Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 5:20
And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
Emphasis is laid (see the Pro 2:16 note) upon the origin of the beguiler.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Why wilt thou destroy and damn thyself for those delights which thou mayst enjoy without sin or danger?
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15-20. By figures, in whichwell, cistern, and fountain [Pro 5:15;Pro 5:18] represent the wife, andrivers of waters [Pr 5:16]the children, men are exhorted to constancy and satisfaction inlawful conjugal enjoyments. In Pr5:16, fountains (in the plural) rather denote the produceor waters of a spring, literally, “what is from a spring,”and corresponds with “rivers of waters.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman,…. Or “err with her” y; 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 though things are so clearly stated and aptly represented, and the expostulation made in the most tender and affectionate manner; it is suggested as if after all it would not be attended unto, but a harlot be preferred to a wife of youth, a filthy beast to a loving hind, and dirty puddles of water in a ditch to running streams from a well or fountain;
and embrace the bosom of a stranger? that is not thy wife; a description of unlawful love and impure embraces, which are dissuaded from.
y “Errares”, Junius Tremellius, Piscator “aberrares”, Cocceius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Vs. 5 :20-23 – Facts to Ponder
Verse 20 asks the question, Why will one instructed and warned be attracted by and yield to the allurements of the adulteress? Let him who contemplates such review the solemn facts of Verses 21-23, also Verses 9-14, and answer.
Verses 21-23 state three solemn facts that should be considered by the man who contemplates yielding to the adulteress:
1) All the ways of man are known and seen by the LORD. He is aware of all man does or plans, Vs. 21
2) To yield to the adulteress is to set a net or trap for one’s own downfall, Vs. 22; Psa 7:15-16; Psa 57:6.
3) The man who yields shall die for lack of self discipline; because of his great folly he is lost, Vs. 23; Pro 7:22-23.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
THOMPSON, Land and Book, volume i, page 252.
20. Why be ravished For why shouldest thou be fascinated with the love of a strange woman? a strong and affectionate remonstrance against such folly, as an unnecessary and baneful indulgence.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Punishment for Adultery Pro 5:20-23 gives us a preview of the punishment awaiting those who go down the path of adultery.
Pro 5:20 And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
Pro 5:20
Comments – It serves to say that a man become lost in his passions and fails to listen to reason any more. However, this same Hebrew word is used in a positive way in the preceding verse, “ be thou ravished always with her love”, in order to contrast the desire of a man for his wife.
Pro 5:20 Comments – Wisdom is now trying to reason with us in this area. Job knew the struggle of overcoming this type of temptation. Note:
Job 31:1, “I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?”
Pro 5:20 Scripture Reference – Note:
Pro 6:27, “Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?”
Pro 5:21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.
Pro 5:21
Pro 5:21 Comments – Not only does the Lord see our ways, He weighs our works on the scales of judgment. Note:
BBE, “ For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he puts all his goings in the scales.”
Note other references to the scales of judgment:
1Sa 2:3, “Talk no more so exceeding proudly; let not arrogancy come out of your mouth: for the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed .”
Dan 5:27, “TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.”
Psa 62:9, “Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.”
Also, note other similar verses:
Heb 13:4, “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.”
Rev 22:12; Rev 22:15, “And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers , and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.”
Pro 5:21 Comments – As a young Christian in the early 1980’s, the Lord gave me a dream with the words, “The Stage and the Scales.” It means that we live this life on a stage before God’s eyes. When we die, we will be weighed on God’s scales of judgment for everything that we have done in this life.
Pro 5:22 His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.
Pro 5:22
Pro 5:23 He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
Pro 5:23
1Co 11:30-32, “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Pro 5:20 And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
Ver. 20. And why wilt thou, my son? ] The premises considered, there is no reason for it, but all against it. Nothing is more irrational than irreligion, and yet nothing more usual with the devil than to persuade his vassals that there is some sense in sinning, and that they have reason to be mad. And, truly, though there were no devil, yet our corrupt nature would act Satan’s part against itself; it would have a supply of wickedness – as a serpent hath of poison – from itself. It hath a spring within to feed it. Nitimur in vetitum semper, petimusque negata. Nothing would serve the rich man’s turn but the poor man’s lamb. If Ahab may not have Naboth’s vineyard, he hath nothing. The more God forbids any sin, the more we bid for it. Rom 7:8 ‘Nay, but we will have a king,’ said they, when they had nothing else to say why they would.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
strange = apostate. Hebrew. zur. See note on Pro 5:3.
stranger = alien or foreigner. Hebrew. nakar. See note on verses: Pro 5:3, Pro 5:10.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Pro 5:20-23
Pro 5:20-23
A REMINDER THAT ADULTERY IS A SIN AGAINST GOD
“For why shouldest thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman,
And embrace the bosom of a foreigner?
For the ways of man are before the eyes of Jehovah;
And he maketh level all his paths.
His own iniquities shall take the wicked,
And he shall be holden with the cords of his sin.
He shall die for lack of instruction;
And in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.”
“Why … be ravished with a strange woman” (Pro 5:20)? In the previous verse the pupil is commanded to, “Be ravished always with her love”; and Tate identified this word (ravished) as the, “Key word in the chapter. He defined it as “infatuation”; but “intoxicated” is also said to be a synonym.
“The ways of man are before the eyes of Jehovah” (Pro 5:21). “Here the teaching assumes a higher tone, rising above the lower law that regulates fidelity on the basis of personal attraction to that higher Law which brings the husband’s conduct into relation with that duty that he owes to God.
When Joseph was sorely tempted by Potiphar’s wife, he refused, saying, “How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God”? (Gen 39:9). We noted earlier that there is a recoil from this particular “great wickedness” against society, against one’s spouse, against the family, against the church, against one’s own body, etc.; but over and beyond everything else, IT IS A SIN AGAINST GOD! “This will be examined and judged by the Universal Judge, and will bring with it its own Nemesis and retribution.
