Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 5:14
I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
14. I was almost in all evil ] Ewald and other commentators take this to mean, I had a narrow escape from incurring the extreme penalty which the law of Moses prescribes for this sin (Lev 20:10): I almost, or well nigh, was convicted and stoned to death in public, “in the midst of the congregation and the assembly.” But the writer, if this were his meaning, has hardly chosen a happy phrase in which to convey it to us. It is better to understand the clause as added to lend aggravation to the sin, rather than to the punishment or danger. The words “congregation” and “assembly,” sometimes with the addition, “of Israel,” “of Jehovah,” “of God” (see for examples which abound in the Pentateuch, Exo 16:3; Lev 4:15; Deu 31:30; Num 16:3; Num 27:17; Neh 13:1), had come to be the common designation of Israel, as the people of Jehovah, the holy nation, separated from the abominations of the heathen. The Greek equivalents for these words ( LXX.) became naturally the titles of the Church under its Jewish and Christian aspects. To sin then “in the midst of the congregation and assembly” was to sin against light and knowledge, and to disgrace the body of which the sinner was a member. Somewhat similarly we hear it said, as an aggravation of crime or immorality, that it has been done “in a Christian country.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The conscience-stricken sinner had been almost given up to every form of evil in the sight of the whole assembly of fellow-townsmen; almost, therefore, condemned to the death which that assembly might inflict Lev 20:10; Deu 22:22. The public scandal of the sin is brought in as its last aggravating feature.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 14. I was almost in all evil] This vice, like a whirlpool, sweeps all others into its vortex.
In the midst of the congregation and assembly.] In the mydel of the Curche and of the Synagoge – Old MS. Bible. Such persons, however sacred the place, carry about with them eyes full of adultery, which cannot cease from sin.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
I was almost in all evil. Oh what a miserable man am I! There is scarce any misery, in respect of estate, or body, or soul, into which I am not already plunged. The words also are and may well be rendered thus, In a moment I am come into all evil. In how little a time, and for what short and momentary pleasures, am I now come into extreme and remediless misery!
In the midst of the congregation and assembly: I, who designed and expected to enjoy my lusts with secrecy and impunity, am now made a public example and shameful spectacle to all men, and that in the congregation of Israel, where I was taught better things, and where such actions are most infamous and hateful.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14. evilfor affliction, as inGen 19:20; Gen 49:15.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I was almost in all evil,…. Scarce a sin but he was guilty of; contempt of private and public instructions, the instructions of parents and ministers of the Gospel, and following lewd women, commonly lead to the commission of all other sins, even the most atrocious. Some understand this, not of the evil of sin, but of the evil of punishment; and that the sense is, that there is scarce any calamity, distress, or misery, that a man can be in, but his profaneness and lewdness had brought him into; and he was just upon the brink of hell itself: and so Jarchi paraphrases it,
“there was but a step between me and hell.”
