Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 9:18
But he knoweth not that the dead [are] there; [and that] her guests [are] in the depths of hell.
18. the dead ] To enter her house is to quit the land of the living, and enter the dark abode of the “shades,” Heb. Rephaim. See Pro 2:18, note.
hell ] Heb. Sheol. See Pro 9:5, note, and comp. Pro 2:18, Pro 7:27.
The LXX. after their manner, expand the warning here, and repeat the figure of “waters” and the “fountain,” Pro 5:15-18.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Compare the marginal reference. With this warning the long introduction closes, and the collection of separate proverbs begins. Wisdom and Folly have each spoken; the issues of each have been painted in life-like hues. The learner is left to choose.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 9:18
Her guests are in the depths of hell.
Whose guests shall we be?
It is through blindness and inconsideration that any man is entangled in the snares of the foolish woman. We are naturally starving creatures, and cannot find happiness within ourselves. As every man must have food to satisfy the natural cravings of hunger, so every soul must have some gratification to the desires of happiness. Wisdom and Folly do each spread a leash for men. The question is, Whose guests shall we be? And did we possess any wisdom, or any true and well-directed self-love, it might be easily decided. The entertainments of Wisdom are soul-quickening provision. They that hear her calls shall eat that which is good, and their souls shall live for ever. The guests of Wisdom are in the heights of heaven. They feast on the hidden manna, and on the fruits of the tree of life. The provisions of the foolish woman are a deadly, though perhaps a slow, poison. Her guests have their portion with the wicked giants who brought on the world a universal deluge, and with the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, who are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Let us consider where Joseph now is, and what blessings are come upon the crown of the head of him who so bravely resisted temptations the most alluring and the most threatening. Let us, on the other hand, remember Sodom and Gomorrah. (G. Lawson.)
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Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 18. But he knoweth not that the dead are there] See on Pr 2:18. He does not know that it was in this way the first apostates from God and truth walked. rephaim; , the GIANTS. – Septuagint. The sons of men, the earth-born, to distinguish them from the sons of God, those who were born from above. See Clarke on Ge 6:1, c.
Her guests are in the depths of hell.] Those who have been drawn out of the way of understanding by profligacy have in general lost their lives, if not their souls, by their folly. The Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic make a long addition to this verse: “But draw thou back, that thou mayest not die in this place neither fix thy eyes upon her; so shalt thou pass by those strange waters. But abstain thou from strange waters, and drink not of another’s fountain, that thou mayest live a long time, and that years may be added to thy life.” Of this addition there is nothing in the Hebrew, the Chaldee, or the Vulgate, as now printed: but in the editio princeps are the following words: – Qui enim applicabitur illi descendet ad inferos; nam qui abscesserit ab ea salvabitur. These words were in the copy from which my old MS. Bible has been made, as the following version proves: Who forsoth schal ben joyned to hir, schal falle doun on to hell: for whi he that goth awai fro hir, schal be saved. Three of my own MSS. have the same reading.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Knoweth not, i.e. he doth not consider it seriously, whereby he proveth his folly.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
18. (Compare Pro 2:18;Pro 2:19; Pro 7:27).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But he knoweth not that the dead [are] there,…. In the house of this foolish and wicked woman, into which she invites passengers to turn; the simple, that is persuaded by her, does not consider that there are none there to be his companions, but such who are dead in a moral or spiritual sense; that, though they live in pleasure, they are dead while they live. Aben Ezra refers this to “hell” in the next clause; where her guests are, and where those that are slain by her have their everlasting abode; and where the giants are, as the Vulgate Latin and Syriac versions; or the mighty ones she has cast down there, as the Targum; so the word “rephaim” sometimes signifies: and some think that reference is had to the giants of the old world, that corrupted their way on earth, and brought a deluge on it; see Pr 7:26;
[and that] her guests [are] in the depths of hell; not only in the way to it, and on the brink of it, but in the very midst of it: there are many in hell she has invited into her house, and persuaded to turn in there, and commit fornication with her; and all that worship the beast, or commit spiritual adultery with the whore of Rome, will go down to perdition with her, and have their portion in hell fire, in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone; which they do not consider that are drawn into her idolatrous practices, Re 14:9.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
He goes within:
18 And he knows not that the dead are there;
In the depths of Hades, her guests.
