Proverbschapter 6
35 verses · Solomon and others · 10th to 5th century BC · Wisdom and poetry
There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to Him:
Introduction
Solomon and others, Wisdom and poetry, Proverbs Overview.
This chapter belongs to the father's lessons that open Proverbs, and the book's heading gives it to Solomon. It speaks to householders who answered for their own debts and for their neighbours' good name. Four short warnings stand side by side before the longer warning against adultery returns. Listen for a creature from the harvest field held up as a teacher, and for a numbered list that builds from six to seven. Notice how each danger looks harmless until the moment it closes on a man. Read it as a lesson on slow decisions and their sudden ends.
Context
- Who
- Householders responsible for their own debts and their neighbours' good name
- What
- A set of warnings about pledging for another man's debt, about laziness, about the troublemaker and about seven things the LORD hates, followed by a warning against adultery.
- Where
- The credit dealings of an Israelite town, the grain fields at harvest, and the court at the gate where disputes were heard.
- When
- The reign of Solomon, about 970 to 931 BC, by the heading at Proverbs 1:1; the book reached its final form later, since Proverbs 25:1 names the men of Hezekiah as copyists.
- Why
- To teach a son to escape rash pledges, to work while the season allows, to shun the one who stirs up strife and to see what adultery costs.
Historical context
Standing surety meant clapping your hand into another man's hand in front of witnesses and promising to cover his debt. There was no insurance and no bankruptcy court. If he failed, the creditor came to you, and the ladder down went cloak, then tools, then field, then your children into service until the debt was worked off. "Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter" means go back tonight and get out of it.
Show the rest of the historical context, 2 more paragraphs
The ant is chosen because everyone had watched harvester ants drag seed into their nests along the field edges. Israel's grain year gave you one narrow window: barley in spring, wheat a few weeks later, and if you slept through it there was no second chance until the next year. Poverty "as one that travelleth" is a picture of a man arriving at your door with a bag over his shoulder, unhurried and certain.
The contrast at the end of the chapter is a legal one. A starving thief who is caught makes restitution, the Law required repayment several times over, and the proverb says a man can survive that. But adultery put a man in the hands of a jealous husband, and no payment settled it. "He will not regard any ransom" is a statement about what money cannot buy back.
Significance
The list of seven things the LORD hates would have been heard as a courtroom docket: a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a false witness, the man who sows discord among brothers. Every one of them wrecks a community that depends on neighbours trusting neighbours.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
And the sequence of the chapter is deliberate. Debt, laziness, and adultery are put side by side because each one is a slow decision that looks survivable right up until it is not.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
No part of this chapter is read in the synagogue year. The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed parashot total 0 and haftarah uses total 0 for Proverbs, and no festival reading.
The corpus joins the chapter to two weekly portions through Bereshit Rabbati. It carries Parashat Vayera 25 under the twentieth verse and Parashat Toldot 17 under the twenty-fourth, both portions in the site's table. The command of father and mother in the twentieth verse is where Rashi's note below touches the life of a Jewish home.
How it is read
Rashi is the commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. The surety of the first verse he takes at its word. The Sages explained it as surety in money matters, according to its plain meaning (Rashi on Proverbs 6:1:1). The humbling of oneself he reads from the Hebrew as opening the palm of the hand to pay (Rashi on Proverbs 6:3:1).
The ant he reads as a lesson in honesty as well as work. She has no chief to reprove her or to take back what she steals, and still each one gathers her own food and does not rob her companion (Rashi on Proverbs 6:7:1 and 6:8:1). The folding of the hands in sleep he glosses in French, Provencal and German, and notes that a manuscript of Rashi carries a different French word (Rashi on Proverbs 6:10:1). The worthless man who sows discord sows it between a man and his Creator (Rashi on Proverbs 6:14:1). Of the six things the Lord hates and the seventh, he says the seventh is counted with them (Rashi on Proverbs 6:16:1).
