Proverbs 5:20

20 Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with ¹a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of ²an adulteress?^[a]

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 your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth,

19 a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.

20 Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?

21 For a man's ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and he ponders all his paths.

22 The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.

Cross References

• 1. See Proverbs 2:16
• 2. See Proverbs 2:16

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew a foreign woman