Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 7:22
He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks;
22. straightway ] “Heb. suddenly,” A.V. and R.V. margins. He has been as one hesitating on the brink. Now he takes the sudden plunge. “Here is evidently a stroke in the picture of the profoundest psychological truth.” Lange, Comm.
as a fool to the correction of the stocks ] This rendering is reached by transposing the Heb. words fool and stocks. The rendering of R.V. text, as fetters to the correction of the fool, is literal, and is taken to mean, as senselessly and as certainly as the dumb instruments of his punishment dog the steps of the fool. The alternative of R.V. marg., as one in fetters, is admissible in grammar, but loses the point of comparison, viz. his entire oblivion of consequences. The reading of the LXX., , “as a dog to his chain,” keeps all three comparisons to animals, and at the same time favours the suggestion that the text is corrupt.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
As a fool … – literally, As a fetter to the correction of a fool, the order of which is inverted in the King James Version The Septuagint, followed by the Syriac Version, has another reading, and interprets the clause: As a dog, enticed by food, goes to the chain that is to bind him, so does the youth go to the temptress. None of the attempts of commentators to get a meaning out of the present text are in any degree satisfactory.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 7:22
As a fool to the correction of the stocks.
Slaughter of young men
1. We are apt to blame young men for being destroyed, when we ought to blame the influences that destroy them. Society slaughters a great many young men by the behest, You must keep up appearances. Our young men are growing up in a depraved state of commercial ethics, and I want to warn them against being slaughtered on the sharp edges of debt. For the sake of your own happiness, for the sake of your good morals, for the sake of your immortal soul, and for Gods sake, young man, as far as possible keep out of debt.
2. Many young men are slaughtered through irreligion. Take away a young mans religion, and you make him the prey of evil. If you want to destroy a young mans morals take his Bible away. You can do it by caricaturing his reverence for Scripture. Young man, take care of yourself. There is no class of persons that so stirs my sympathies as young men in great cities. Not quite enough salary to live on, and all the temptations that come from that deficit. Unless Almighty God help them they will all go under. Sin pays well neither in this life nor in the next, but right thinking, right believing, and right acting will take you in safety through this life and in transport through the next. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 22. As an ox goeth to the slaughter] The original of this and the following verse has been variously translated. Dr. Grey corrects and translates thus: “He goeth after her straightway, as an OX goeth to the SLAUGHTER; as a DOG to the CHAIN; and as a DEER till the DART strike through his liver; as a BIRD hasteneth to the SNARE, and knoweth not that it is for its life.” Very slight alterations in the Hebrew text produce these differences; but it is not necessary to pursue them; all serve to mark the stupidity and folly of the man who is led away by enticing women or who lives a life of intemperance.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Straightway; without delay and consideration.
As an ox to the slaughter; either being drawn and driven to it; or going to it securely, as if it were going to a good pasture.
As a fool to the correction of the stocks; or, which is more agreeable to the order of the words in the Hebrew text, as one in fetters, or bound with fetters, to the correction of a fool, i.e. to receive such correction or punishment as belongs to fools; which may imply either,
1. That he hath no more sense of the shame and mischief which he is bringing upon himself than a fool. Or,
2. That he can no more resist the temptation, nor avoid the danger, than a man fast tied with chains or fetters can free himself, although his be a moral and voluntary, and not a natural impotency.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
22. straightwayquickly,either as ignorant of danger, or incapable of resistance.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
He goeth after her straightway,…. Or “suddenly” g; and inconsiderately, giving himself no time to think of what would be the sad consequences of it;
as an ox goeth to the slaughter; as senseless and stupid as that; and as ignorant of the issue as that is, led by the butcher, as if it was going to a pasture, when it is going to the slaughter house. So such persons as are ensnared by harlots; they follow them in a view of pleasure, but it ends in ruin; if not in the loss of bodily life, by the revengeful husband or civil magistrate; yet in the destruction of their immortal souls;
or as a fool to the correction of the stocks; a drunken besotted fool, who, while he is leading to the stocks, is insensible whither he is going; but when he has been there awhile, and is come out of his drunken fit, then he is sensible of his punishment and his shame. Or, “as the stocks are for the correction of a fool” h: or, as a man goes to “the stocks, to the correction of a fool” i; so the young man went after the harlot: or, as “one fettered” k, goes thither, bound hand and foot; he cannot help himself, nor avoid the shame. It denotes both the power of sin, there is no withstanding its allurements and blandishments, when once given way to, and the shame that attends or follows it. The Targum is,
“as a dog to a chain;”
and so the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions.