The twenty-third verse carries two readings, and he gives both. By the first, the commandment and the Torah differ as a candle differs from daylight. The merit of the Torah stands for a person forever, as light always gives light. The merit of the commandment lasts "only for a limited time, like the light of a candle" (Rashi on Proverbs 6:23:1). By the second, which he takes from Rabbi Joseph Kara, the verse speaks of the command of father and mother. Obeying a parent is like carrying a candle into a dark place, and he proves the reading from the verse later in the book about the one who curses his father or mother.
The evil woman of the twenty-fourth verse he reads as idolatry, and he argues it as he did in chapter 2. If a real harlot were meant, the praise of the Torah would be only that it guards from one sin. The prohibition of idolatry, he says, is as stringent as all the other commandments (Rashi on Proverbs 6:24:1).
The corpus carries six further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. Two are further notes of Rashi, at Proverbs 6:2:1 and 6:20:1. Three stand at Ibn Ezra on Proverbs 6:4:1, 6:9:1 and 6:17:1, and one at Metzudat David on Proverbs 6:18:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited here rather than quoted. On the surety of the first verse it holds Bava Batra 173b:12 and Bava Metzia 115a:5, and on the second Tractate Kallah Rabbati 4:4 with Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 150:2. On the third it holds Ein Yaakov at Yoma 8:39 and the Glick Edition at Yoma 8:31.
The ant draws the next run. On the sixth verse the corpus holds Chullin 57b:10 and Devarim Rabbah 5:2. On the eighth it holds Sanhedrin 7a:16 with Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 1:10. On the ninth it holds Devarim Rabbah 8:6 and a passage of Otzar Midrashim from Perek Shirah, the Chapter of Song, at 1:54.
The six things and the command carry the rest. On the sixteenth verse the corpus holds Aggadat Bereshit 69:1 and Bamidbar Rabbah 11:1, and on the seventeenth Vayikra Rabbah 21:5. On the twenty-first it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan 23:4 and Ein Yaakov, Nedarim 8:2. On the twenty-third, the candle and the light, it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 11:6 and 14:10. On the thirtieth it holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Nezikin 13:21, and on the thirty-fifth Midrash Tehillim 17:3. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Proverbs 6:1:1 to 6:24:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY, and Rashi on Proverbs 6:2:1 and 6:20:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Proverbs 6:4:1, 6:9:1 and 6:17:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Proverbs 6:18:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/proverbs/6.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion, no Haftarah and no festival reading for this book, with Vayera and Toldot in its PARASHOT table.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The Rash Pledge: Deliver Thyself as a Roe From the Hunter
Proverbs 6:1-5
struck hands in pledge with a stranger: A son has “put up security for your neighbor” and “struck hands in pledge with a stranger,” and his own promise holds him fast. The son must break free at once, “like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,” putting safety before pride.
Proverbs 6:1
“My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger, and art snared with the words of thy mouth, and art taken with thine own speeches. For to be surety for a friend is to take charge of the soul of another on the surety of one's own behaviour. Whence also the hand is stricken with a stranger, because the mind is bound with the care of a responsibility which before was not.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Pastoral Rule 3.4patristic
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Proverbs 6:1
“Surety - The “pledge,” or security for payment, which, for example, David was to bring back from his brothers 1Sa 17:18. So the word was used in the primitive trade transactions of the early Israelites. In the warnings against this suretyship, in the Book of Proverbs, we may trace the influence of contact with the Phoenicians. The merchants of Tyre and Zidon seem to have discovered the value of credit as an element of wealth.”
Proverbs 6:1
“Stricken thy hand - Obliged thyself by giving thine hand, as the custom then was in such cases. With - With the creditor, whom he calls a stranger, because the usurers in Israel, who lent money to others, upon condition of paying use for it, were either Heathens, or were reputed as bad as Heathens, because this practice was forbidden by God's law, Deut. xxiii, 19.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
trapped by the words of your lips: The trap is the son's own promise, spoken aloud and sealed by striking hands. Gill notes the pledge binds him to pay if his neighbor fails, and he can get loose only by payment or by the creditor's leave. His lips set the snare.