Aben Ezra observes, that the past is put for the future, “I shall be”; and then the meaning is, in a little or in a short time I shall be in complete misery; and so they are the words of one under consciousness of sin, despairing of mercy;
in the midst of the congregation and the assembly; that is, either be despised and neglected the instructions which were given in a public manner; or he committed all the evil he did openly; not only in company with wicked men, which he frequented, but even in the presence and before the people of God; yea, before the civil magistrates, the great sanhedrim, which is sometimes designed by the last word here used: or when he was in the house of God, attending public worship, his eyes were full of adultery, and his heart of impure lusts; and neither place, service, nor people of God, where he was, commanded any awe and reverence in him, nor in the least restrained his unclean thoughts and wanton desires; and which is mentioned as an aggravation of guilt. Or else the sense is, that his calamities and miseries were as public as his crimes; he was made a public example of, and all the people were witnesses of it; which served to spread his infamy, and make his punishment the more intolerable: both the sins and punishment of those that commit fornication with the whore of Rome will be public and manifest, Re 18:5.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(14) I was almost in all evil . . .Rather, I had almost fallen into every sin: I was so infatuated that I might have committed any sin, and that openly before all. Or, I might have been visited with extremest punishment at the hands of the congregation, death by stoning (Lev. 20:10, Joh. 8:5). The offenders eyes are now opened, and he shudders at the thought of the still greater troubles into which he might, in his infatuation, have fallen.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
14. In all evil The common interpretation is, The gratification of my lusts by degrees led me into nearly all kinds of wickedness; not merely in secret, but openly; in the assembly of God’s people even, in the presence of the magistrates and judges. Such persons, however sacred the place, have eyes full of adultery, which cannot cease from sin. Compare Num 25:7; Num 35:12. But very respectable critics interpret differently, namely, that the adulterer was exposed to punishment for his crime, and this punishment usually terminated in his being sold into slavery probably to a cruel master. Pro 5:9. If the injured person prosecuted the adulterer, he might insist on the punishment of death, (Deu 22:22,) but if he chose he might act more leniently, and sell him into bondage, the price obtained being accepted as a mulct for the crime. What a slave earns by his toil goes into the house of his master, and becomes his wealth. Pro 5:10. By the assembly (Pro 5:14) is understood the magistrates and judges the sanhedrin, which surrounded him to condemn and punish him by stoning to death. Understood thus, the all evil of the verse would mean the great evil, the extreme danger, to which he was exposed. See Stuart in loco; also Zockler, who translates, “Well nigh had I fallen into utter destruction, in the midst of the assembly and the congregation.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Pro 5:14. I was almost in all evil I am plunged into almost all evils in the midst of the assembly of my people. Calmet. Houbigant renders it, I am well nigh become the most miserable of all those amongst whom I live. “What a wretched man am I! There is scarcely any misery in respect of estate, or body, or soul, into which I am not already plunged.” The words also are, and may be well rendered thus, In a moment I am come into almost all evil. “In how little a time, and for what short and momentary pleasures, am I now reduced to extreme and remediless evils!”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Pro 5:14 I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
Ver. 14. I was almost in all evil. ] Abraham Ben Ezra reads it in the future tense, Brevi ero in omni malo, I shall shortly be in all evil; and so his repentance here appears to be poenitentia sera, Iscariotica, such as was that of Judas and of those popelings, Rev 18:19 a desperate repentance, and not “toward God,” Act 20:24 not a repentance for sin, as it is offensivum Dei, et aversivum a Deo, an offence against God, and a turning away from him. Such a repentance in this man had been, as the Romans said of Pompey, a E , a fair and happy daughter of an ugly and odious mother – of his sin I mean, the sight whereof had sent him to Christ.
In the midst of the congregation.
a Plut. in Pomp. Vita.
b Hildersh. on John iv.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
I was almost in all evil. The Beth Essentiae denotes “in”, in the sense of “as” = I soon became as an evil man, &c. See App-75.
almost = in a little while. Hebrew. kim’at. Occurs eighteen times (Gen 26:10. 2Sa 19:36. 1Ch 16:19. 2Ch 12:7. Ezr 9:8. Job 32:22. Psa 2:12; Psa 73:2; Psa 81:14; Psa 94:17; Psa 105:12; Psa 119:87. Psa 5:14; Psa 10:20. Son 3:4. Isa 1:9; Isa 26:20. Eze 16:47). It is rendered “almost” only in Psa 73:2, Psa 119:87, and here, where it may as well be rendered “soon” or “quickly” as in Job 32:22. Psa 81:14; Psa 94:17 (margin) It denotes in a little time, as in Psa 2:12; Psa 105:12 (= soon numbered). 2Ch 12:7 (= a little while). Son 3:4 (= a little while; i.e. scarcely). Isa 26:20.
evil. Hebrew. ra’a’. App-44.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Pro 13:20, Num 25:1-6, Hos 4:11-14, 1Co 10:6-8, 2Pe 2:10-18, Jud 1:7 -13
Reciprocal: Eze 8:6 – even
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
5:14 I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and {g} assembly.
(g) Although I was faithfully instructed in the truth, yet I almost fell to utter shame and destruction nonetheless, by good bringing up in the assembly of the godly.