Proverbs 5:9
Lest thou give thine honour unto others
To strumpets, their children, attendants, servants, and friends;
that is, either wealth or riches, which make men honourable; or
their three, credit, and reputation, which are lost by keeping
company with such persons; or the outward comeliness of the body,
and inward rigour of the mind, which are impaired by adulterous
practices. The Targum renders it, "thy strength"; and so the
Syriac version, "thy strength of body", which is enervated by
such impurities; see ( Proverbs
31:3 ) ; compare with this the kings of the earth that commit
fornication with the whore of Rome, giving their power and
strength to the beast, ( Revelation
17:2 Revelation
17:13 ) . Jarchi's note is,
``lest thine heart has respect to other gods, to give them the
glory of thine honour and praise;''
and so understands it not of corporeal but of spiritual adultery or
idolatry: the Septuagint and Arabic versions are, "thy life"; which
agrees with what follows;
and thy years unto the
cruel;
youthful years, the flower of age, consumed by the cruel lust of
uncleanness, which preys upon and wastes both body and substance,
and cuts them off in the prime of days; and deprives of years which
otherwise, according to the course of nature, and in all
probability, might be arrived unto: so harlots, in Plautus {o}, are
said to sup the blood of men, and to deprive of goods, light,
honour, and friends
F16. And the harlot herself may be here
meant; who, when she has got what she can, has no pity on the man
she has ruined, and even will not stick to take away his life upon
occasion; as well as is the cause and means of the damnation of his
soul: or the jealous husband of the adulterous woman, who will not
spare the adulterer when taken by him; or her brethren, her
relations and friends; or her other gallants and co-rivals, who,
when they have opportunity, will avenge themselves; or the civil
magistrate, who executes judgment without mercy on such
delinquents, this being a sin punished with death. Jarchi
interprets the "cruel" of the prince of hell, the devil; and so the
Midrash of the angel of death. The character well agrees with the
antichristian beast, the whore of Rome; who, by her sorceries and
fornications, has destroyed millions of souls.