I listen through and read the initial 9 chapters of Proverbs several times a week. I wanted greater insight on the following passages, so I turned to commentaries.
Our society is rampant with sexual sin; herein, some excerpts from commentaries are used to give significance and clarification to the following verses from Proverbs 5 and 7, and a couple from Hosea.
[All emboldening, underscoring and square brackets are mine]:
Proverbs 5: 5 Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol; 6 she does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it.
Proverbs 7: 21 With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him. 22 All at once he follows her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast 23 till an arrow pierces its liver; as a bird rushes into a snare; he does not know that it will cost him his life
From: The Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas L. Constable, 2009
The lips of the youth (v. 2) contrast with those of the seductress (v. 3). Knowing what is right and being able to articulate that with one’s lips is really a protection against the power of the seductress’s speech (vv. 1-6).
The temptress comes with words that are sweet (flattering) and smooth (delightful, v. 3). 2 Nevertheless if swallowed, they make the person tempted by them feel bitter (ashamed) and wounded (hurt, v. 4). Even flirting produces this effect sometimes.
“There is an old saying, ‘Honey is sweet, but the bee stings’; and this lady has a sting in her tail.” 3
The seductress will lead a person down a path that takes him or her to death and the grave (v. 5), though one can experience a living death as a result of following her, too. She has no concern with living a truly worthwhile life but only with gaining some immediate physical and emotional thrill (v. 6).
“God created sex not only for reproduction but also for enjoyment, and he didn’t put the ‘marriage wall’ around sex to rob us of pleasure but to increase pleasure and protect it.”
Proverbs 7:
The youth is “naive” (v. 7), foolish innocently or deliberately.
Verses 13-21 show her tactics: sensual assault (v. 13), justification of her intent (v. 14), flattery (v. 15), visualization of delight (vv. 16-17), proposition (v. 18), and reassurance of safety (vv. 19-20)
Verses 22-23 portray the kill. Evidently the youth hesitated but then “suddenly” (v. 22) yielded. Sin leads to death (cf. Rom. 6:23; James 1:15) so Solomon looked at the result of the youth’s action, not its immediate effect.
“Stupid animals see no connection between traps and death, and morally stupid people see no connection between their sin and death (cf. 1:17-18; Hos. 7:11).”
In the epilogue to this story (vv. 24-27) Solomon advised a three-fold defense against this temptation. First, guard your heart (v. 25a). We are in danger when we begin to desire and long for an adulterous affair. Fantasizing such an affair is one symptom that we are in this danger. Second, guard your body (v. 25b). Do not go near or stay near someone who may want an adulterous affair. Third, guard your future (vv. 26-27). Remember the consequences of having an adulterous affair before you get involved.
“A man’s life is not destroyed in one instant; it is taken from him gradually as he enters into a course of life that will leave him as another victim of the wages of sin.”
From, John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible:
He is commenting from the KJV: Proverbs 5:6 Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them
Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life,…. Consider and meditate which is the way to get out of her hands and ways, and escape death, and obtain eternal life; lest those she has drawn into her wicked course of life should be religiously inclined, and think of quitting such a course, and inquire after the way of life and salvation; and be weighing in their minds which is most eligible, to continue with her whose feet lead to death, or to take the path of life:
to prevent all this, if possible, her ways are movable: she appears in different shapes; changes her dress and habitation; makes use of a thousand arts to ensnare men, to entangle their affections, and retain them in her nets; she first puts them upon one thing, and then on another; she leads them into various mazes and labyrinths of sin, till they have lost all sense of religion, and sight of the path of life;
[that] thou canst not know [them]; her ways, arts, and devices. Or, “thou canst not know” {k}; that is, the way of life, or how to get out of her ways into that. Or, “thou knowest not”; where she goes, whither she leads thee, and what will be the end and issue of such a course of life. The Targum understands it, and so some other interpreters, of the harlot herself, paraphrasing the whole thus;
“in the way of life she walks not; her ways are unstable, and she knows not” the way of life, nor where her ways will end; or, “cares not” {l} what becomes of her. And so, in like manner, the former part of the verse is understood and interpreted, “lest she ponder the path of life” {m}; or as others, “she does not ponder the path of life” {n}; The ways of the antichristian harlot are with all deceivableness of unrighteousness;
and her chief care is to keep persons in ignorance, and from pondering the path of life or true religion, and to retain them in her idolatry, 2Th 2:9.