Proverbs 6:2
“Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth,.... Got into a snare out of which an escape is not easy; art no longer free, and thine own man, but under obligation to pay the debt if required; by the verbal agreement made and confirmed by striking hands, and this before witnesses; thou art taken with the words of thy mouth; as in a net, and held fast therein and thereby, and cannot get loose without paying the debt, if the debtor does not, or without the leave of the creditor.”
Go, humble yourself: Barnes takes the neighbor as the companion whose debt was guaranteed, and he has the son press him hard until the bond is given back. Pride has no place in the plea. The son who signed must go in person and humble himself.
Proverbs 6:3
“Better, “Do this now, O my son, and free thyself when thou hast come into thy friend’s house; go, how thyself down (perhaps “stamp with thy foot,” or “hasten”), press hotly upon thy friend. By persuasion, and if need be, by threats, get back the bond which thou hast been entrapped into signing:” The “friend” is, as before, the companion, not the creditor.”
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 6:3
“For whosoever is put over others for an example of life is admonished not only to keep watch himself, but also to arouse his friend. For it is not enough for him to keep watch in living well, if he do not also sever him when he is set over from the torpor of sin. For it is well said, "Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor let thine eyelids slumber." For indeed to give sleep to the eyes is to cease from earnestness, so as to neglect altogether the care of our subordinates.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · The Book of Pastoral Rule, Part 3, Chapter 4patristic
Allow no sleep to your eyes: Sleep and slumber wait until the son is free. Gill reads the line as a call to leave no method untried while the pledge stands. Each night of rest leaves him in his neighbor's hands.
Proverbs 6:4
“Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids. Until the above things are done; which denotes of what consequence and importance they are; and that persons in such circumstances should not be careless, dilatory, and unconcerned; but should use great diligence, and leave no stone unturned, or method untried, to extricate themselves; see Psa 132:4.”
like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter: The Hebrew word is tsebi, the gazelle or antelope, an animal that lives by flight. Clarke pictures it caught in the net and struggling with all its strength until it breaks free. The son is to fight the pledge the same way.
Proverbs 6:5
“Deliver thyself as a roe - צבי tsebi, the antelope. If thou art got into the snare, get out if thou possibly canst; make every struggle and excertion, as the antelope taken in the net, and the bird taken in the snare would, in order to get free from thy captivity.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Go to the Ant, Thou Sluggard
Proverbs 6:6-11
observe its ways and become wise: The slacker is sent to learn from the ant, which works “Without a commander, without an overseer or ruler” and stores food in summer. The threefold “a little” mimics the slacker's own excuses, and poverty then arrives unannounced, “like a robber, and need like a bandit”.
Proverbs 6:6
Why should we dwell upon the amount of evil there is in idleness, when the apostle clearly prescribes that he who does not work should not eat. As daily sustenance is necessary for everyone, so labor in proportion to one's strength is also essential.… The Lord couples sloth with wickedness, saying, "Wicked and slothful servant." Wise Solomon, also, praises the laborer not only in the words already quoted, but also, in rebuking the sluggard, associating him by contrast with the tiniest of insects: "Go to the ant, O sluggard."
Basil of Caesarea · written before 379 · The Long Rules 37patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Proverbs 6:6
“Go to the ant, thou sluggard - נמלה nemalah, the ant, is a remarkable creature for foresight, industry, and economy. At the proper seasons they collect their food - not in the summer to lay up for the winter; for they sleep during the winter, and eat not; and therefore such hoards would be to them useless; but when the food necessary for them is most plentiful, then they collect it for their consumption in the proper seasons.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 6:6
“He is to take him to school himself, for, if the scholar will take no pains, the master must take the more; the sluggard is not willing to come to school to him (dreaming scholars will never love wakeful teachers) and therefore he has found him out another school, as low as he can desire. The master he is sent to school to: Go to the ant, to the bee, so the LXX.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Without a commander: Barnes notes that the word rendered commander names the army commanders of Joshua 10:24. The ant has no commander, overseer or ruler, and its provisions are still gathered on time. Its discipline comes from within.
Proverbs 6:7
“The words express the wonder with which the Hebrew observer looked on the phenomena of insect life. “Guide,” better captain, as in Jos 10:24. The Septuagint introduces here a corresponding reference to the industry of the bee.”
it prepares its provisions in summer: Summer and harvest are the seasons when food lies on the ground. The lesson is foresight, work done ahead of the need. Jerome read a text that adds the bee and sent readers to both creatures to learn how to order a community and discipline a kingdom.
Proverbs 6:8
“Construct also hives for bees, for to these the proverbs of Solomon send you, and you may learn from the tiny creatures how to order a monastery and to discipline a kingdom.”
Jerome · written before 420 · LETTER 125.11patristic
How long will you lie there, O slacker?: The questions turn from the ant back to the slacker, who is still lying down. Gill pictures the ant at work gathering its provisions even by moonlight while the man stays in bed. His answer comes in verse 10.
Proverbs 6:9
“How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard?.... Or "lie" (q) in bed, indulging in sloth and ease; while the industrious ant is busy in getting in its provisions, even by moonlight, as naturalists (r) observe; when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? and be about thy lawful calling? doing the duties of religion, and the business of life; providing things honest in the sight of all men; things necessary for thyself and family, and wherewith to do good to others; exercising a conscience void of offence both to God and men.”
a little folding of the hands to rest: The slacker asks for only a little more sleep, a little more slumber, a little more rest for folded hands. Bede heard in this the sinner who promises to rise and repent later. Proverbs 24:33 repeats the line word for word.
Proverbs 6:10
“Yet a little sleep, a little slumber - This, if not the language, is the feeling of the sluggard. The ant gathers its food in summer and in harvest, and sleeps in winter when it has no work to do. If the sluggard would work in the day, and sleep at night, it would be all proper. The ant yields him a lesson of reproach.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
like a robber, and need like a bandit: Barnes reads the robber as the thief in the night who strikes without warning. The bandit is literally the man of the shield, an armed raider who takes by force. Want arrives both ways.
Proverbs 6:11
“The similitude is drawn from the two sources of Eastern terror: the “traveler,” i. e., “the thief in the night,” coming suddenly to plunder; the “armed man,” literally “the man of the shield,” the armed robber. The habit of indolence is more fatally destructive than these marauders.”
Six Things Jehovah Hateth, Yea, Seven
Proverbs 6:12-15
walks with a perverse mouth: The worthless person is described by his body: “winking his eyes, speaking with his feet, and pointing with his fingers,” signals that deceive. His end matches his method, for calamity comes “suddenly” on the man of hidden signals, and “in an instant he will be shattered beyond recovery”.
Proverbs 6:12
“A naughty person - אדם בליעל adam beliyal, “Adam good for nothing.” When he lost his innocence. A man apostata; Old MS. Bible. A wicked man - איש און ish aven. He soon became a general transgressor after having departed from his God. All his posterity, unless restored by Divine grace, are men of Belial, and sinners by trade; and most of them, in one form or other, answer the character here given. They yield their members instruments of unrighteousness unto sin.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
winking his eyes: Clarke found the same signals in a Roman love poem, where lovers pass messages by eye, foot and finger. The worthless man speaks with his eyes, feet and fingers to deceive. Every limb serves the lie.