g “subito”, Baynus, Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Gejerus, Michaelis. h “sicut compes ad castigationem stulti”, Pagninus, Montanus, Baynus. i “Abiens post cam, quasi veniens ad compedes ad castigationem stultorum”, Gejerus. k “Velut compeditus”, Junius Tremellius “velut in compede ibat”, Michaelis “tanquam constricto ad pedes capite”, Schultens.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
What followed: –
22 So he goes after her at once
As an ox which goeth to the slaughter-house,
And as one bereft of reason to the restraint of fetters,
23 As a bird hastens to the net,
Without knowing that his life is at stake –
Till the arrow pierces his liver.
The part. (thus to be accentuated according to the rule in Baer’s Torath Emeth, p. 25, with Mercha to the tone-syllable and Mahpach to the preceding open syllable) preserves the idea of the fool’s going after her. (suddenly) fixes the point, when he all at once resolves to betake himself to the rendezvous in the house of the adulteress, now a , as the lxx translates, i.e., as we say, a simpleton who has gone on the lime-twig. He follows her as an ox goes to the slaughter-house, unconscious that he is going thither to be slaughtered; the lxx ungrammatically destroying the attributive clause: . The difficulties in (thus punctuated, after Kimchi, with a double Segol, and not , as is frequently the case) multiply, and it is not to be reconciled with the traditional text. The ox appears to require another beast as a side-piece; and accordingly the lxx, Syr., and Targ. find in a dog (to which from they also pick out , a stag), Jerome a lamb ( et quasi agnus ), Rashi a venomous serpent (perhaps after ?), Lwenstein and Malbim a rattlesnake ( after ); but all this is mere conjecture. Symmachus’ ( ) is without support, and, like the favourite rendering of Schelling, et sicut saliens in vinculum cervus ( ), is unsuitable on account of the unsemitic position of the words. The noun , plur. , signifies, Isa 3:18, an anklet as a female ornament (whence Isa 3:16 the denom. , to make a tinkling of the anklets). In itself the word only means the fetter, compes , from , Arab. ‘akas , ‘akash , contrahere, constringere ( vid., Fleischer under Isa 59:5); and that it can also be used of any kind of means of checking free movement, the Arab. ‘ikas , as the name of a cord with which the camel is made fast by the head and forefeet, shows. With this signification the interpretation is: et velut pedic (= ) implicatus ad castigationem stulti , he follows her as if (bound) with a fetter to the punishment of the fool, i.e., of himself (Michaelis, Fleischer, and others). Otherwise Luther, who first translated “in a fetter,” but afterwards (supplying , not ): “and as if to fetters, where one corrects fools.” But the ellipsis is harsh, and the parallelism leads us to expect a living being in the place of . Now since, according to Gesenius, , fetter, can be equivalent to a fettered one neither at Isa 17:5; Isa 21:17, nor Pro 23:28 (according to which must at least have an active personal signification), we transpose the nouns of the clause and write , he follows her as a fool ( Psychol. p. 292) to correction (restraint) with fetters; or if is to be understood not so much physically as morally, and refers to self-destroying conduct (Psa 107:7): as a madman, i.e., a criminal, to chains. The one figure denotes the fate into which he rushes, like a beast devoid of reason, as the loss of life; and the other denotes the fate to which he permits himself to be led by that woman, like a criminal by the officer, as the loss of freedom and of honour.
