The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 120

may be and is undoubtedly true, but the scription of the harlot. Ker feet go down Inst of her as experienced by thoso who have to death ; her steps take hold on hell. She intercourso with her-her character ns it leads her victims to rnin. She hastens to stands revealed at the last. So it is said of death and the grave, and so do o.11 those who "ine, "At the last," i.e. its final effects, if listen to her. In all instauoes where the indulged iu to excess, "it biteth like 11, teacher speaks of the harlot at length he serpent, and stingeth like an adder" (eh. !(ives the same description of her (of. oh. ii. xxiii. 22). Bitter as ,oorm,oood. The 18 ; vii. 27; ix. 18). An intensifying of the Hebrew, laiinah, "wormwood," Gesenius language is observable in the second hemi- deri ,·es from the unused root laiin, "to stich. The descending progress to death curse." It is the equivalent to the absin- becomes the laying hold of the grave, the tliium of the Vulg-ate. So Aquila, who underworld, o.s if nothing could turn her has diJ,!v0,ov.,. The LXX. improperly renders steps aside. And it is not only death, as xo>..{1, "gall. In other places the word tl.10 cessation of life, but death as a punish- luiinah is used as the emblem of bitterness, ment, that is implied, just as the grave has with the superaddcd idea of its being in it the idea of corruption. (On " hell," poisonous, also according to the Hebrew sh'ol, see eh. i. 12.) noLion, shared in also by the Greeks, that Ver. 6.-Lest thou shouldest ponder the the plant combined these two qualiti,is. path of life, her ways are movable, that Thus in Deut. xxix. 18 it is associated with thou oanst not know them. This verse should rosh, "a poisonful herb" (margin), and the be rather rendered, she walks not in the path Targum terms it, agreeably with this notion, of life, her ways fluctuate, she knowB not. It "deadly wormwood." The same belief is consists of a series of independent proposi- reproduced in Rev. viii. 11, "And the name tions or statements, all of which are descrip- of the star is called Wormwood: and many tive of the singularly fatuous conduct of men died of the wo.tP.rS because they were " the strange woman." In the previous made bitter" (cf. Jer. ix. 15; Amos v. 7; verse the teacher has said that her conduct Yi.12). The apostle, no doubt, has it in mind leads to ruin; he here further emphasizes "hen he speaks of any "root of bitterness," the idea by puttiug forwo.rd the same truth in Heb. :xii. 15. The herb is thus described from the opposite, or, as we may say, from by Umbreit: '' It is a pla.nt toward two feet the negative point of view, and so completes high, belonging to the genus .Artemisia the picture. "The words," as Plumptre (species .Artemisia absinthium), which pro- remarks, "describe with terrible vividness duces a very firm stalk with many branches, the state of heart and soul which prostitution grayish leaves, and small, almost round, brings on its victims." Her course is one of pendent blossoms. It has a bitter and saline persistent, wilful, headstrong, blind folly and taste, and seems to have been regarded in wickedness. Lest; pen; here "not,'' equi va- the East as also a poison, of which the fre- lent to K~ (lo). So the LXX., Vulgate, Tar- quent combination with rash gives an intima- .,.um, Syriac. The use of pen in this sense tion." Terence has a strikingly similar is, however, unique (Gesenius). Delitzsch paEso.ge to the one before us- and Zockler, following Luther, Ge"ier, Holden, etc., assign to it an emphatic " In melle snot lingure siue vestrre atque negative force, as, "She is far removed from orationes entering," or, "she never treadeth." Others Lacteque; oorda felle sunt Jite. atque a.cerbo to.ke pl!n as a dependent prohibitive particle, acet.o.'1 equivalent to the Latin ne forte, "lest," ns " Your tongues are placed in honey and your in the Authorized Version, and employed to Epeech is milk; your hearts are besmeared connect the sentence which it introduces with gall and sharp vinegar" (' Trucul.,' either with the preceding verse (as Schul- i. 11. 75). Sharp as a two-edged sword; tens) or with the second hemistioh, on which literally, as a sword of edges (khl!rl!o plyyoth), it is made dependent (Holden, Wordsworth, which muy mean a sword of extreme sbarp- Aben Ezra, loc., Michaelis, etc.). Thou uess. He·r end is as sharp as the sharpest shouldest pnnder; t'phiilles, oonne~te~ by sword. But it seems better to take the term ma.kkeph with pl!n, o.s usual (Lee), 1s either as it is understood in the Authorized Ver- second person masculine or third person riion, which has the support botli of the feminine. The lo.tter is required here, the Vulgate, gladiWJ biceps, and the LXX., subject of the sentence being "the str11.nge ~•a.xa.lpa. iu,,,.&,,,os, i.e. •· a. two-edged sword." woman," e.a appeo.rs clearly from the second Compare "a two-edged sword" (khl!rl!v hemistich, " her ways," eto. The verb patiis piphiyyoth) of Ps. cxlix. 6. The meaning (of. eh. xiv. 26) here means "to prepare," is, tl,e last of her is poignancy of remorse, i.e. to walk in, or to travel over. Thus anguish of heart, and death. In these she Gesenius renders, •• She (the adulteress) in voh·es her victims. prepareth not (for herself) the way of life; " Vc-r. 5.-Vers. 5 and 6 continue the de- i.e. she docs not walk in the way of life; OB. V, 1-28,] THE PROVERBS. 109