The Book of Proverbs, chapter five, with BAC (Brit-Am Commentary).
Contents:
Proverbs 5:1-7 Flippant Females and Life-Style Doctrines.
Proverbs 5:8-23 Warning Against Physical Adultery and Anti-Biblical Teachings.
Proverbs 5:1-7 Flippant Females and Life-Style Doctrines.
[Proverbs 5:1] My son, pay attention to my wisdom;
Lend your ear to my understanding,
[Proverbs 5:2] That you may preserve discretion,
And your lips may keep knowledge.
The word translated here as "discretion" is mizimot and means planning and initiative.
The word translated here as "keep" is from the root NTsR connoting "guard". Be careful what you say.
Sometimes one says things that are superfluous and needlessly harmful.
You do not have to tell others all your intentions and considerations.
Listen to the First principles of the Bible, draw conclusions from them. When you speak let it be in such a way as to realize your knowledge, to make things known for your sake as well as that of they who listen.
[Proverbs 5:3] For the lips of an immoral woman drip honey,
And her mouth is smoother than oil;
The word translated here as "an immoral woman" is "zarah" meaning literally a foreign woman. From the context it becomes apparent the intention is to a woman who has designs
that are foreign meaning not within her rights and immoral.
The allusion to this lady is intended in the first place on the simple literal level, i.e. beware of seductive deceiving females.
It is also applicable as a parable in which the immoral woman represents doctrines and attitudes that are contrary to the Bible.
Knowledge and outlooks that are not in accordance with the Bible may seem attractive. They may satisfy some darker side of your personality. Be aware of such things. Examine yourself.
[Proverbs 5:4] But in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
Sharp as a two-edged sword.
in the end. Hebrew "acharitah" i.e. the end of her or the end of any dealings with her.
[Proverbs 5:5] Her feet go down to death,
Her steps lay hold of hell.
Just like a bad woman might lead you on, so too will false doctrine.
Liberal secular ideals seem attractive, we may want to go in their direction and end up doing so. The results are not worth it. It would be as if we had cursed ourselves.
[Proverbs 5:6] Lest you ponder her path of life?
Her ways are unstable;
You do not know them.
The above verse could also be rendered as saying:
Do not consider adopting those ways of life, the movements [or consequences] of her conduct cannot be known
It is impossible to be aware of the instabilities occasioned by her ways.
There are types who will mislead you regardless of the consequences. They will present a pleasant optimistic facade but behind it a reality of corruption, rottenness, deceit, harm to others, and negativity.
False ideas are a trick to take you away from the right path.
You may be lead to believe that you can allow yourself a little "slip" "on the side" but this is liable to set you on a pathway whose course you have no control over.
God is on our side.
He wants us to be true to HIM for our sake.
The Bible wants you to remain in control of yourself and not that of something else or some other person who does not want what is good for you.
[Proverbs 5:7] Therefore hear me now, my children,
And do not depart from the words of my mouth.
Cleave to the Wisdom of the Torah and you will be safe.
Proverbs 5:8-23 Warning Against Physical Adultery and Anti-Biblical Teachings.
The wicked seductive lad in the Book of Proverbs plays two important roles:
a. One the one hand she represents false non-Biblical Doctrines and attitudes.
b. She is what she is presented to be.
The Sages said: Scripture always retains its literal meaning [alongside other possibilities].
In other words we are also being warned to beware of immoral seduction.
Let us now consider importunities of the woman in question at her basic literal level.
[Proverbs 5:8] Remove your way far from her,
And do not go near the door of her house,
Do not think that you can play around, or steal a few moments of forbidden pleasure and then return to where you would have been if you had not. It does not work that way. The same applies to departing from the Bible Pathway.
[Proverbs 5:9] Lest you give your honor to others,
And your years to the cruel one;
If you come on a woman who belongs to some one else a child could be born who would be brought up by somebody else. This would be as if part of you is held captive or induced to serve your enemy. So too, if you depart from Bible values you give strength to a non-Biblical outlook that works against what you would really want to be.