Pro 7:23 The confusion into which the text has fallen is continued in this verse. For the figure of the deadly arrow connects itself neither with that of the ox which goes to the slaughter-house, nor with that of the madman who is put in chains: the former is not killed by being shot; and with the latter, the object is to render him harmless, not to put him to death. The lxx therefore converts into , a stag, and connects the shooting with an arrow with this: . But we need no encroachment on the text itself, only a correct placing of its members. The three thoughts, Pro 7:23, reach a right conclusion and issue, if with (here Mercha – mahpach) a new departure is begun with a comparison: he follows her with eager desires, like as a bird hastens to the snare ( vid., regarding , a snare, and , a noose, under Isa 8:15). What then follows is a continuation of 22a. The subject is again the youth, whose way is compared to that of an ox going to the slaughter, of a culprit in chains, and of a fool; and he knows not ( non novit , as Pro 4:19; Pro 9:18, and according to the sense, non curat , Pro 3:6; Pro 5:6) that it is done at the risk of his life ( as 1Ki 2:23; Num 17:3), that his life is the price with which this kind of love is bought ( , neut., as not merely Ecc 2:1 and the like, but also e.g., Lev 10:3; Est 9:1) – that does not concern him till ( = or ) the arrow breaks or pierces through ( as Job 16:13) his liver, i.e., till he receives the death-wound, from which, if not immediately, yet at length he certainly dies. Elsewhere the part of the body struck with a deadly wound is called the reins or loins (Job, etc.), or the gall-bladder (Job 20:25); here the liver, which is called , Arab. kebid , perhaps as the organ in which sorrowful and painful affections make themselves felt (cf. Aeschylus, Agam. 801: ), especially the latter, because the passion of sensual love, according to the idea of the ancients, reflected itself in the liver. He who is love-sick has jecur ulcerosum (Horace, Od. i. 25. 15); he is diseased in his liver ( Psychol. p. 268). But the arrow is not here the arrow of love which makes love-sick, but the arrow of death, which slays him who is ensnared in sinful love. The befooled youth continues the disreputable relation into which he has entered till it terminates in adultery and in lingering disease upon his body, remorse in his soul, and dishonour to his name, speedily ending in inevitable ruin both spiritually and temporally.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(22) Or as a fool to the correction of the stocks.This sense is only gained by a transposition of the original. It has been attempted to translate it literally and as if in fetters to where one corrects fools, i.e., to prison.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
22, 23. He goeth after her The participle , ( holekh,) goeth, involves its own nominative, which may as well be an indefinite one, he who, or whoever; and the teacher may not so much intend to give historically the fate of this particular youth, as the general results of such indulgence. Such a conclusion to a poetic narrative a sudden transition from the particular to the general is altogether in the Hebrew manner. See Jdg 5:31. These verses are somewhat involved, and obscure as to the particular meaning and relations of the several clauses. But the general meaning is plain enough, which is, that unexpected and terrible evils will speedily overtake him that yields to unlawful hast. Miller renders the last clause, “And knows not that he is in its very throat.” Compare Isa 5:14; and Hab 2:5, in the original. There is a general impression among the critics that these verses have somehow been disturbed. By the aid of the versions something like the following has been proposed as approximating to the true reading:
1 . He goeth after her straightway,
2 . As an ox goeth to the slaughter, 3. As a dog goeth to the halter, 4. As a stag, till a dart pierce his liver, 5. As a bird hasteth to the snare, 6 . And knoweth not that it is for his life.
The first and sixth lines form a parallelism, and state the proposition. If these be read consecutively, the sense and connexion will be perceived:
He goeth after her straightway,
And knoweth not that it is for his life.
The intervening four lines give the illustrations or similes. Such artistic constructions occur elsewhere in the Hebrew poets. Psa 84:6-7, is regarded as a similar example of a six line stanza, the first and the last forming a parallelism or continuous sense; and the intervening lines showing the progress from the beginning to the end of the action.
The progress of the motion in this passage may be observed: With her much fair speech or “taking ways” she bent his will: with the flattering of her lips she forced him to go after her, slowly, (1) as the ox to the slaughter; (2) as a dog to his chains; (3) as a stag with greater swiftness to the place where the arrow pierces him; (4) and lastly, as a bird flying with greater rapidity into the snare.