“His own iniquities shall take the wicked … in the greatness of his folly, he shall go astray” (Pro 5:22-23). It is important to note that, “These verses place the blame where it belongs, not particularly upon the woman, but upon the man whose wickedness is spelled out”!
“He shall die for lack of instruction” (Pro 5:23). “In this verse, the Revised Standard Version is much to be preferred. It reads, `He shall die for lack of discipline.'” Instruction he had; discipline he had not; and in that condition his death was assured.
Pro 5:20. Two great thoughts involved here: (1) Be ravished with your own wife; embrace your own sweet wife; who should be dearer to you than the one who is for you alone? (2) Dont be ravished by and dont embrace any other; it is wrong to do so; and the whole affair will let you down in time.
Pro 5:21. Many passages show that no man, though he may try to slip around behind the back of his wife and carry on with some other woman, can conceal his deeds from God: The eyes of Jehovah run to and fro throughout the whole earth (2Ch 16:9); Doth not he see my ways? (Job 31:4); His eyes are upon the ways of a man, And he seeth all his goings (Job 34:21); The eyes of Jehovah are in every place, Keeping watch upon the evil and the good (Pro 15:3); Mine eyes are upon all their ways; they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity concealed from mine eyes (Jer 16:17); …whose eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men, to give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings (Jer 32:19); They consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness; now have their own doings beset them about; they are before my face (Hos 7:2). For the statement, he maketh level all his paths, the Margin seems to fit the context and sense better: He weigheth carefully all his paths.
Pro 5:22. Most people who follow unlawful pleasures think they can give them up whenever they please, but sin repeated becomes customary, custom soon engenders habit, and habit in the end assumes the form of necessity; the man becomes bound with his own cords and so is led captive by the devil at his will (Clarke). Iniquity is like an outlaw who overpowers a person and then keeps him by chaining him. Christ came to release all such: He hath sent me to proclaim release to the captives (Luk 4:18).
Pro 5:23. Not that he didnt have instruction but that he had instruction that he didnt heed, for in Pro 5:12 he admitted, How have I hated instruction, And my heart despised reproof; Neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers, Nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me! Sin is here called folly (a great folly) that takes one out of the path (astray) like a lost and wandering sheep and gets one off-course (like a wandering star for whom the blackness of darkness is reserved forever-Jud 1:13). Both God and decent people have always considered fornication and adultery a great sin.
STUDY QUESTIONS – Pro 5:20-23
1. Why should one embrace the bosom of a foreigner and be ravished with a strange woman (Pro 5:20)?
2. What does Pro 5:21 mean?
3. How is the bondage of sin brought out in Pro 5:22?
4. What is sin called in Pro 5:23?
Warning against Adultery – Pro 5:1-23
Open It
1. In what way have you found society encourages or discourages personal discipline?
2. What makes a good marriage work?
Explore It
3. Why did Solomon tell the reader to listen to his words? (Pro 5:1-2)
4. What is this chapter about? (Pro 5:1-23)
5. What did Solomon say about the lips and speech of an adulteress? (Pro 5:3-4)
6. Where do the steps of an adulteress lead? (Pro 5:5)
7. What thought does an adulteress give to the long-term consequences of her way of life? (Pro 5:6)
8. What did Solomon encourage us to do? (Pro 5:7-8)
9. Why should a person keep away from the adulteress? (Pro 5:9-10)
10. What happens to the person who does not stay away from the adulteress? (Pro 5:11-14)
11. How should a person satisfy his or her thirst? (Pro 5:15)
12. Where should a person seek sexual fulfillment? (Pro 5:15-20)
13. What did Solomon say about intimacy in marriage? (Pro 5:16-17)
14. What is one of the reasons a person should stay faithful to his or her spouse? (Pro 5:21)
15. What sort of damage can the evil deeds and sin of a wicked person do? (Pro 5:22)
16. What did Solomon say was the downfall of a wicked man? (Pro 5:23)
Get It
17. What has God provided for us in the marriage relationship?
18. Why do you think people fall into sexual sin?
19. What makes sexual sin so tempting?
20. How can adultery destroy a persons life?
21. How do people show they hate discipline?
22. Why is it difficult to live a disciplined life and resist sin?
23. Why might someone be tempted to satisfy his or her longings outside his or her marriage relationship?
24. What does it mean to be captivated by your spouses love?
25. What can we do to avoid being enticed by adultery?
26. How does the fact that your ways are in full view of the Lord make you feel?
27. How can a wicked persons evil deeds and sin ensnare him or her?
Apply It
28. What steps can you take to guard against sexual temptation?
29. What can you do today to renew your love relationship with your spouse?
30. What is one thing you can do to affirm the marriage relationship?
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
with: Pro 2:16-19, Pro 6:24, Pro 7:5, Pro 22:14, Pro 23:27, Pro 23:28, Pro 23:33, 1Ki 11:1
Reciprocal: Deu 13:6 – thy brother Jdg 11:2 – a strange Ezr 10:44 – strange wives Psa 139:3 – and art acquainted Pro 21:15 – destruction Son 4:9 – thou hast
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 5:20-21. And why wilt thou be ravished with a strange woman? Consider a little, and deny, if thou canst, that it is an unaccountable folly to seek that satisfaction and comfort in a vile harlot, which thou mayest enjoy more pleasantly, securely, and constantly, as well as more innocently, in a pious wife of thine own people. For the ways of man are before the Lord From whom no one can hide his most private actions, but he plainly sees and weighs all that a person doth, wheresoever he be; and will exactly proportion rewards and punishments according as he behaves himself.