Proverbs 5:20

5:15-23 Lawful marriage is a means God has appointed to keep from these destructive vices. But we are not properly united, except as we attend to God's word, seeking his direction and blessing, and acting with affection. Ever remember, that though secret sins may escape the eyes of our fellow-creatures, yet a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, who not only sees, but ponders all his goings. Those who are so foolish as to choose the way of sin, are justly left of God to themselves, to go on in the way to destruction.

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.

Proverbs 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.”

Verses 20, 21. - The adulterer to be restrained by the fact of God's omniscience and the Divine punishment. Vers. 20 and 21 should apparently be taken together. The teaching assumes a higher tone, and rises from the lower law which regulates fidelity to the wife, based upon personal attractions, to the higher law, which brings the husband's conduct into relation with the duty he owes to Jehovah. Not merely is his conduct to be regulated by love and affection alone, but it is to be fashioned by the reflection or consciousness that the Supreme Being presides over all, and takes cognizance of human action. Without losing sight that the marriage contract has its own peculiar obligations, the fact is insisted upon that all a man's ways are open to the eyes of the Lord. Verse 20. - And why ; i.e. what inducement is there, what reason can be given, for conjugal infidelity, except the lewd and immoral promptings of the lower nature, except sensuality in its lowest form? Ravished . The verb shagah recurs, but in a lower sense, as indicating "the foolish delirium of the libertine hastening after the harlot" (Zockler). With a strange woman (Hebrew, b'zarah ); i.e. with a harlot. On zarah , see Proverbs 2:16 and Proverbs 7:5. The b ' ( בְּ ) localizes the sources of the intoxication. Embrace (Hebrew, t'khab-bek ). On this verb, see Proverbs 4:8 . The bosom of a stranger (Hebrew, kheh nok'riyyah ). A parallel expression having the same force as its counterpart.

The answer to the Why? in this verse is: no reasonable cause - only beastly sensuality, only flagitious blindness can mislead thee. The ב of בזרה is, as 19b and Isaiah 28:7 , that of the object through which one is betrayed into intoxication. חק (thus, according to the Masora, four times in the O.T. for חיק) properly means an incision or deepening, as Arab. hujr (from hjr, cohibere), the front of the body, the part between the arms or the female breasts, thus the bosom, Isaiah 40:11 (with the swelling part of the clothing, sinus vestis, which the Arabs call jayb), and the lap; חבּק (as Proverbs 4:8 ), to embrace, corresponds here more closely with the former of these meanings; also elsewhere the wife of any one is called אשת חיקו or השׁכבת בחיקו, as she who rests on his breast. The ancients, also J. H. Michaelis, interpret Proverbs 5:15-20 allegorically, but without thereby removing sensual traces from the elevated N.T. consciousness of pollution, striving against all that is fleshly; for the castum cum Sapientia conjugium would still be always represented under the figure of husband and wife dwelling together. Besides, though זרה might be, as the contrast of חכמה, the personified lust of the world and of the flesh, yet 19a is certainly not the חכמה, but a woman composed of flesh and blood.

## O LD T ESTAMENT ## Genesis 2:18 63 3:10 107 3:15 92 , 107 , 149 6:3 38 , 46 6:5 39 , 42 , 45 8:21 42 12:3 131 , 149 15:1 121 15:6 115 , 121 15:16 29 17:11 168 22:18 130 , 149 25:23 130 28:20–21 124 49:10 131 ## Exodus 10:21–23 59 14:14 121 14:31 121 19 104 , 109 20:2 127 20:5 67 20:5–6 124 20:6 67 20:17 96 20:19 104 , 106 , 109 20:20 104 23:20–33 98 24:17 38 25:18–22 98 33:12 111 34:7 101 34:6–7 94 ## Leviticus 19:17–18 97 19:18 97 ## Numbers 14:11 122 14:19 124 15:32–36 69 20:12 122 ## Deuteronomy 1:31–33 122 4:24 38 5:10 94 6:13 68 8:3 124 10:12–13 96 10:16 96 12:32 83 18:18–19 93 29:10–13 151 ## Judges 6:36–40 168 ## 1 Samuel 2:6–7 54 2:25 29 10:26 29 13:8–12 117 15:9 117 16:7 57 21:5 163 ## 2 Samuel 7:12–13 93 12:13 95 , 105 , 107 15:25–26 146 20:7–10 35 ## 1 Kings 12:15 29–30 16–21 89 21:27 105–06 22:22 79 ## 2 Kings 9 89 18 137 20:1–6 122 20:4–6 168 20:8–11 168 ## 1 Chronicles 5:20 122 ## 2 Chronicles 16:9 122 20:21–22 122 33:12 106 ## Ezra 10:2 46 ## Job 9:28 144 ## Psalms 2:6 154 2:7 154 2:12 154 5:9 100 6:1 102 8:6 131 9:12 140 14:1 57 , 116 , 148 14:1–3 43 14:2 117 14:3 99 , 117 19:12 36 , 104 21:6 109 25:7 36 , 104 32:5 177 33:17 109 36:1 144 51:3–4 177 51:5 39 68:4 68 69:9 107 76:8 101 78:7 122 80:3 54 85:4 54 89:14 135 97:2–5 101 97:11 109 104:24 126 104:27–28 126 104:30 112 108:12 109 116:11 43 , 45 139:7 107 139:7–12 50 143:2 102 , 110 ## Proverbs 1:28–33 31 2:6–9 31 14:12 30 , 36 14:27 30 16:4 29 , 30 16:9 29 16:11–12 30 16:33 30 18:10 68 20:22 97 20:24 29 , 30