Proverbs 6:18
Ver. 18. An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations,.... Or, "thoughts of wickedness" {e}; which are framed and formed in the heart: and this being the source and fountain of all wickedness, is placed in the midst of these hateful and abominable things; See Gill on "Pr 6:14"; evil thoughts and designs, both against God and men, are intended, which are forged and fabricated in the wicked heart of man; and may respect the depths of Satan in the antichristian beast of Rome, Re 2:24;
feet that be swift in running to mischief; to commit all manner of sin with greediness, especially murder; see Pr 1:16.
{e} Nwa twbvxm "cogitationes iniquitatis", Montanus; "cogitationes vanitatis", Cocceius. Proverbs 6:19Ver. 19. A false witness [that] speaketh lies,.... Or, "that speaketh lies, [even] a false witness" {f}; and so this is distinguished from a lying tongue, the second of these evils: this is the sin of bearing false witness against one's neighbour, a breach of the eighth command. It may be rendered, "he that bloweth lies" {g}; that raises lies, and spreads them abroad, and swears to them, to the damage of others. This makes the sixth; and the seventh follows,and him that soweth discord among brethren; whether in a natural relation, or in a civil society, or in a religious community.{f} So Vatablus, Mercerus, &c. {g} Mybzk xypy "qui efflat mendacia", Piscator, Michaelis. Proverbs 6:20Ver. 20. My son, keep thy father's commandment,.... These are not the words of David to Solomon continued from Pr 4:4; but the words of Solomon to his son; and not to his son only, in a strict natural relation, but to everyone that came to him for and put himself under his instruction; and to everyone that stood in such a relation to a religious father; for not the divine Being, the Father of all, is here meant, according to some Jewish writers; though the commandment no doubt is the commandment of God taught by godly parents; or such a system of precepts that is founded upon and agrees unto the revealed will of God, and which being so should be laid up and kept in the heart, and not forgotten; and should be observed and attended to and obeyed throughout the whole course of life, as if it was the commandment of God himself; and indeed it is no other than that which pious parents train up their children in the knowledge of, instil into them, and urge upon them the observance of;and forsake not the law of thy mother; the same as before, and which is mentioned to show that the same respect is to be had to a mother as to a father, the commandment and law of them being the same, and they standing in the same relation; which yet children are apt to make a difference in, and while they stand in awe of their father and his precepts, slight their mother and her directions, which ought not to be. Some understand this of the congregation of Israel, as some Jewish writers; and others of the church of God, the mother of us all. Proverbs 6:21Ver. 21. Bind them continually upon thine heart,.... Not upon the head or arm, as the words of the law were to be bound, De 6:3; to which there seems to be an allusion; and which may confirm the sense of the words given, that this respects the law of God itself, and the precepts of it, instructed in by parents; but they should be bound upon the heart, and have an abiding place in the understanding, affections, memory, and will;[and] tie them about thy neck; as an ornament, instead of a necklace of pearl, or chains of gold; they should be so far from being thought burdensome and troublesome, that they should be reckoned comely and graceful; see Pr 1:9. Proverbs 6:22Ver. 22. When thou goest, it shall lead thee,.... The law of God taught by parents; this directs man in the path of duty and business of life; teaches him what way to shun, and which to walk in; it leads out of the paths of sin, and into the way in which he should go, which is most conducive to his good, and to the glory of God; it will lead him safely, so that he shall not stumble, Pr 3:3;when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; from terrifying dreams, evil spirits, dangers by fire or thieves; one that observes it conscientiously may lie down and sleep, secure of the guardianship of divine Providence, and not fear any evil; or "shall watch over thee" {h} in the night season;and [when] thou awakest, it shall talk with thee; familiarly; and instruct what to do, and how to behave the day following; or "it shall go out with thee" {i}, into the fields for a morning's walk, and assist in meditation. Jarchi interprets this of sleeping by death, and of awaking at the resurrection of the dead.{h} Kyle rmvt "excubabit apud te", Cocceius; "excubias aget super te", Michaelis, Schultens. {i} Kxwvt ayh "illa ipsa spatiabitur tecum", Schultens. Proverbs 6:23Ver. 23. For the commandment [is] a lamp,.... The law of God is a lamp or candle to see to work by and to walk by; it enlightens the eyes and directs the feet, and makes working more pleasant, and walking more comfortable; and indeed wit, bout it a man knows not rightly what to do or where he should walk, or where he is walking; see Ps 119:105;and the law [is] light; it makes things clear and manifest, what is right and what is wrong; it enlightens the eyes of the understanding, whereby persons come to see both their sin and their duty; and it directs them to avoid the one and do the other; see Ps 19:8;and reproofs of instruction [are] the way life; kind reproofs given by parents agreeable to the word of God, which instruct what should be shunned and what should be performed, when attended to, put men in the way of an honourable and useful life; and are the means of preserving them from a scandalous and useless one. Proverbs 6:24Ver. 24. To keep thee from the evil woman,.... This is one use of the profit arising from attending to the instructions of parents, and to the law of God, as taught by them; to preserve from fornication and adultery, one of its precepts expressly forbidding adultery and all corporeal uncleanness; and the whole of it directing to an observance of all duties respecting God and our neighbour, which requires diligence and industry, and prevents idleness, that inlet to all sin, and especially to uncleanness {k};from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman; the same with the evil woman, the lewd and adulterous one; see Pr 2:16. Jarchi interprets this of idolatry; the character well agrees with the idolatrous church of Rome, or antichrist, represented by a whore, Re 17:1; as this woman is called "the woman of evil" {l}, for so it may be rendered, one very evil, given up and abandoned to sin; so antichrist is called "the man of sin", 2Th 2:3; and as this woman is said to have the "smoothness of a strange tongue" {m}, as the words may be translated, and are by the Targum; so the religion of this false church is delivered in a strange language the people understand not, by which they are kept in ignorance and deception; now the word of God read and explained in the mother tongue, and especially the Gospel part of it, the doctrine of wisdom, is a means of preserving persons from the errors and heresies, superstition and idolatry, of the church of Rome, and from being carried away with their false glosses, and gaudy worship, and all its deceivable ways of unrighteousness.{k} "Otia si tollas periere cupidinis arcus", Ovid. de Remed. Amor. l. 1. v. 139. Quaeritur Aegistheus, "quare sit factus adulter?--in promptu causa est, desidiosus erat". Ibid. v. 161, 162. {l} er tvam "a muliere mali", Baynus, Mercerus, Cocceius, Gejerus, Michaelis. {m} hyrkn Nwvl tqlxm "a lenitate linguae extraneae", Montanus; "a laevitate linguae peregrinae", Michaelis; "ex lubrica glabritie linguae peregrinae", Schultens. Proverbs 6:25Ver. 25. Lust not after her beauty in thine heart,.... Do not look upon it with the eye, nor dwell upon it in the thought; the one will lead on to and kindle last in the heart, and the other will cherish it and blow it up into a flame; and lust thus conceived and nourished in the heart is no other than committing adultery, Mt 5:28;neither let her take thee with her eyelids; let her not take thee from instruction with them, so Aben Ezra, from attending to that; or let her not take thy wisdom from thee, so Jarchi; or rather let her not take thee as in a net, with the sparkling of her eyes, with the wanton and amorous glances of them; so the Syriac version, "let her not captivate thee", &c. which applied to the antichristian church, may signify the outward pomp and grandeur of it, its pretensions to antiquity, to the apostolic see, to infallibility, miracles, great devotion, &c. which are taking to men, and are the Circean cup with which she bewitches and allures, Re 17:4. The Targum is,"let her not seduce thee,'' &c. Proverbs 6:26Ver. 26. For by means of a whorish woman [a man is brought] to a piece of bread,.... To be glad of one, and to beg for one, for the least morsel; it is expressive of the extreme poverty and want which harlots bring men to, who strip them of all their substance, and then send them going to get their bread as they can; thus the prodigal, having spent his substance with harlots, was so reduced as to desire the husks which swine ate, Lu 15:13; so spiritual fornication or idolatry leaves men without bread for their souls, brings them into spiritual poverty, and even to desperation and death;and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life; or "soul" {n}; not content with his precious substance, his jewels, his gold and silver; having stripped him of his goods and livelihood, though some think that is here intended; she lays snares for him, and draws him into those evils which bring him into the hands of her husband, who avenges himself by slaying the adulterer; or into the hands of the civil magistrate, by whom this sin of adultery was punished with death; nay, is the occasion of the ruin of his precious and immortal soul to all eternity: the precious souls of men are part of the wares of antichrist, Re 18:13.{n} vpn "animam", Pagninus, Montanus, &c. Proverbs 6:27Ver. 27. Can a man take fire in his bosom,.... A whore is compared to fire, and is so called by the poets {o}; and it is a saying of Pythagoras,"it is a like thing to fall into fire and into a woman {p};''the Hebrew words va, "esh", "fire", and hvya, "ishah", "a woman", have some affinity in sound; and the phrase of taking it "into the bosom" fitly expresses the impure embraces of a harlot;and his clothes not be burned? he cannot, it is impossible; and equally vain is it to think that a man can commit whoredom and it not be known, or he not hurt by it in his name and substance, or in his body, soul, and life.{o} Plauti Bacehides, Act. 4. Sc. 9. v. 15. "Accede ad ignem hunc", Terent. Eunuehus, Act. 1. Sc. 2. v. 5. {p} to eiv pur kai eiv gunaika, apud Maximum, Eclog. c. 39. Proverbs 6:28Ver. 28. Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?] He cannot; if he sets his feet upon them, and continues them ever so little on them, they will be burnt, and much more if he walks upon them; and so if a man gives way to the burning lusts of his heart after a whorish woman, and commits adultery with her, though not with frequency, he will not escape punishment in one shape or another; and much more if he continues such a lewd course of life; such practices are extremely dangerous {q}, and there is no possibility of being unhurt by them: see Job 31:12; the lake of fire and brimstone, everlasting burnings, will be the portion of those that commit fornication with the whore of Rome, Re 14:10.{q} "Periculosae plenum opus aleae tractas: et incedis per ignes suppositos cineri doloso", Horat. Carmin. l. 2. Ode. 1. Proverbs 6:29Ver. 29. So he that goeth into his neighbour's wife,.... To converse with her, or lie with her, as the Targum; for it means not barely going into her house or chamber, or into her company, though without any ill design at first, which yet may be dangerous; but committing adultery with her, as this phrase is often used, Ge 19:31;whosoever toucheth her; by impure dalliances, and especially by carnal copulation with her, in which sense it is used, See Gill on "1Co 7:1";shall not be innocent; or free {r} from disgrace and infamy, from loss of substance or health; from punishment in this life, either by the jealous husband or civil magistrate; and in the world to come by the Lord himself; for "whoremongers and adulterers God will judge", Heb 13:4.{r} xqny al "non insons, vel immunis", Schultens; so Gejerus. Proverbs 6:30Ver. 30. [Men] do not despise a thief, if he steal,.... They do not discommend or reproach him for it, or fix a mark of infamy upon him, or expose him to public shame by whipping him; but rather excuse him and pity him when it appears what his case is, what put him upon it, and that he had no other intention in it than to do as follows;to satisfy his soul; his craving appetite for food, having nothing to eat, nor no other way of getting any: the words should be supplied thus, "for he does this to satisfy his soul"; or, as the Syriac version, "for he steals to satisfy his soul": and so they are a reason why men do not despise him, nor use him ill, because it is done with no other view; not with a wicked design to hurt his neighbour, nor with a covetous intent to increase his own substance in an unlawful way, but only to satisfy nature in distress; and another reason follows, or the former confirmed;when he is hungry; or for "he is hungry" {s}; pressed with famine; the temptation is great, nature urges him to it; and though it is criminal, men in such cases wilt not bear hard upon him for it. The Targum is,"it is not to be wondered at in a thief that he should steal to satisfy his soul when it is hungry.''The Vulgate Latin version is,"it is not a great fault when anyone steals, for he steals to fill a hungry soul;''it is a fault, but it is not a very heinous one, at least it is not so heinous as adultery, for the sake of which it is mentioned, and with which it is compared: the design of the instance is to show the adultery is far greater than that; and yet in our age we see that the one is severely punished even with death for trifling things, when the other goes unpunished.{s} ber yk "quia esurit", Cocceius, Michaelis. Proverbs 6:31Ver. 31. But [if] he be found, he shall restore sevenfold,.... According to the law in Ex 22:1; in case of theft double was to be restored, if the theft was found alive in his hand; and in some cases fourfold and fivefold. Aben Ezra observing that double and fivefold being near together in the law, joins them, and so makes sevenfold. Some think Solomon has reference to a law in other nations, which obliged to a sevenfold restoration; or that the penalty was increased in his time, but neither appears; rather the meaning is, that a thief should make restoration according to law as often as he is found guilty, be it seven times, or seventy times seven, Mt 18:21; or the sense is, that be should make perfect restoration, full restitution as the law requires: but then this finding: him is not to be understood of finding him in the fact, stealing to satisfy hunger, for then to insist upon a legal restitution, as it is incompatible with such a man's circumstances, so would contradict what is before said, that such an one is not usually reproached and found fault with; but the sense is, if it should be found otherwise, or it should be found that he has food to satisfy his soul, as Gersom observes, and has no need to steal; or if he is found in a man's house, then he shall make restitution as the law directs, even a full one, Ex 22:2;he shall give all the substance of his house: to pay the sevenfold, or to make full restitution; nay, if necessary, he himself may be sold, as the above law requires. Proverbs 6:32Ver. 32. [But] whoso committeth adultery with a woman,.... Which is a greater degree of theft than the former, it being the stealing of another man's wife;lacketh understanding; or "an heart" {t}; the thief lacks bread, and therefore steals, but this man lacks wisdom, and therefore acts so foolish a part; the one does it to satisfy hunger, the other a brutish lust;he [that] doeth it destroyeth his own soul; is liable to have his life taken away by the husband of the adulteress; so according to Solon's law {u} the adulterer taken in the act might be killed by the husband: or by the civil magistrate; for according to the law of. Moses he was to die, either to be strangled or stoned, See Gill on "Joh 8:5"; and besides, he not only ruins the natural faculties of his soul, besotting, corrupting, and depraving that, giving his heart to a whore, but brings eternal destruction on it; yet so foolish is he, though it issues in the ruin of his precious soul; "he does this" {w}, for so the first part of this clause, which stands last in the original text, may be rendered.{t} bl rox "deficit corde", Pagninus, Montanus; "caret corde", Mercerus, Gejerus; so Michaelis. {u} Plutarch. in Vita Solon. p. 90. {w} hnvey awh "ipse faeiet illud", Montanus; "ipse faciet hoc", so some in Vatablus; "is id faciet, sive facit", Cocceius; "ille facit id", Michaelis; "is patrabit illud", Schultens. Proverbs 6:33Ver. 33. A wound and dishonour shall he get,.... A wound, stroke, or blow, either from the husband of the strumpet, as was often the case {x} in later times; or from the civil magistrate, being ordered by him to be beaten {y} or stoned; or from God himself inflicting diseases on him; see Ge 12:17; where the same word is used as here: and "dishonour" from men; for though they do not despise a thief in circumstances before related, yet they will despise an adulterer, and speak reproachfully of him, whenever they have occasion to make mention of him;and his reproach shall not be wiped away; as long as he lives, though his life may be spared; yea, it shall even continue after death; and though he may repent of his sin and reform, as in the case of David.{x} "Secat ille cruentis verberibus", Juvenal. Satyr. 10. v. 316. Vid. A. Gell. Noct. Attic. l. 17. c. 18. Horat. Satyr. l. 1. Sat. 2. v. 41, 42. {y} Valer. Maximus, l. 6. c. 1. s. 13. Proverbs 6:34Ver. 34. For jealousy [is] the rage of a man,.... Fills a man with rage against him of whom he is jealous; which keeps boiling within him, till he has an opportunity of venting it: and very severe it is; it is strong as death, and cruel as the grave;therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance; when he has an opportunity of avenging himself; whenever he finds the adulterer in his house, or catches him and his wife in bed together, he spares not to take away his life, and sometimes the life of both of them; instances of this nature history furnishes us with: or he will spare no cost and pains to prosecute him before a civil magistrate, and bring him to public justice; prayers and entreaties, bribes and gifts, wilt be of no avail, as follows. Proverbs 6:35Ver. 35. He will not regard any ransom,.... So that his case is much worse than, a thief's; if he is taken, he makes restitution according to law, and he is freed, and no more is said and done to him; and, at most, it is but parting with all the goods in his house; but in this case it will not do. In the Hebrew text it is, "he will not accept the face of any ransom" {z}; that is, as the Targum paraphrases it,"he will not accept the face of anyone that gives a gift:''he will have no respect unto him for the sake of the gift; whatever gift is offered, be it what it will, for the ransom of his life from death, it will be disregarded;neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts; increase them, and keep continually giving; nothing but the life of the adulterer will satisfy him, which he will either take away himself, or obtain it in a way of legal prosecution. How foolish therefore is the man that will expose his name and credit, his health and substance, his life in this world, and his soul in another, to utter ruin, for the sake of gratifying a sordid lust! This may be interpreted of God, who is a jealous God in matters of worship, and will not suffer idolatry to go unpunished, which is spiritual adultery.{z} ynp avy al "non accipiet facies", Montanus; "non acceptabit faciem ullius redemptionis", Mercerus, Gejerus; "ullius lytri", Cocceius, Michaelis, Schultens.
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.