personal nature of it (‘her God’), that it has in mind the covenant to which Israel subscribed, and included therefore the command not to commit adultery (Exo 20:14). It is that which is an essential part of God’s covenant. Thus the writer’s assumption is that those who follow wisdom will observe God’s covenant. Whilst the covenant is rarely specifically mentioned in Proverbs, it clearly lies at the back of much of the teaching concerning wisdom in Israel, and is almost certainly in mind in Pro 6:23, ‘the commandment is a lamp and the Torah is a light’, where both commandment and torah are words regularly used of covenant requirements, e.g. Exo 24:12; Deu 30:10 ’; Jos 22:5 ; 1Ki 2:3; etc.
Pro 2:18-20
‘For as for her house it sinks down into death,
And her paths to the dead,
None who go to her return again,
Nor do they attain to the paths of life,
That you may walk in the way of good men,
And keep the paths of the righteous.’
The one who follows the way of adultery, and succumbs to the temptations offered by women, will find that it quickly leads to the grave. Such a woman’s house sinks men into death, and her paths lead them on the way to the place of the dead, filled with corpses (rephaim). Once having succumbed it is unlikely that he will return to the good way, or begin to walk the paths of life. Thus the clear message is that sin leads to death, whilst the way of the good man (the man whose heart is set on God) leads to life. In mind is not only physical death but the death of the spirit within. There may also be in mind here sexually transmitted diseases which actually caused death. To associate with such women was to court disease. But the overall idea is that such behaviour takes a man away from the Lord of life. Such people are dead while they live.
And what they lose are the paths of life. They no longer walk in the way of life. They will no longer enjoy wholesome life. They will know nothing of the joy of the Lord, or of the rejoicing of a truly good life (compare Joh 10:10). Whilst they may appear to be gaining for a time in lustful pleasure, in the end they will lose all that is good. Their consciences will become atrophied. In contrast are those who walk in the way of good men, and observe the paths of the righteous, that is, those who walk in the covenant.
‘That you may walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.’ ‘That’ refers back to ‘to deliver you’. He will be delivered ‘with the consequence that’ he will walk in the way of good and righteous men.
Note the two contrasting groups of ideas, such people ‘sink down into death’, are ‘led into the land of the dead’, and ‘do not return again’. In other words they take the way of hopelessness. And what they miss by this is ‘attaining the paths of life’, ‘walking in the way of good men’, and ‘keeping the paths of the righteous’, all ways which lead to God and to a wholesome and God-fearing life. Note especially that this is strictly linked to moral living. It is not just a wholesome life, it is a righteous life. In this it goes beyond much wisdom teaching. This idea of the two paths is expanded on in Pro 4:10-27, and a parallel thought is found in Pro 5:5-6 where ‘her feet go down to death, her steps take hold on Sheol (the world of the dead), so that she does not find the level path of life’.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Pro 2:16. To deliver thee from the strange woman The strange woman means one who is not yours, whether she be married or not. Solomon expresses by this name a common woman, or a married woman who abandons herself to debauchery. See chap. Pro 5:3, &c. Some have thought that, under the figure of an adulterous woman, the wise man persuades us to shun all those doctrines which draw away the mind from God: such as those of the Epicureans and idolaters. But this seems to be intimated before in the 12th verse; and therefore we may understand the present passage literally as a caution against the breach of the next commandment to that mentioned in the first chap. Pro 2:10-11 where he charges his son by no means to consent with murderers; and here, to shun fornication and adultery, which entirely alienate the mind from wisdom. One of the first things, therefore, to which she directs us, and the principal benefit that we receive from her, is, to preserve our understandings from being corrupt, by keeping our bodies pure and undefiled: See Bishop Patrick and Calmet.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Pro 2:16 To deliver thee from the strange woman, [even] from the stranger [which] flattereth with her words;
Ver. 16. From the strange woman. ] Forbidden thee by God, as strange fire, strange gods, &c.
Which flattereth with her words.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
strange woman. Hebrew. zur = apostate to a false religion, of which prostitution formed part.
stranger = foreigner. Hebrew. nakar = foreign woman. Not of Abraham’s seed (Gen 17:12): ever a snare to Israel.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Pro 2:16-19
Pro 2:16-19
GOD’S MAN IS DELIVERED FROM HARLOTRY
“To deliver thee from the strange woman,
Even from the foreigner that flattereth with her words;
That forsaketh the friend of her youth,
And forgetteth the covenant of her God:
For her house inclineth unto death,
And her paths unto the dead;
None that go unto her return again,
Neither do they attain unto the paths of life:”
“To deliver thee from the strange woman” (Pro 2:16). Who is this strange woman? According to Cook, “She is none other than a foreigner”; but the mention of her having forgotten “the covenant of her God,” identifies her as an Israelite who had been in covenant relationship with the Lord. Others have identified her as a religious prostitute attached to some pagan shrine; but the simple truth appears to be that. “The strange woman here is any meretricious person who indulges in illicit sex.