How near to one another the house of the adulteress and Hades are, so that a man passes through the one into the other, is already stated in Pro 2:18; Pro 7:27. Here, in the concluding words of the introduction to the Book of Proverbs, addressed to youth, and for the most part containing warning against sinful pleasure, these two further declarations are advanced: the company assembled in the house of lewdness consists of , i.e., (cf. p. 83) the old, worn-out, who are only in appearance living, who have gone down to the seeming life of the shadowy existence of the kingdom of the dead; her ( ) invited ones (cf. Pro 7:26, her slaughtered ones) are in the depths of Hades (not in the valleys, as Umbreit, Lwenstein, and Ewald translate, but in the depths, Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, ; for is not only plur. to , but also per metaplasmum to , Pro 25:3, as to ), thus in (Deu 32:22); they have forsaken the fellowship of the life and of the love of God, and have sunk into the deepest destruction. The house of infamy into which Folly allures does not only lead to hell, it is hell itself; and they who permit themselves to be thus befooled are like wandering corpses, and already on this side of death are in the realm of wrath and of the curse.
(Note: The lxx has considerable additions introduced after Pro 9:18, as also after Pro 9:12, of which we shall elsewhere speak.)
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(18) The dead are there.Comp. on Pro. 2:18.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
18. He The “simple” of the preceding verse.
The dead , rephaim, the ghosts, spectres, shades.
Her guests Her invited ones. The sentiment may be: He who accepts her invitation may be considered as already among the ghosts of the infernal world “as good as dead.” She invites him, though he knows it not, to his utter ruin.
In the depths of hell , ( be’himke sheol,) the depths of the under world the infernal regions. This is a striking picture: a dark den of impurity, haunted by horrible spectres, the shades of the guests invited by the congenial pollutions of the place from the infernal pit. Into such horrors art thou plunging, O young man, whosoever thou art, that givest the rein to thy appetites and passions! Comp. Pro 7:27; Pro 2:18.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
REFLECTIONS.
READER! do not too hastily dismiss this chapter. Can anything be more happily chosen to represent the path of grace, and the broad road of destruction, than the very different representations here made. Pause, and contemplate the vast distinction between them. Behold the house, the feast, the fatness, fulness, and eternal duration of those provisions which Jesus hath made for them that love him. Behold the wretched, empty, unsatisfying, deceitful, and stolen pleasures which sin proposeth; and do not forget the close of all; the dead are there, and her guests in the depths of hell.
Oh! for grace to hear wisdom’s voice. Oh! blessed Jesus, let thy seven pillars resting upon thyself be the foundation of my house; and thy table the one at which my soul may daily sit by grace here, and in glory eternally hereafter. And do thou, Lord, I pray thee, who hast spread all, furnished all, mingled all, and given freely all, without money and without price; give me every suited preparation to enjoy all, that I may never listen to the noise of the clamorous women, but be unceasingly eating of thy bread and drinking of the wine which thou hast mingled. Yea, Lord, may my whole soul be so hungering, and thirsting, and longing for the everlasting enjoyment of thee, that daily by faith here, and ere long in the fruition of thee in glory, I may live to thee, and with thee, and upon thee forever.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Pro 9:18 But he knoweth not that the dead [are] there; [and that] her guests [are] in the depths of hell.
Ver. 18. That the dead are there. ] See Trapp on “ Pro 2:18 “ See Trapp on “ Pro 7:27 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the dead = Rephaim. (No Art.) See App-25.
hell = Sheol. App-35. Proverbs marked off by different authorship. All are in two lines, except Pro 19:7, which has three lines. They are miscellaneous, having self-developing connections, finding their reasons in what follows.
A wise son. Illustration: Joseph (Gen 47:12. Compare Pro 48:2).
a foolish son. Hebrew. kesil. See note on Pro 1:7. Illustration: Esau (Gen 26:34, Gen 26:35; Gen 27:45, Gen 27:46).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
hell
Heb. “Sheol,” (See Scofield “Hab 2:5”)
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
he: Pro 1:7, Psa 82:5, 2Pe 3:5
the dead: Pro 2:18, Pro 2:19, Pro 5:5, Pro 6:26, Pro 7:27
Reciprocal: 2Sa 3:16 – along weeping Job 20:12 – wickedness Pro 1:18 – General Pro 5:4 – her Pro 7:23 – knoweth Pro 20:17 – is sweet Pro 21:16 – remain Pro 23:28 – as for a prey Ecc 7:26 – I find Luk 16:23 – in hell Rom 6:21 – What