Proverbs 6:24
in Proverbs 6to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
To keep thee from the evil woman, From the flattery of the foreigner’s tongue.
KJV
To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.
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This verse in Proverbs 6
Commentary
5 notes on this verseTo 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.
This site's exposition
from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman
on Proverbs 6:24-26
The lamp and light of the previous verses are given a specific purpose, to keep the son from the evil woman and the flattery of her tongue, tying the surrounding unit together. Lust not after her beauty in thine heart locates the danger at the level of desire rather than only action, since the eyelids are named as a weapon before any deed is done. The two costs are contrasted sharply, reduced to a piece of bread on one side and hunted for the precious life on the other, a loss of dignity set against a loss that reaches the soul itself.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
To keep thee from the evil woman,....
We are here dissuaded from sin very much by arguments borrowed from our secular interests, for it is not only represented as damning in the other world, but as impoverishing in this.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Evil woman - literally, “woman of evil.” In reading what follows, it must be remembered that the warning is against the danger of the sin of the adulterous wife.
The words behind it
6 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| לִ֭שְׁמָרְךָ | lishmarekha | to keep you | H8104 → | 468 times |
| מֵאֵ֣שֶׁת | meeshet | from a woman of | H802 → | 781 times |
| רָ֑ע | ra' | evil | H7451 → | 662 times |
| מֵֽ֝חֶלְקַ֗ת | mechelkat | from smoothness of | H2513 → | |
| לָשׁ֥וֹן | lashon | tongue | H3956 → | 117 times |
| נָכְרִיָּֽה׃ | nakheriyah | a foreign [woman] | H5237 → | 45 times |
לִ֭שְׁמָרְךָto keep you
lishmarekhaH8104 →468 times
מֵאֵ֣שֶׁתfrom a woman of
meeshetH802 →781 times
רָ֑עevil
ra'H7451 →662 times
מֵֽ֝חֶלְקַ֗תfrom smoothness of
mechelkatH2513 →
לָשׁ֥וֹןtongue
lashonH3956 →117 times
נָכְרִיָּֽה׃a foreign [woman]
nakheriyahH5237 →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
Ecclesiastes 7:26And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a net, and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is…
it leads to
- Proverbs 22:14
The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit; he who is under the wrath of the LORD will fall into it.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Proverbs 5:3–5
Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,
- Ecclesiastes 2:26
To the man who is pleasing in His sight, He gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner He assigns the task of gathering and accumulating that which he will hand over…
- Proverbs 2:18–19
For her house sinks down to death, and her tracks to the departed spirits.
- Proverbs 22:14
Through
Proverbs 5:3Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,
it leads to
- Proverbs 2:16
It will rescue you from the forbidden woman, from the stranger with seductive words
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- Proverbs 2:16
Through
Proverbs 2:16It will rescue you from the forbidden woman, from the stranger with seductive words
it leads to
- Ecclesiastes 7:26
And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a net, and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is…
- Proverbs 23:27
For a prostitute is a deep pit, and an adulteress is a narrow well.
- Proverbs 7:5–23
that they may keep you from the adulteress, from the stranger with seductive words.
- Ecclesiastes 7:26
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Proverbs
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.