(This is the first of several warnings against adultery in the book of Proverbs; others are in Pro 5:3-23; Pro 6:20-35; Pro 7:1-27; Pro 9:13-18). The thing that amazes this writer is that the author of these instructions was himself the most fantastic violator of these warnings ever known.
“Some Jewish commentators personify the strange woman here and make her a symbol of some form of foreign philosophy; but, very probably, the reference is to literal vice.
The use of the word “stranger” (or strange woman) in Proverbs is not to be understood in its ordinary meaning. Ruth called herself a stranger (Rth 2:10); but, “In Proverbs, these words are euphemisms for harlot.
“That forsaketh the friend of her youth” (Pro 2:17). Most scholars agree that these words refer to the woman’s husband.
“Her house inclineth unto death” (Pro 2:18). “Men come away from every unlawful indulgence other than they go – weaker and worse in soul. Alas for the morrow of incontinence, of whatever kind it is! The soul is injured; self-respect is slain; his force is diminished; he is on the incline that slopes to death; and one step nearer to it than ever before. `Her house inclineth unto death’!
“Adultery is a house slanted toward the death of the spirit; and Divine wisdom is essential for deliverance from its temptation and torment.
Pro 2:16. A strange woman means one who is not his wife; she is a foreigner to him because she is not related to him in marriage. This is a warning against loose, lascivious living that ends in sexual misbehavior. Several chapters (or extended sections) are devoted to warning against such involvements (here; Pro 5:1-23; Pro 6:23-25; Pro 7:4-27; Pro 9:13-18). Our verse warns of her enticing words (flattereth with her words). Other verses do the same: The lips of a strange woman drop honey, And her mouth is smoother than oil (Pro 5:3); To keep thee from the evil woman, From the flattery of the foreigners tongue (Pro 6:24); With her much fair speech she causeth him to yield; with the flattering of her lips she forceth him along (Pro 7:21).
Pro 2:17. Such a woman was once married, but she has forsaken her husband (here called the friend of her youth). What a poor one to get mixed up with! She is not only untrue to man (her husband), but she forgetteth the covenant of her God (Gods covenant or law forbids her to leave her husband and live as she is living). But her actions show that she doesnt care what God says.!
Pro 2:18. Her house is referred to because this is where she operates her dirty business. Other passages on immorality and death: Her feet go down to death; Her steps take hold on Sheol (Pro 5:5); Her house is the way to Sheol, Going down to the chambers of death (Pro 7:27). The results are a bold contrast to her enticing promises: As for him that is void of understanding, she saith to him, stolen waters are sweet, And bread eaten in secret is pleasant. But he knoweth not that the dead are there; that her guests are in the depths of Sheol (Pro 9:16-18).
Pro 2:19. The difficulty which they who give themselves up to the indulgence of lust and passion encounter in extricating themselves makes the statement…an almost universal truth…It is as difficult to bring back a libidinous person to chastity as a dead man to life. This passage led some…to declare that the sin of adultery was unpardonable. Fornication was classed by the scholastic divines among the seven deadly sins (Pulpit Commentary).
STUDY QUESTIONS – Pro 2:16-19
1. Young men should be strongly warned to watch out for dishonest men and …………….. women (Pro 2:12; Pro 2:16).
2. What covenant (Pro 2:17)?
3. Why mention her house (Pro 2:18)?
4. They dont return in what sense (Pro 2:19)?
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
deliver: Pro 5:3-20, Pro 6:24, Pro 7:5-23, Pro 22:14, Pro 23:27, Gen 39:3-12, Neh 13:26, Neh 13:27, Ecc 7:26
flattereth: Pro 7:21, Pro 29:5
Reciprocal: Gen 39:7 – Lie Gen 39:8 – refused Gen 39:10 – as she spake Lev 15:20 – General Num 5:12 – General Deu 23:17 – There shall be Jdg 11:2 – a strange Jdg 14:17 – and she told Jdg 16:5 – Entice Jdg 16:15 – How canst 1Ki 11:1 – loved Ezr 10:44 – strange wives Job 31:9 – If mine Psa 50:18 – hast been partaker Pro 5:20 – with Pro 20:16 – a strange Pro 23:28 – as for a prey 1Co 6:18 – Flee
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 2:16-17. To deliver thee from the strange woman From the adulteress, or whore; called strange, partly because such persons were commonly heathen, or are supposed to be such by reason of that severe law against these practices in Israelitish women, Deu 23:17; or are justly reputed heathen, as being degenerate Israelites, who are often called strangers in the Scriptures; which flattereth with her words Who useth all arts and ways to allure men to unchaste actions; Which forsaketh the guide of her youth Her husband, whom she took to be her guide and governor, and that in her youth; which circumstance is added to aggravate her sin and shame, because love is commonly most sincere and fervent between persons married in their youth; and forgetteth That is, violateth or breaketh, the covenant of her God The marriage covenant, so called, because God is the author of that mutual obligation; and because God is called to be the witness and judge of that solemn promise and covenant.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2:16 To deliver thee from the strange {i} woman, [even] from the stranger [which] flattereth with her words;
(i) Meaning, the wisdom which is the word of God, will preserve us from all vices: naming this vice of whoredom to which man is most prone.