Proverbs 6:13
“He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers - These things seem to be spoken of debauchees, and the following quotation from Ovid, Amor. Iib. i., El. iv., ver. 15, shoots the whole process of the villany spoken of by Solomon: Cum premit ille torum, vultu comes ipsa modesto Ibis, ut accumbas: clam mihi tange pedem. Me specta, nutusque meos, vultum que loquacem Excipe furtivas, et refer ipsa, notas. Verba superciliis sine voce loquentia dicam Verba leges digitis, verba notata mero.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
he continually sows discord: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that devises pictures a craftsman at work, and his work is evil. The discord he continually sows means chiefly quarrels at law. One who stirs up discord among brothers closes the list of verse 19.
Proverbs 6:14
“Frowardness--as in Pr 2:14. deviseth--literally, "constructs, as an artisan." mischief--evil to others. discord--especially litigation. Cunning is the talent of the weak and lazy.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
shattered beyond recovery: Gill reads beyond recovery as no healing, and he pictures a clay pot shattered past mending. The worthless man devised evil in secret. The one who devises evil for others is shattered himself.
Proverbs 6:15
“Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly,.... Unthought of and unexpected: he that deviseth mischief to others secretly shall have no warning of his own ruin, nor time and means of preventing it; the destruction of antichrist will be sudden, and of all wicked men at the coming of Christ, 1Th 5:3; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy; or, "and there shall be no healing" (b): his bones will be broken to pieces, and there will be no cure for him; or he shall be like an earthen vessel, which, when broke, cannot be put together again.”
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 6:15
“Suddenly shall he be broken - Probably alluding to some punishment of the adulterer, such as being stoned to death. A multitude shall join together, and so overwhelm him with stones, that he shall have his flesh and bones broken to pieces, and there shall be no remedy - none to deliver or pity him.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 6:16-19
seven that are detestable to Him: “There are six things that the LORD hates, seven” is a numerical form, a full list pressed one item past its round number. The list runs from “haughty eyes” through tongue, hands, heart and feet, and settles in the community with “one who stirs up discord among brothers”.
Proverbs 6:16
“These six - doth the Lord hate - 1. A proud look - exalted eyes; those who will not condescend to look on the rest of mankind. 2. A lying tongue - he who neither loves nor tells truth. 3. Hands that shed innocent blood, whether by murder or by battery. 4. A heart that deviseth wicked imaginations - the heart that fabricates such, lays the foundation, builds upon it, and completes the superstructure of iniquity. 5. Feet that be swift in running to mischief - he who works iniquity with greediness.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
haughty eyes: Pride heads the list the LORD hates. Hands that shed innocent blood name the murder of the guiltless, and the lying tongue stands between the look and the deed. Bede counted six capital crimes here and held the seventh, the sowing of discord among brothers, as greater still.
a heart that devises wicked schemes: Clarke pictures this heart as a builder who lays the foundation of evil, builds on it and completes the structure. Feet that run swiftly carry out what the heart has planned. The worthless man of verse 14 does both.
Proverbs 6:18
"A heart that forges evil thoughts." Indeed, since the heart was impure, it also made the limbs impure, so that it shed the poison to its extremities.… By "brothers" he [Solomon] means those who have obtained the grace of adoption and are subjected to Christ our father. When unjust or lustful thoughts come to them, these thoughts try to trouble them. In fact, they inflame them to anger which causes hatred, and to evil desires which bring about immoral actions.
John Chrysostom · written before 407 · Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon, Fragment 6:18patristic
a false witness who gives false testimony: Gill separates this witness from the lying tongue of verse 17. This one swears to lies against a neighbor, the sin Exodus 20:16 forbids. Gill adds that the Hebrew can be read he who breathes out lies, spreading them abroad.
Proverbs 6:19
“A false witness that speaketh lies,.... Or, "that speaketh lies, even a false witness" (f); and so this is distinguished from a lying tongue, the second of these evils: this is the sin of bearing false witness against one's neighbour, a breach of the eighth command. It may be rendered, "he that bloweth lies" (g); that raises lies, and spreads them abroad, and swears to them, to the damage of others.”
Can a Man Take Fire in His Bosom and Not Be Burned?
