Matthew Poole and continuators on Proverbs 5

2. That thou maist regard discretion , and that thy lips may keep knowledge .

Or, keep, i. e. hold fast, as it is in the next clause.

Spiritual Wisdom for the conduct of thy Life, as this word is used, Prov. 1. 4. and elsewhere in this Book.

That by wise and pious discourses thou maist preserve and improve thy Wisdom for thine own and others good.

3. For the lips of a strange woman drop as an hony-comb , and her mouth is smoother than

It concerns thee to get, and to use discretion, that thou maist be able to resist and repel those manifold Temptations to which thou art exposed.

Her words and discourses are sweet, and charming, and prevalent.

Marginal references: Chap. 2. 16. & 6. 24.; Heb. palate. oil.

4 But her end is bitter as wormwood , sharp as a two-edged Sword.

Her design, and the effect of that lewdness to which she enticeth men, is the sinners destruction.

5. Her feet go down to death: her steps take hold on hell.

Her course or manner of Life.

Marginal references: Chap. 7. 27.

6. Lest thou shouldst ponder the path of life , her ways are moveable , that thou canst not know them .

To prevent thy serious consideration of the way and manner of rescuing thy self from this deadly course of Life.

Various and changeable. She transforms her self into several shapes to accommodate her self to the humours of her Lovers, and hath a Thousand Arts and Deceits to enshare them, and hold them fast.

Thou canst not discover all her subtil practices, and much less deliver thy self from them.

8. Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her House .

Lest thine eyes affect thine Heart, and her allurements prevail over thee.

Marginal references: Chap. 7. 7, 8, &c.

9. Lest thou give thine honour unto others , and thy years unto the cruel .

Thy Dignity and Reputation, the strength and vigour of thy Body and Mind, which is an honour to a man, and which are commonly wasted by Adulterous practices.

Unto Whores and their Husbands and Children and Friends.

The flower of thine age, thy youthful years.

To the Harlot, who though she pretends ardent Love and kindness to thee, yet in truth is one of the most cruel Creatures in the World, wasting thy Estate and Body without the least pity, and then casting thee off with scorn and contempt, and when her Interest requires it, taking away thy very life, of which there are enumerable examples, and damning thy Soul for ever.

10. Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth, and thy labours be in the house of a stranger,

Not onely the strange women themselves, but Bawds, Panders, and other Adulterers, who are in league with them.

Wealth gotten by thy labours.

Marginal references: Heb. thy strength.

11. And thou mourn at the last , when thy flesh, and thy body are consumed ,

Bitterly bewail thy own madness and misery when it is too late.

Thy Flesh, even thy Body; the particle, and, being put expositively.

By those manifold diseases which filthy and inordinate Lusts bring upon the Body, of which Physicians give a very large and sad Catalogue, and the Bodies of many Adulterers give full

12. And say, how have I hated instruction , and my heart despised reproof !

Oh what a mad beast have I been to hate and sleight the fair warnings which were given me, and against mine own knowledg, to run headlong into this pit of destruction! Which are not the words of a true penitent mourning for, and turning from his sin, but only of a man who is grieved for the sad effects of his delightful Lusts, and tormented with the horrour of his own guilty Conscience.

I did with my whole Heart abhor all admonitions.

13. And have not obeyed the voice of my Teachers , nor enclined mine ear to them that instructed me.

Of my Parents and Friends, and Ministers, who faithfully and seasonably informed me of those mischiefs and miseries which now I feel.

14. I was almost in all evil , in the midst of the congregation and Assembly b.

Oh what a miserable man am I! There is scarce any misery in respect of Estate, or Body, or Soul, into which I am not already plunged. The words also are and may well be rendred thus, In a moment I am come into all evil. In how little a time, and for what short and momentany pleasures am I now come into extream and remediless misery! I who designed and expected to enjoy my Lusts with secrecy, and impunity, am now made a publick example and shameful spectacle to all men, and that in the Congregation of Israel, where I was taught better things, and where such Actions are most infamous and hateful.

15. Drink Waters out of thine own cistern; and running waters out of thine own well .

This Metaphor contained here, and v. 16, 17, 18. is to be understood, either 1. of the free and lawful use of a mans estate, both for his own comfort, and for the good of others. Or rather 2. of the honest use of Matrimony, as the proper Remedy against these filthy practices. This best suits with the whole context both foregoing and following: and thus it is explained in the end of v. 18. So the sense is, Content thy self with those delights which God alloweth thee, with the sober use of the Marriage-Bed. Why shouldst thou ramble hither and thither, trespassing against God and men, to steal their Waters which thou mightst freely take out of thine own Cistern or Well. The ground of the Metaphor is this, that waters were scarce and precious in those Countries, and therefore men used to make Cisterns & Wells for their own private use. And the same Metaphor of Waters, and of a Pit, or Well is applied to things of this nature elsewhere, as Prov. 23. 27. Isa. 48. 1. & 51. 1.

16. Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad , and rivers of Waters in the streets.

Thy Children proceeding from thy Wife, called thy fountain, v. 18. and from thy self, as the Israelites are said to come from the Fountain of Israel, Deut. 33. 28. Psal. 68. 26. Compare Isa. 51. 1. And Fountains are here put for Rivers flowing from them, as it is explained in the next clause, and as it is Psal. 104. 10. by a Metonymy of the Cause for the Effect. And this title may be the more fitly given to Children, because as they are Rivers in respect of their Parents, so when they grow up, they also become Fountains to their Children.

They shall be multiplied, and in due time appear abroad in the World to thy Comfort and Honour, and for the good of others: whereas Whores are commonly barren, and men are ashamed to own the Children of Whoredom.

17. Let them be only thine own, and not strangers with thee .

Hereby thou mayest be secured, that thou dost not father and leave thine Estate to other mens Children, whereas the Parents of Harlots Children are common or uncertain.

18. Let thy fountain be blessed : and rejoice with the wife of thy youth .

Thy Wife, as the next clause explains it.

She shall be blessed with Children, for Barrenness was esteemed a curse and reproach, especially among the Israelites. Or rather, she shall be a Blessing and a Comfort to thee, as it follows, and not a Curse and a Snare, as an Harlot will be.

Seek not to Harlots for that delight which God alloweth thee to take with thy Wife. So here he explains the foregoing Metaphor, and applies it to his present design.

Which thou didst marry in her and thine own youthful days, with whom therefore in all reason and justice thou art still to satisfie thy self, even when she is old. Or he mentions Youth, because that is the season in which men are most prone to unclean practices, against which men are commonly fortified by the Infirmities of Old Age.

19. Let her be as the loving hind , and pleasant roe, let her breasts satisfie thee at all times , and be thou ravisht always with her love.

Or, as the beloved Hind, Heb. the Hind of Loves; as amiable and delightful as the Hinds are, either 1. to their Males, the Harts; or 2. to Princes and great men, who used to make them tame and familiar, and to take great delight in them, as hath been noted by many Writers; of which see my Latine Synopsis.

i. e. Her Loves and Embraces, expressed by lying between the Breasts, Cant. 1. 13. Compare Ezek. 23. 3. 8. 21.

At all convenient times: For that there may be excess in the use of the Marriage-Bed is manifest, not only from many Scriptures, but from the light of Nature, and the consent of wife and sober Heathens, who have laid restraints upon men in this particular. A man may be drunk with his own Wine, and intemperate with his own Wife. Or, in all ages and conditions. Do not only love her when she is young and beautiful, but also when she is old and deformed.

Love her fervently. It is an Hyperbolical Expression.

Marginal references: Heb. water thee.; Heb. err thou always in her ove.

20. And why wilt thou, my son, be ravisht with a strange Woman , and embrace the bosome of a stranger?

Why wilt thou destroy and damn thy self for those delights which thou maist enjoy without sin or danger?

21. For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD , and he pondereth all his goings .

God sees all thy filthy actions, though done with all possible cunning and secrecy.

He taketh an exact account of all their doings, that he may recompence them according to the kinds, degrees, numbers, and aggravations of all their unchaste actions.

Marginal references: 2 Chr. 16. 9. Job 31. 4. & 34. 21. Chap. 15. 3. Jer. 16. 17. & 32. 19.

22. His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins .

In vain doth he think to disentangle himself from his lusts by repenting when he grows in years, and to escape punishments; for he is in perfect bondage to his Lusts and is neither able nor willing to set himself at Liberty. and if he do escape the rage of a jealous Husband, and the sentence of the Magistrate, yet he shall be infallibly overtaken by the righteous Judgment of God.

Marginal references: Chap. 11. 3▪ 5, 6.; Heb. sin.

23. He shall die without instruction , and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray .

Because he neglected Instruction. Or, without Correction or Amendment. He shall die in his sins, and not repent of them, as he designed and hoped to do before his death.

Through his stupendious Folly, whereby he cheated himself with hopes of Repentance or Impunity, and exposed himself to endless torments for the momentany pleasures of sinful Lusts.

From God and from the way of Life, and from eternal Salvation.

Marginal references: Job. 4. 21. & 36. 12.