[Proverbs 5:10] Lest aliens be filled with your wealth,
And your labors go to the house of a foreigner;
[Proverbs 5:11] And you mourn at last,
When your flesh and your body are consumed,
A lot of sickness, both physical and mental, is due to immorality.
[Proverbs 5:12] And say:
How I have hated instruction,
And my heart despised correction!
The Bible is the source of our instruction. It is what reproofs us.
[Proverbs 5:13] I have not obeyed the voice of my teachers,
Nor inclined my ear to those who instructed me!
[Proverbs 5:14] I was on the verge of total ruin,
In the midst of the assembly and congregation.
Often we go along the wrong track when we encounter others doing the same. Each one of us has a lower animalistic urge which may be aroused when it encounters the bestiality of others.
Permissive frameworks tend to give a feeling that we may do things we others would refrain from doing.
There is a crowd instinct in all of us.
When this is directed in a positive direction this instinct may be of great value.
At all events, for better or for worse, in the crown we tend to loose some degree of control over ourselves and we should be aware of this.
Do not reject the Bible and do not adopt false doctrines and wrong outlooks just because everybody else does.
The Narrator of the verse is saying:
I was bad in my own eyes. I would look at myself and not believe that I was such a person that I myself could not stand.
This is what will happen to someone who does not listen to the truth of God as revealed in the Bible.
We should all realize that our own self-interest in the long run is to take the path of righteousness. Anything else is liable to back-fire on us.
[Proverbs 5:15] Drink water from your own cistern,
And running water from your own well.
Be true to yourself through belief in the Bible.
Endeavor to be happily married. Fulfill your legitimate natural physical needs in a permitted way. Not everyone succeeds in this but we should all do what we can.
[Proverbs 5:16] Should your fountains be dispersed abroad,
Streams of water in the streets?
This translation above presents the verse in a negative manner.
The simple meaning and the opinion of the Commentators however understands the import to be positive:
[GO in the RIGHT Way and THEN] Your fountains [i.e. physical offspring and/or the results of your good deeds] will spread out,
in the streets they will be like streams of water [going forth and giving succor to others].
[Proverbs 5:17] Let them be only your own,
And not for strangers with you.
[Proverbs 5:18] Let your fountain be blessed,
And rejoice with the wife of your youth.
[Proverbs 5:19] As a loving deer and a graceful doe,
Let her breasts satisfy you at all times;
And always be enraptured with her love.
This is true in its simple sense. It may not be what many of us achieve in reality but it is an ideal that we should all strive for, a first choice.
Figuratively we are being told that the Torah is what made us what we are in the beginning of our existence. It still is the reason for our existence.
There is nothing better.
[Proverbs 5:20] For why should you, my son, be enraptured by an immoral woman,
And be embraced in the arms of a seductress?
If we go elsewhere for spiritual and/or physical sustenance we are deluding ourselves. It is as if we casting away something that is ours and made for us in exchange for another thing that does not pertain unto us.
[Proverbs 5:21] For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD,
And He ponders all his paths.
There is no such thing as doing something wrong and getting away with it. God sees everything.
[Proverbs 5:22] His own iniquities entrap the wicked man,
And he is caught in the cords of his sin.
The sins of a person are what traps and trips and involves us in a world not of our making and in situations we would not choose to be in.
[Proverbs 5:23] He shall die for lack of instruction,
And in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
The Commentators explain this to mean, he shall die BECAUSE he did not take instruction, and go astray BECAUSE of his folly.
No-one wants to be cheated or treated like a fool.
Why cheat ourselves?
Why make fools of ourselves in the eyes of the one most important to us, i.e. our own inner conscience?
If you fail but you know in your heart that you did what you could then it is much less painful then if one was lacking in effort.
If you go in the way of the Bible times you will succeed. Even when you do not succeed later events may show it was for the better.
The Bible is the greatest source of instruction that exists and it is made for us and belongs to us.
Why reject it when such rejection only hurts us before it hurts anybody else?
Why ties ourselves in knots over fantasies when the Bible way is straight, true, and simple?