Proverbs 5:20

20 Why let yourself, my son, go out of the way with a strange woman, and take another woman in your arms?

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.

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FOOTNOTES:

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

Proverbs 5:20 In-Context

18 Let blessing be on your fountain; have joy in the wife of your early years.

19 As a loving hind and a gentle doe, let her breasts ever give you rapture; let your passion at all times be moved by her love.

20 Why let yourself, my son, go out of the way with a strange woman, and take another woman in your arms?

21 For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he puts all his goings in the scales.

22 The evil-doer will be taken in the net of his crimes, and prisoned in the cords of his sin.