---
title: "Clarke"
description: "Verse Proverbs 5:1. Attend unto my wisdom — Take the following lessons from my own experience. Verse Proverbs 5:3. The lips of a strange woman — One that"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/proverbs/5"
---

Verse [Proverbs 5:1](../../../kjv/proverbs/5/1). ***Attend unto my wisdom*** — Take the following lessons from my *own experience*.

Verse [Proverbs 5:3](../../../kjv/proverbs/5/3). ***The lips of a strange woman*** — One that is not *thy own*, whether Jewess or heathen.
***Drop*****as*****a honey-comb*** — She uses the most deceitful, flattering, and alluring speeches: as the droppings of the honey out of the comb are the sweetest of all.

Verse [Proverbs 5:4](../../../kjv/proverbs/5/4). ***Bitter as wormwood*** — כלענה *Kelanah*, like the *detestable* herb *wormwood*, or something analogous to it: something as excessive in its *bitterness*, as *honey* is in its *sweetness*.

Verse [Proverbs 5:5](../../../kjv/proverbs/5/5). ***Her feet go down to death*** — She first, like a serpent, infuses her *poison*, by which the whole *constitution* of her paramour is infected, which soon or late brings on *death*.
***Her steps take hold on hell.*** — First, the *death of the body*; and then the damnation of the soul. These are the *tendencies* of connections with such women.

Verse [Proverbs 5:6](../../../kjv/proverbs/5/6). ***Lest thou shouldest ponder*** — To prevent thee from reflecting on thy present conduct, and its consequences, *her ways* *are moveable*- she continually varies her allurements.
***Thou canst not know them.*** — It is impossible to conceive all her tricks and wiles: to learn these in all their varieties, is a part of the *science* first taught in that infernal trade.

Verse [Proverbs 5:7](../../../kjv/proverbs/5/7). ***Hear me - O ye children*** — בנים *banim, sons, young men* in general: for these are the most likely to be deceived and led astray.

Verse [Proverbs 5:8](../../../kjv/proverbs/5/8). ***Come not nigh the door of her house*** — Where there are generally such exhibitions as have a natural tendency to excite impure thoughts, and irregular passions.

Verse [Proverbs 5:9](../../../kjv/proverbs/5/9). ***Lest thou give thine honour*** — The *character* of a *debauchee* is universally detested: by this, even those of *noble* *blood* lose their *honour* and *respect*.
***Thy years unto the cruel*** — Though all the blandishments of love dwell on the tongue, and the excess of fondness appear in the whole demeanour of the *harlot* and the *prostitute*; yet *cruelty* has its throne in their hearts; and they will *rob* and *murder* (when it appears to answer their ends) those who give their *strength*, their *wealth*, and their *years* to them. The unfaithful *wife* has often murdered her own husband for the sake of her paramour, and has given *him* over to justice in order to save herself. Murders have often taken place in brothels, as well as robberies; for the vice of *prostitution* is one of the parents of *cruelty*.

Verse [Proverbs 5:11](../../../kjv/proverbs/5/11). ***When thy flesh and thy body are consumed*** — The word שאר *shear*, which we render body, signifies properly the *remains,* *residue*, or *remnant* of a thing: and is applied here to denote the *breathing carcass, putrid* with the *concomitant disease* of debauchery: a public reproach which the justice of God entails on this species of iniquity. The *mourning* here spoken of is of the most excessive kind: the word נהם *naham* is often applied to the *growling of a lion*, and the *hoarse incessant murmuring* of the sea. In the line of my duty, I have been often called to attend the death-bed of such persons, where *groans* and *shrieks* were incessant through the *jaculating* pains in their bones and flesh. Whoever has witnessed a closing scene like this will at once perceive with what force and propriety the wise man speaks. And *How have I hated instruction*, and *despised the voice of my* *teachers*! is the unavailing cry in that terrific time. Reader, whosoever thou art, lay these things to heart. Do not *enter* into their sin: once *entered*, thy *return* is nearly hopeless.

Verse [Proverbs 5:14](../../../kjv/proverbs/5/14). ***I was almost in all evil*** — This vice, like a whirlpool, sweeps all others into its vortex.
***In the midst of the congregation and assembly.*** — *In the mydel of* *the Curche and of the Synagoge*- Old MS. Bible. Such persons, however sacred the place, carry about with *them eyes full of* *adultery, which cannot cease from sin*.

Verse [Proverbs 5:15](../../../kjv/proverbs/5/15). ***Drink waters out of thine own cistern*** — Be satisfied with thy own wife; and let the wife see that she reverence her husband; and not tempt him by inattention or unkindness to seek elsewhere what he has a right to expect, but cannot find, at *home*.

Verse [Proverbs 5:16](../../../kjv/proverbs/5/16). ***Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad*** — Let thy children lawfully begotten be numerous.

Verse [Proverbs 5:17](../../../kjv/proverbs/5/17). ***Let them be only thine own*** — The off-spring of a legitimate connection; a *bastard brood*, however numerous, is no credit to any man.

Verse [Proverbs 5:18](../../../kjv/proverbs/5/18). ***Let thy fountain be blessed*** — יהי מקורך ברוך *yehi* *mekorecha baruch*. *Sit vena tua benedicta*. Thy *vein*; that which carries off streams from the fountain of *animal life*, in order to *disperse them abroad*, and *through the streets*. How *delicate* and correct is the *allusion* here! But anatomical allusions must not be pressed into detail in a commentary on Scripture.

Verse [Proverbs 5:19](../../../kjv/proverbs/5/19). ***The loving hind and pleasant roe*** — By אילת *aiyeleth*, the *deer*; by יעלה *yaalah*, the *ibex* or mountain *goat*, may be meant.
***Let her breasts satisfy thee*** — As the infant is satisfied with the breasts of its mother; so shouldst thou be with the wife of thy youth.

Verse [Proverbs 5:21](../../../kjv/proverbs/5/21). ***For the ways of a man*** — Whether they are public or private, God sees all the steps thou takest in life.

Verse [Proverbs 5:22](../../../kjv/proverbs/5/22). ***He shall be holden with the cords of his sins.*** — Most people who follow unlawful pleasures, think *they can give them up* *whenever they please*; but sin *repeated* becomes *customary*; custom soon engenders *habit*; and habit in the end assumes the form of *necessity*; the man becomes *bound with his own cords*, and so is *led captive by the devil at his will*.

Verse [Proverbs 5:23](../../../kjv/proverbs/5/23). ***He shall die without instruction*** — This is *most likely*, and it is a *general* case; but even *these* may repent and live.

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