Proverbs 6:20-23
do not forsake your mother’s teaching: The chapter returns to the father's appeal, naming both parents as teachers and telling the son to “tie them around your neck” like an ornament. The teaching will guide him when he walks, watch over him when he lies down and speak to him when he wakes, a constant companion.
Proverbs 6:20
“Preserve, my son, the precepts of your father, etc. Now under the guise of the adulterous woman, he forbids listening to heresy.”
Bede · written before 735 · Commentary on Proverbspatristic
tie them around your neck: Barnes carries the thought of Proverbs 3:3 a step further: the son's safety comes from the commandment he keeps, bound on the heart. Others tied a charm around the neck. The father's teaching takes its place.
Proverbs 6:21
“The thought of Pro 3:3 is carried step further. No outward charm, but the law of obedience, shall give safety to the traveler, when he sleeps or when he wakes.”
when you awake, they will speak to you: The three times of day echo Deuteronomy 6:7, where parents speak of the commands when they walk along the road, lie down and get up. Spurgeon titled his sermon on this verse The Talking Book. The father's teaching keeps company all day.
Proverbs 6:22
“When thou goest, it shall lead thee - Here the law is personified; and is represented as a nurse, teacher, and guardian, by night and day. An upright man never goes but as directed by God’s word and led by God’s Spirit. When thou sleepest - He commends his body and soul to the protection of his Maker when he lies down and sleeps in peace. And when he awakes in the morning, the promises and mercies of God are the first things that present themselves to his recollection.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 6:22
“IT IS A VERY HAPPY CIRCUMSTANCE when the commandment of our father and the law of our mother are also the commandment of God and the law of the Lord. Happy are they who have a double force to draw them to the right—the bonds of nature, and the cords of grace. They sin with a vengeance who sin both against a father on earth and the great Father in heaven, and they exhibit a virulence and a violence of sin who do despite to the tender obligations of childhood, as well as to the demands of conscience and God.”
the reproofs of discipline are the way to life: The third clause turns from lamp and light to reproof. Clarke reads the reproofs of discipline as instruction that exposes a man's sins and leads him on the way to life. That life stands against the adulteress of verse 24.
Proverbs 6:23
“For the commandment is a lamp - It illuminates our path. It shows us how we should walk and praise God. And the law is light - A general light, showing the nature and will of God, and the interest and duty of Man. And reproofs of instruction - Or, that instruction which reproves us for our sins and errors leads us into the way of life.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 6:23
“Solomon also writes that "the commandment of the law is a lamp and a light." This sensible light that is in the world, by falling on our bodily eyes, dispels the darkness. So also the law of God, when admitted into the mind and heart of people, illuminates it thoroughly and does not allow it to fall against the stumbling blocks of ignorance or be caught in the thickets of sin.”
Cyril of Alexandria · written before 444 · Commentary on Luke, Homily 55patristic
Proverbs 6:24-26
from the smooth tongue of the adulteress: “Do not lust in your heart for her beauty” places the danger in desire, and her eyes are named as a weapon before any deed. The two costs stand side by side: the prostitute brings a man to poverty, while the adulteress “preys upon your very life”.
Proverbs 6:24
“To keep thee from the evil woman - Solomon had suffered sorely from this quarter; and hence his repeated cautions and warnings to others. The strange woman always means one that is not a man’s own; and sometimes it may also imply a foreign harlot, one who is also a stranger to the God of Israel.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
captivate you with her eyes: Barnes connects the eyes to the Eastern custom of painting them with kohl for brightness and a languishing look. Jesus places adultery in the same two places at Matthew 5:28, the look and the heart. Beauty becomes a snare.
Proverbs 6:25
“Eyelids - Possibly pointing to the Eastern custom of painting the eyes on the outside with kohl so as to give brightness and languishing expression.”
the levy of the prostitute is poverty: The prostitute costs a man his bread, and Clarke reports the Greek reading, the price of a harlot is about one loaf. The adulteress preys on his very life. Under the law of Moses, adultery with another man's wife was punished by death.
