Spreuken 5:10 Commentaar

The scope of this chapter is much the same with that of ch. 2. To write the same things, in other words, ought not to be grievous, for it is safe, Phi 3:1. Here is, I. An exhortation to get acquaintance with and submit to the laws of wisdom in general (Pro 5:2). II. A particular caution against the sin of whoredom (Pro 5:3-14). III. Remedies prescribed against that sin. 1. Conjugal love (Pro 5:15-20). 2. A regard to God's omniscience (Pro 5:21). 3. A dread of the miserable end of wicked people (Pro 5:22, Pro 5:23). And all little enough to arm young people against those fleshly lusts which war against the soul.

INTRODUCTION TO PROVERBS 5 The general instruction of this chapter is to avoid whoredom, and make use of lawful marriage, and keep to that. It is introduced with an exhortation to attend to wisdom and understanding, Pro 5:1; one part of which lies in shunning an adulterous woman; who is described by her flattery, with which she deceives; by the end she brings men to, which is destruction and death; and by the uncertainty of her ways, which cannot be known, Pro 5:3. Wherefore men are advised to keep at the utmost distance from her, Pro 5:7; lest their honour, strength, wealth, and labours, be given to others, Pro 5:9; and repentance and mourning follow, when too late, Pro 5:11. And, as a remedy against whoredom, entering into a marriage state is advised to, and a strict regard to that; allegorically expressed by a man's drinking water out of his fountain, and by his wife being as a loving hind and pleasant roe to him, the single object of his affections, Pro 5:15. As also the consideration of the divine omniscience is proposed, to deter him from the sin of adultery, Pro 5:20; as well as the inevitable ruin wicked men are brought into by it, Pro 5:22.

Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth,.... The adulteress, her husband, children, friends, bawds, and such like persons she is concerned with; these share the wealth of the adulterer, abound with it, and live profusely on it, until he is stripped quite bare and destitute: or, "with thy strength"; See Gill on Pro 5:9. Jarchi interprets it of the prophets of Baal, that exact money by their falsehoods; it may well enough be applied to the fornicating merchants of Rome, who wax rich through the abundance of her delicacies and adulteries, Rev 18:3; persons, strangers indeed to God and Christ, and all true religion; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger; that is, wealth gotten by hard labour, with toil and sweat, grief and trouble, as the word used (q) signifies; and yet, after all, not enjoyed by himself and his lawful wife and children, but by the strange woman and her accomplices, and spent in maintaining whores, bawds, and bastards; hence the fable of the Harpies eating and spoiling the victuals of Phineus, who were no other than harlots that consumed his substance (r): and sometimes they are carried into a strange country, and possessed by foreigners. These are the wretched effects and miserable consequences of adultery, and therefore by all means to be shunned and avoided. Jarchi understands it of the house of idolatry, or an idol's temple; and everyone knows what vast riches are brought into the temples or churches of the Papists by idolatry. (q) "dolores tui", Montanus, Cocceius, Michaelis. (r) Heraclitus de Incredibil. c. 3.

Lest strangers be filled with your strength, etc. Lest you assist the deeds of demons, if you lend either the ingenuity of your mind or the strengths of your body to perform crimes; and you multiply the household of strangers, that is, the number of the lost, by adding yourself. And beautifully he said: Let your labors be in the house of a stranger, because there are those who, according to the prophet, labor to act wickedly. And would that it were hidden how much labor heretics have undergone against the Church.

A warning against the seductive arts of wicked women, enforced by considering the advantages of chastity, and the miserable end of the wicked. (Pro. 5:1-23) This connection of wisdom and understanding is frequent (Pro 2:2; Pro 3:7); the first denotes the use of wise means for wise ends; the other, the exercise of a proper discrimination in their discovery.

wealth--literally, "strength," or the result of it. labours--the fruit of thy painful exertions (Psa 127:2). There may be a reference to slavery, a commuted punishment for death due the adulterer (Deu 22:22).