Proverbs 5:10
in Proverbs 5lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Lest strangers be filled with thy strength, And thy labors be in the house of an alien,
KJV
Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;
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This verse in Proverbs 5
Commentary
4 notes on this verseLest 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 Pro 5:
This site's exposition
depart not from the words of my mouth
on Proverbs 5:7-11
The counsel turns practical: remove thy way far from her, come not nigh the door of her house, treating distance itself as the safeguard rather than trusting resolve alone to hold at close range. The losses named are severe and public, honour given to others, years given to the cruel, wealth filling a stranger's house, labor spent to enrich a household that is not one's own. Gill reads the piling up of losses as deliberate, since the sin promises private pleasure but delivers public ruin.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
Lest strangers be filled with your strength, etc. Lest you assist the deeds of demons, if you lend either the ingenuity of your mind or the strengths of your body to perform crimes; and you multiply the household of strangers, that is, the number of …
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Strangers - The whole gang of those into whose hands the slave of lust yields himself. The words are significant as showing that the older punishment of death Deu 22:21; Eze 16:38; Joh 8:5 was not always inflicted, and that the detected adulterer was exposed rather to indefinite extortion. Besides loss of purity and peace, the sin, in all its forms, brings poverty.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
lest strangers be sated with your strength The prophets of Baal, who collect money with their lies and their hastiness.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
And you shall moan when your end comes The end will be that you will moan when your end comes.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 3 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| פֶּֽן־ | pen- | lest | H6435 → | 133 times |
| יִשְׂבְּע֣וּ | yisbeu | they should be satisfied | H7646 → | 97 times |
| זָרִ֣ים | zarim | strangers | H2114 → | 77 times |
| כֹּחֶ֑ךָ | kochekha | strength your | H3581 → | 126 times |
| וַ֝עֲצָבֶ֗יךָ | vaatzaveikha | and labor your | H6089 → | 7 times |
| בְּבֵ֣ית | beveit | [be] in [the] house of | H1004 → | 2046 times |
| נָכְרִֽי׃ | nakheri | a foreigner | H5237 → | 45 times |
פֶּֽן־lest
pen-H6435 →133 times
יִשְׂבְּע֣וּthey should be satisfied
yisbeuH7646 →97 times
זָרִ֣יםstrangers
zarimH2114 →77 times
כֹּחֶ֑ךָstrength your
kochekhaH3581 →126 times
וַ֝עֲצָבֶ֗יךָand labor your
vaatzaveikhaH6089 →7 times
בְּבֵ֣ית[be] in [the] house of
beveitH1004 →2046 times
נָכְרִֽי׃a foreigner
nakheriH5237 →45 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Proverbs 31:3Do not spend your strength on women or your vigor on those who ruin kings.
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 17:17
He must not take many wives for himself, lest his heart go astray. He must not accumulate for himself large amounts of silver and gold.
- Nehemiah 13:26
Did not King Solomon of Israel sin in matters like this? There was not a king like him among many nations, and he was loved by his God, who made him king over all…
- Proverbs 7:26–27
For she has brought many down to death; her slain are many in number.
- Proverbs 5:9–11
lest you concede your vigor to others, and your years to one who is cruel;
- 1 Kings 11:1
King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh—women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women.
- Deuteronomy 17:17
Through
Hosea 7:9Foreigners consume his strength, but he does not notice. Even his hair is streaked with gray, but he does not know.
it leads to
- Hosea 8:7
For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. There is no standing grain; what sprouts fails to yield flour. Even if it should produce, the foreigners would swallow it up.
- Hosea 8:7
Through
Luke 15:30But when this son of yours returns from squandering your wealth with prostitutes, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
it leads to
- Proverbs 29:3
A man who loves wisdom brings joy to his father, but a companion of prostitutes squanders his wealth.
- Luke 15:12–13
The younger son said to him, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
- Proverbs 29:3
About Proverbs
This page draws on 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; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament.