Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth
The adulteress, her husband, children, friends, bawds, and such
like persons she is concerned with; these share the wealth of the
adulterer, abound with it, and live profusely on it, until he is
stripped quite bare and destitute: or, "with thy strength";
(See Gill on Proverbs
5:9). Jarchi interprets it of the prophets of Baal, that
exact money by their falsehoods; it may well enough be applied to
the fornicating merchants of Rome, who wax rich through the
abundance of her delicacies and adulteries, ( Revelation
18:3 ) ; persons, strangers indeed to God and Christ, and all
true religion; and thy labours [be] in the house of a
stranger;
that is, wealth gotten by hard labour, with toil and sweat, grief
and trouble, as the word used F17 signifies; and yet, after
all, not enjoyed by himself and his lawful wife and children, but
by the strange woman and her accomplices, and spent in
maintaining whores, bawds, and bastards; hence the fable of the
Harpies eating and spoiling the victuals of Phineus, who were no
other than harlots that consumed his substance {r}: and sometimes
they are carried into a strange country, and possessed by
foreigners. These are the wretched effects and miserable
consequences of adultery, and therefore by all means to be
shunned and avoided. Jarchi understands it of the house of
idolatry, or an idol's temple; and everyone knows what vast
riches are brought into the temples or churches of the Papists by
idolatry.