This arrangement of the passage is made by a comparison of various Versions, the Septuagint, Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, etc. It does not receive the sanction of critics generally.
The paraphrase of good Bishop Patrick is quaint and characteristic: “He made not the least objection, but away he went immediately, and followed her, like a great calf (as we speak in our language) or a stupid ox, that fancies he is led to the pasture when he is going to be killed, or like a fool who takes it for an ornament when the stocks are brought for his correction, to be clapt upon his legs.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Controlling the Heart Having allured of the young man through his five sense-gates, then capturing his mind, the adulteress takes the final step of controlling the man’s heart. He follows her thinking something good is about to take place, when actually, she has deceived him, and intends on taking his wealth and even his very life.
Pro 7:22 He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks;
Pro 7:23 Pro 7:23
Pro 7:22-23 Comments – He loses his sense of reason and yields himself to her reason, becoming blind to the fact that it will cost him his life (Pro 7:22-23). She has now captured his mind. With time in the bed of adultery she intends on taking her victim into the next phase, which is to capture his heart. Once she has his heart, she will be able to direct his paths.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Pro 7:22-23. He goeth after her straightway, &c. Dr. Grey renders these verses thus: He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter; as a dog to the chain, and as a deer, till the dart strike through his liver: as a bird hasteth, &c. Here are four similes, says he; the ox, the dog, the deer, the bird; each of them aptly resembling the case of a youth seduced by an adulterous woman, and hastening to ruin without fear or thought. The circumstance of the dart as applied to the deer, is beautiful and proper, which otherwise we are at a loss to dispose of. The LXX and Syriac read, As a dog to the chains, or as a stag pierced through his liver with a dart. Houbigant. As a stag runneth leaping along, till a dart pierce through its liver. See his note.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Pro 7:22 He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks;
Ver. 22. He goeth after her straightway. ] Without any consideration of the sad consequences. Lust had blinded and besotted him, and even transformed him into a brute. Nos animas etiam incarnavimus, saith one. Many men have made their very spirit a lump of flesh, and are hurried on to hell with greatest violence. Chide them, you do but give medicine in a fit; counsel them, you do but give advice to a man that is running a race; be your counsel never so good, he cannot stay to hear you, but will be ready to answer, as Antipater did when one presented him with a book treating of happiness, he rejected it, and said , I have no leisure to read such discourses.
As an ox goeth to the slaughter.
Or as a fool to the correction of the stocks.
a Beza in loc.
straightway = suddenly.
fool. Hebrew. ‘evil. See note on Pro 1:7.
straightway: Heb. suddenly
as an: Act 14:13
as a: Dr. Grey, making a slight alteration in the text, renders, “as a dog to the chain, and as a deer, till a dart strike through his liver;” and Dr. Hunt, “Or as a hart boundeth into the toils, till a dart strike through his liver.” The LXX, Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic, concur in this interpretation. The circumstance of the dart, as applied to the deer, is beautiful and proper, which otherwise we are at a loss to dispose of; and this creature, of all others, was the most proper to be noticed on this occasion; for the usual representation which the Egyptians made of a man overthrown by flattery and fair speeches was the picture of a heart captivated and ensnared by the sound of music.
the correction: Job 13:27, Jer 20:2, Act 16:24
Reciprocal: Est 5:12 – to morrow Psa 107:17 – Fools Pro 2:18 – General Pro 5:4 – her Pro 6:32 – destroyeth Pro 10:13 – a rod Pro 11:19 – he Pro 13:20 – but Pro 14:16 – the fool Pro 19:29 – and Pro 22:3 – the simple Pro 23:28 – as for a prey Ecc 9:12 – as the fishes Jer 11:19 – I was
7:22 He goeth after her quickly, as an {g} ox goeth to the slaughter, or {h} as a fool to the correction of the stocks;
(g) Which thinking he goes to the pasture goes willingly to his own destruction.
(h) Who goes cheerfully, not knowing that he will be chastised.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes