The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 118

CHAPTER V. the wife of one's youth (vcrs. 15-20). And (3) the epilogue, which, in addition to the Vers. 1-23.-S. Eighth admonitory dis- disastrous temporal consequences which ronrse. Warning agai11st adultery, and com- follow on the violation of the sanctity of mendation of ·marriage. The teacher, in marriage, mentioned in vers. 9-14, repre- this discourse, recurs to 0, subject which he sents the sin as one which will be examined has glanced at before in eh. ii. 15-19, and by the universal Judge, and which brings which he again treats of in the latter part of with it its owu Neinesis or· retribution. All the sixth and in the whole of the seventh sins of impurity, all sins against temperance, chapters. This constant recurrence to the soberness, and chastity, are no doubt in- same subject, repulsive on account of its volved in the warning, and the .subject is nssociations, shows, however, the importance capable of an allegorical interpretation~a which it hacl. in the teacher's estimation as mode of treatment in some instances adopted !I. ground of warning, and that he ranked by the LXX. rendering, as that the " strange it amonn- the foremost of the temptations woman" stands as the representative of and sin; which called the young off from impenitence (Miller), or, according to the the pursuit of Wisdom, and so led them earlier view of Bede, as the representative astray from "the fear of the Lord." The of heresy and false doctrine; but the sin vividness with which the ruin, bodily and which is inveighed against, and which is moral, ensuiug with absolute certainty on a made the subject of these repeated warn- life of Yice, is described is a sufficient proof ings, iB not fornication simply, but adultery- in itself that the subject before us is not the violation, in its most repulsive form, of brought forward from or for voluptuous th_e sacred obligations of marriage. The motives, but for the pmpose of conveying an whole discourse is an impressive com- impressiYe warning. Some commentators, mentary on the seventh commandment. e.g. Delitzsch, include the first six vers(;ls in the previous discourse ; but the unity of Ver. 1.-The admonitory addres; is very the S1Jbject requires a different treatment. similar to that in eh. jv. 20, except that here the teacher says, " Attend to my wisdom, bow Zockler's reason against this arrangement, down thine ear to iny uridei·standing,'' in- on the ground that the previous discourse stead of "Attend to my word8, and incline was addressed to "tender youth," and thus thine ear unto my saying." It is not merely to youth in a state of pupilage, while the '' wisdom " and "understanding" in the abstract, but wisdom which he has appro- one before us refera to more ad vauced age p1iated to himself, made his own, and whioh -to the married man-may be true, but is he knows by experience to be true wisdom. not the true ground for incorporating them It may therefore. have the se11se of experi- in the present discourae. The unity of the ence and observation, both of which increase subject requires that they should be taken with years. :To'' bow down the oar" is_ to listen attentively, and so to fix the mind with the central and didactic part of the 'intently on what is beil)g so.id. Compare discourse, as being in a sense introductory to the similar expressions Jn Ps. xxxi. 2 and it. The discourse divides itself into three eh. ii. 2; iv. 20; icxxiii. 12. The se.me sections. (1) The earnest appeal to atten- idea is expressed in Marc Antony's addres.~ tion because of the counter-attraction in the to his countrymen, "Lend me your enrs· blandishments of tlle harlot, which, how- (Shakespeare, '.Julius Cmsar,' act iii. sc. 2). Ver. ::!.-This verse expresses the pur- ever, in the end, are bitter as wormwood and poses or results of the preceding admonition. sharp as a two-edged sword (vers. 1-6). The first is, that thou mayest regard discre- (2) The main or didactic section (vers. 7- tion (Hebrew, ltBlimor m'zrmm6th); literally, 20), ewbracing (a) warnings against adul- to guard reflection; i.e. in other words, that terous intercourse with " the strango thou mayest maintain thoughtfulness, ob- serve counsel, set a proper guurd or control woman" (vers. 7-14); (b) the antithetical over thy thouglits, and so restrain them admonition to use the means of chastity by within proper and legitimate limits, or remaining faithful to, and rejoicing with, form such resolutions which, being well- orr. v. 1-23.J THE PROVERBS. 107