Proverbs 9:17
in Proverbs 9“Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is tasty!”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Stolen waters are sweet, And bread eaten in secret is pleasant.
KJV
Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.
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This verse in Proverbs 9
Commentary
13 notes on this verse"The foolish and bold woman comes to want bread." What bread? Surely that bread which comes down from heaven. And he immediately adds, "The earth-born perish in her house, rush into the depths of hell." Who are the earth-born that perish in her house? They of course who follow the first Adam, who is of the earth, and not the second, who is from heaven.
This site's exposition
A foolish woman is clamorous
on Proverbs 9:13-18
Folly sets a counter-table built entirely as Wisdom's mirror image, sitting at her own door on a seat in the high places of the city, calling the same passengers with the same opening line, whoso is simple, let him turn in hither. Her menu is the chapter's whole argument in two clauses, stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant, pleasure claimed only because it is taken rather than given. The narrator supplies what the guest cannot see from where he sits, he knoweth not that the dead are there, and her guests are in the depths of hell, closing the chapter and the first nine chapters together on the same choice the book opened with.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
I came upon that brazen woman, empty of prudence, who, in Solomon's obscure parable, sits on a seat at the door outside her house and says, "Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant." This woman seduced me, because she found my soul outside its own door, dwelling externally in the eye of my flesh and ruminating within myself on such food as I had swallowed through my physical senses.
Bread is used in a good sense in "I am the living bread which came down from heaven," but in a bad sense in "hidden bread is more pleasant." Many other things are used in the same way. Those examples that I have mentioned create little doubt as to their meaning, for things ought not to be used as examples unless they are clear. There are, however, instances in which it is uncertain whether the signification is to be taken in a good sense or in an evil sense.
Scripture sets down bread and water in clear reference simply to the heresies that use bread and water in their offertory contrary to the rules of the church. There are some who actually celebrate the Eucharist with plain water. "Jump up; do not linger in her place." Scripture is using the ambiguous word place to designate the synagogue rather than the church. Then it adds, "In this way you will be crossing a foreign water," regarding heretical baptism as foreign and improper, "and traversing a foreign river"—one which takes you astray and dumps you in the sea, where everyone who allows himself to be led away from the firm ground of the truth is deposited.
The Medieval Church2 voices
A commentator
Bernard of ClairvauxSermons on the Song of Songs, Sermon 80 · Written before 1153.
proposed
Having taken occasion from the difference between the image and the soul which is made to the image, I thought it worthwhile to make this excursus, so that if any perhaps have at some time drunk something from stolen waters, which seem sweeter, having taken …
What does water signify but human knowledge? This is in accord with Solomon's words implying the voice of heretics: "Stolen waters are sweeter." What does the Lamb's raw flesh indicate but his humanity that has been thoughtlessly and irreverently disregarded? Everything which we think of profoundly we cook, as it were, in our minds. The flesh of the Lamb was not to be eaten raw or boiled in water, because our Redeemer is not to be judged merely a human being, nor are we to use human science to explain how God could have been made man.
6 more voices on this verse
The Medieval Church1 voice
Stolen waters are sweeter, etc. Wisdom has publicly set forth her table and mixed her wine; but the foolish woman, having nothing pure, gathers whoever she can to stolen waters and hidden bread, because the Catholic Church publicly spreads the feast of the divine words …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Stolen waters are sweet,.... Wells and fountains of waters in those hot countries were very valuable, and were the property of particular persons; about which there were sometimes great strife and contention; and they were sometimes sealed and kept from the use of others; see Gen 26:18; now waters got by stealth from such wells and fountains were sweeter than their own, or what might be had in common and without difficulty, to which the proverb alludes.
Simple - Ignorant, and weak. A former - He shews whom he meant by the foolish, ver. 6, even scorners and wicked men, and presses his last advice of forsaking them because there was no good, but hurt to be got from them. A scorner - An obstinate and incorrigible sinner.
quarantine:anchor (2026-07-29) — cites-ver-6-anchored-13-17
The bread is eaten in secret, for fear of discovery and punishment, and the sinner takes a pride in having so far baffled his convictions, and triumphed over them, that, notwithstanding that fear, he dares commit the sin, and can make himself believe that, being eaten in secret, it shall never be discovered or reckoned for.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
The besetting sin of all times and countries, the one great proof of the inherent corruption of man’s nature. Pleasures are attractive because they are forbidden (compare Rom 7:7).
Stolen waters are sweet - I suppose this to be a proverbial mode of expression, importing that illicit pleasures are sweeter than those which are legal The meaning is easy to be discerned; and the conduct of multitudes shows that they are ruled by this adage. On it are built all the adulterous intercourses in the land.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
Stolen water is sweet The pleasure afforded by intimacy with a single woman does not equal that afforded by intimacy with a married woman. Also, regarding the commandments (other editions: sectarianism), stolen water is sweet, for they were afraid to do it in public, but did it in secret.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
and whoever is devoid of sense (lit. and one devoid of sense.) and she says to him these words. What does she say to him?
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. 2 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
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| מַֽיִם־ | mayim- | waters | H4325 → | 581 times |
| גְּנוּבִ֥ים | genuvim | stolen | H1589 → | 40 times |
| יִמְתָּ֑קוּ | yimtaku | they are sweet | H4985 → | |
| וְלֶ֖חֶם | velechem | and bread of | H3899 → | 298 times |
| סְתָרִ֣ים | setarim | secret places | H5643 → | 36 times |
| יִנְעָֽם׃ | yinam | it is delightful | H5276 → | 8 times |
מַֽיִם־waters
mayim-H4325 →581 times
גְּנוּבִ֥יםstolen
genuvimH1589 →40 times
יִמְתָּ֑קוּthey are sweet
yimtakuH4985 →
וְלֶ֖חֶםand bread of
velechemH3899 →298 times
סְתָרִ֣יםsecret places
setarimH5643 →36 times
יִנְעָֽם׃it is delightful
yinamH5276 →8 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
Genesis 3:6When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom, she took the fruit and ate it. She also gave…
it leads to
- 1 John 2:16
For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not from the Father but from the world.
- James 1:14–15
But each one is tempted when by his own evil desires he is lured away and enticed.
- 1 Timothy 2:14
And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman who was deceived and fell into transgression.
- 2 Samuel 11:2
One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing—a very beautiful woman.
- Joshua 7:21
When I saw among the spoils a beautiful cloak from Shinar, two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in…
- 1 John 2:16
Through
Proverbs 20:17Food gained by fraud is sweet to a man, but later his mouth is full of gravel.
it leads to
- Ecclesiastes 11:9
Rejoice, O young man, while you are young, and let your heart be glad in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes,…
- Proverbs 9:17–18
“Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is tasty!”
- Job 20:12–20
Though evil is sweet in his mouth and he conceals it under his tongue,
- Ecclesiastes 11:9
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies4
About Proverbs
This page draws on 13 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, Confessions 3.6.11; Augustine of Hippo, CHRISTIAN INSTRUCTION 25:36; Bede, Commentary on Proverbs; Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons on the Song of Songs, Sermon 80; Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata Book 1; Gregory the Dialogist, FORTY GOSPEL HOMILIES 22; Jerome, Against Jovinianus 1.28; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.