Proverbs 7:22
He goeth after her straightway,…. Or “suddenly” {g}; and inconsiderately, giving himself no time to think of what would be the sad consequences of it;
as an ox goeth to the slaughter; as senseless and stupid as that; and as ignorant of the issue as that is, led by the butcher, as if it was going to a pasture, when it is going to the slaughter house. So such persons as are ensnared by harlots; they follow them in a view of pleasure, but it ends in ruin; if not in the loss of bodily life, by the revengeful husband or civil magistrate; yet in the destruction of their immortal souls;
or as a fool to the correction of the stocks; a drunken besotted fool, who, while he is leading to the stocks, is insensible whither he is going; but when he has been there awhile, and is come out of his drunken fit, then he is sensible of his punishment and his shame. Or, “as the stocks are for the correction of a fool” {h}: or, as a man goes to “the stocks, to the correction of a fool” {i}; so the young man went after the harlot: or, as “one fettered” {k}, goes thither, bound hand and foot; he cannot help himself, nor avoid the shame.
It denotes both the power of sin, there is no withstanding its allurements and blandishments, when once given way to, and the shame that attends or follows it. The Targum is,”as a dog to a chain;”
As I was preparing to post the above, I remembered another very powerful passage about whoredom and how it takes one from God’s way. The passage is from the book of Hosea. The entire book is about spiritual whoredom and whoredom in general; but one statement stuck in my mind long ago, the following passage includes that phrase.
Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; [knowledge of God] because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. … 8 They feed on the sin of my people; they are greedy for their iniquity. 9 And it shall be like people, like priest; I will punish them for their ways and repay them for their deeds. 10 They shall eat, but not be satisfied; they shall play the whore, but not multiply, because they have forsaken the LORD to cherish 11 whoredom, wine, and new wine, which take away the understanding.
From Dr. Constable:
Hosea 4:11 The practice of idolatry (spiritual harlotry), with its emphasis on drinking wine, had turned the heart of the Israelites from Yahweh. With their heart for God went their realistic understanding of what was best for them, which He had revealed. 12 God’s people consulted wooden idols and sought revelations using a diviner’s rod. Their spirit of harlotry led them astray from the true God and His Word. They behaved like harlots departing from the authority of their true husband, Yahweh.
From John Gill:
Whoredom and wine, and new wine, take away the heart. Uncleanness and intemperance besot men, deprive them of reason and judgment, and even of common sense, make them downright fools, and so stupid as to do the following things; or they take away the heart from following the Lord, and taking heed to him, and lead to idolatry; or they “occupy” {z} the heart, and fill it up, and cause it to prefer sensual lusts and pleasures to the fear and love of God: their stupidity brought on hereby is exposed in the next verse; though it seems chiefly to respect the priests, who erred in vision through wine and strong drink, and stumbled in judgment, Isa 28:7.
For the spirit of whoredom hath caused them to err; a violent inclination and bias of mind to idolatry, which is spiritual adultery, and a strong affection for it, stirred up by an evil spirit, the devil; which so wrought upon them, and influenced them, as to cause them to wander from the true God, and his worship, as follows: and they have gone a whoring from under their God; or “erred from the worship of their God,”
From Matthew Henry’s Whole Commentary of the Bible:
Hoses 4:11
…VIII. They indulged themselves in the delights of sense, to hold up their hearts; but they shall find that they take away their hearts (v. 11): Whoredom, and wine, and new wine take away the heart. Some join this with the foregoing words. They have forsaken the Lord, to take heed to whoredom, and wine, and new wine. Or, Because these have taken away their heart. Their sensual pleasures have taken them off from their devotions and drowned all that is good in them. Or we may take it as a distinct sentence, containing a great truth which we see confirmed by every day’s experience, that drunkenness and uncleanness are sins which besot and infatuate men, weaken and enfeeble them. They take away both the understanding and the courage.
End commentary
I am finding that to escape such things one has to do as is stated in Proverbs 2:1-5 (one’s own willpower is worthless herein); that prayer for godly affections and desires is necessary:
1 My son, if you receive my words
and treasure up my commandments with you,
2 making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding;
3 yes, if you call out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
4 if you seek it like silver
and search for it as for hidden treasures,
5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.
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