Proverbs 6:26
“And that poverty must needs lie heavily which men bring themselves into by their own folly, Job xxxi. (2.) It threatens death; it kills men: The adulteress will hunt for the precious life, perhaps designedly, as Delilah for Samson's, at least, eventually, the sin strikes at the life. Adultery was punished by the law of Moses as a capital crime.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
3 more voices on this verse
Proverbs 6:26
“The supplied words give a better sense than the old version: "The price of a whore is a piece of bread." adulteress--(Compare Margin), which the parallel and context (Pr 6:29-35) sustain. Of similar results of this sin, compare Pr 5:9-12. will hunt--alluding to the snares spread by harlots (compare Pr 7:6-8). precious life--more valuable than all else.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Proverbs 6:26
“I will hope in Him, for He Himself shall deliver me from the snare of the hunters. In this world there are many hunters who long to capture our souls, just as is said by the prophet: "Our soul has been snatched away like a sparrow from the snare of the hunters." Now that hunters are taken in a sinister sense in the holy Scriptures, we have already said often. For that Nimrod, the giant, always a rebel against God, was a hunter. Esau too was a hunter. For He Himself shall deliver me from the snare of the hunters.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Homily 68, on Psalm 90 (Alternate Series)patristic
Proverbs 6:26
“By means of a whorish woman - In following lewd women, a man is soon reduced to poverty and disease. The Septuagint gives this a strange turn: timh gar pornhv, osh kai enov artou. “For the price or hire of a whore is about one loaf.” So many were they in the land, that they hired themselves out for a bare subsistence. The Vulgate, Syriac, and Arabic, give the same sense. The old MS. Bible has it thus: The price forsothe of a strumpet is unneth oon lof: the woman forsothe taketh the precious liif of a mam.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 6:27-29
Can a man embrace fire: Two questions, fire held against the clothes and feet set on hot coals, are applied directly to “he who sleeps with another man’s wife”. The logic is cause and effect: this sin carries its consequence in the act itself. The comparison closes: “no one who touches her will go unpunished”.
Proverbs 6:27
“That thou mayest not say, What harm is there in the eyes, when there is no necessity that he should be perverted who looks? he shows thee that desire is a fire, and the flesh is like a garment. The latter is an easy prey, and the former is a tyrant. And when anything harmful is not only taken within, but also held fast, it will not go forth again until it has made an exit for itself. For he who looks upon a woman, even though he escape the temptation, does not come away pure of all lust.”
Hippolytus of Rome · written before 235 · Hippolytus Exegetical Fragmentspatristic
walk on hot coals: The second picture moves the fire from the bosom to the feet. Hippolytus read the fire of these verses as desire and the flesh as the garment it catches. Coals burn whoever walks on them.
Proverbs 6:28
“Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?”
no one who touches her will go unpunished: Clarke joins the fire, the coals and the adulterer in one certainty: the man who sleeps with another man's wife will be guilty and punished. One touch brings the verdict.
Proverbs 6:29
“So he that goeth In to his neighbor’s wife - As sure as he who takes fire into his bosom, or who walks upon live coals, is burnt thereby; so sure he that seduces his neighbour’s wife shall be guilty. That is, he shall be punished.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 6:30-31
if he steals to satisfy his hunger: The father adds a comparison to sharpen his point: “Men do not despise the thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger”. Yet if caught, “he must pay sevenfold”. Gill ties the sevenfold penalty to the restitution law, a measure for a debt that adultery cannot repay in kind.
Proverbs 6:30
“Men do not despise a thief if he steal - Every man pities the poor culprit who was perishing for lack of food, and stole to satisfy his hunger; yet no law clears him: he is bound to make restitution; in some cases double, in others quadruple and quintuple; and if he have not property enough to make restitution, to be sold for a bondsman; Exo 22:1-4; Lev 25:39.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
he must pay sevenfold: The law required double, fourfold or fivefold, and Gill reports an old reading that joins double and fivefold to make sevenfold. The caught thief must pay with all the wealth of his house. His debt has an end.
