Proverbs 5:20

20 Why should you be intoxicated, my child, by a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a foreigner?

Proverbs 5:20 Meaning and Commentary

Proverbs 5:20

And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman,
&c.] Or "err with her" F25; after all those inconveniences and miseries that follow upon a conversation with a harlot, and all those advantages of a marriage state set before thee; why wilt thou be, so foolish and mad as to have a fondness for an harlot and dote upon her, and neglect entering into a marriage state, or forsake the wife of youth? and yet though things are so clearly stated and aptly represented, and the expostulation made in the most tender and affectionate manner; it is suggested as if after all it would not be attended unto, but a harlot be preferred to a wife of youth, a filthy beast to a loving hind, and dirty puddles of water in a ditch to running streams from a well or fountain; and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
that is not thy wife; a description of unlawful love and impure embraces, which are dissuaded from.


FOOTNOTES:

F25 "Errares", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "aberrares", Cocceius.

Proverbs 5:20 In-Context

18 May your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth.
19 [She is] a deer of love and a doe of grace; may her breasts satisfy you {always}; by her love may you be intoxicated continually.
20 Why should you be intoxicated, my child, by a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a foreigner?
21 For before the eyes of Yahweh [are] {human ways}, and all his paths he examines.
22 His iniquities shall ensnare him, the evildoer, and in the vanity of his sin he shall be caught.
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