Proverbs 6:31
“But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold,.... According to the law in Exo 22:1; in case of theft double was to be restored, if the theft was found alive in his hand; and in some cases fourfold and fivefold. Aben Ezra observing that double and fivefold being near together in the law, joins them, and so makes sevenfold.”
Proverbs 6:32-35
lacks judgment: The thief could pay his penalty and close the matter, while the adulterer “destroys himself,” and “his reproach will never be wiped away”. The chapter that told the son to free himself “like a gazelle” (6:5) closes on a debt with no release.
Proverbs 6:32
“But whoso committeth adultery - The case understood is that of a married man: he has a wife; and therefore is not in the circumstances of the poor thief, who stole to appease his hunger, having nothing to eat. In this alone the opposition between the two cases is found: the thief had no food, and he stole some; the married man had a wife, and yet went in to the wife of his neighbor. Destroyeth his own soul - Sins against his life, for, under the law of Moses, adultery was punished with death; Lev 20:10; Deu 22:22.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
his reproach will never be wiped away: Henry separates the guilt of adultery, which repentance can remove, from the reproach, which will never be wiped away from a man's name. David's adultery with Uriah's wife is his example. The dishonor outlives the man.
Proverbs 6:33
“It will be a wound to his good name, a dishonour to his family, and, though the guilt of it may be done away by repentance, the reproach of it never will, but will stick to his memory when he is gone. David's sin in the matter of Uriah was not only a perpetual blemish upon his own character, but gave occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme his name too.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 6:33
“A wound and dishonor shall he get - Among the Romans, when a man was caught in the fact, the injured husband took the law into his own hand; and a large radish was thrust up into the anus of the transgressor, which not only overwhelmed him with infamy and disgrace, but generally caused his death.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
jealousy enrages a husband: Clarke describes the husband who catches the adulterer and takes vengeance on the spot, too angry to wait for the slow course of the law. The day of vengeance is the day he finds out. Rage shows no mercy.
Proverbs 6:34
“Jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare - He will not, when he has detected the adulterer in the fact, wait for the slow progress of the law: it is then to him the day of vengeance; and in general, he avenges himself on the spot, as we see above.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
He will not be appeased by any ransom: Clarke holds that this injury admits no compensation from any ransom or lavish gifts. A husband who took payment would set a price on his own wife. Jealousy leaves him with no mercy to sell.
Proverbs 6:35
“He will not regard any ransom - This is an injury that admits of no compensation. No gifts can satisfy a man for the injury his honor has sustained; and to take a bribe or a ransom, would be setting up chastity at a price.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 6:35
“He will not regard any ransom,.... So that his case is much worse than, a thief's; if he is taken, he makes restitution according to law, and he is freed, and no more is said and done to him; and, at most, it is but parting with all the goods in his house; but in this case it will not do.”
How this psalm is built
The patterns in this chapter
The numbered list of verses 16 to 19
1 more paragraph on the patterns
Verse 16 names six things the LORD hates and then a seventh, a way of counting that returns in Proverbs 30:15 to 31. Verses 17 and 18 run down the body from the eyes to the tongue, the hands, the heart and the feet. Verse 19 ends on two persons, the false witness and the one who stirs up discord among brothers. The list repeats the portrait of verses 12 to 14, where the worthless man uses his mouth, eyes, feet, fingers and heart and sows discord. Both passages end on discord, so the numbered list states as the LORD's judgment what the portrait showed in action. These counts are taken from the Berean text of the chapter in the store.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bede, Commentary on Proverbs; Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 1017: “The Talking Book” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon; Hippolytus of Rome, Hippolytus Exegetical Fragments; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, LETTER 125.11; John Gill and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.