Proverbs 22:14
in Proverbs 22The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit; he who is under the wrath of the LORD will fall into it.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
The mouth of strange women is a deep pit; He that is abhorred of Jehovah shall fall therein.
KJV
The mouth of strange women is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein.
⋯
This verse in Proverbs 22
Commentary
8 notes on this verseThe mouth of one speaking ill is a great pit, a steep precipice for the innocent, but steeper for one of ill will. An innocent person, though easily credulous, falls quickly, but when he has fallen rises again. The slanderer is thrown headlong by his own acts, from which he will never emerge or escape.
This site's exposition
The slacker says
on Proverbs 22:13-14
The slacker says there is a lion outside and he will be slain in the streets, excuse-making. "The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit," a real danger after the invented one. The one who "is under the wrath of the LORD will fall into it."
This site's exposition
The mouth of an adulteress
Matthew Henry reads the second line as the wrath of the LORD already at work. God withdraws his restraining grace, and the man falls into the deep pit as the punishment of other sins. Adam Clarke compares 23:27, where the same pit appears.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
"A deep pit is the mouth of a strange woman," etc. He who willingly embraces the words or kisses of a harlot, as if he already knocks at the door of the infernal pit, will soon be drowned if he does not withdraw his foot …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Dread them; have nothing to do with them; for, 1. Those who abandon themselves to that sin give proof that they are abandoned of God: it is a deep pit, which those fall into that are abhorred of the Lord, who leaves them to themselves to enter into that temptation, and takes off the bridle of his restraining grace, to punish them for other sins.
The mouth of strange women is a deep pit,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
The mouth of strange women is a deep pit - In Pro 23:27, he says, A whore is a Deep Ditch:, oud a strange woman is a Narrow Pit. The allusions in these three places are too plain to be misunderstood. Virgil’s hell has been adduced in illustration: - - Sate sanguine Divum, Tros Anchisiade, facilis decensus Averni; Noctes atque dies patet atri janua Ditis: Sed revocare gradum, superasque evadere ad auras, Hoc Opus, hic Labor est. Pauci quos aequus amavit Jupiter, aut ardens evexit ad aethera virtus, Dis geniti potuere. Virg.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
The fall of the man into the snare of the harlot seems to be the consequence of the abhorrence or wrath of Yahweh. That abhorrence is, however, the result of previous evil. The man is left to himself, and sin becomes the penalty of sin.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
The lazy man says, “There is a lion outside..” How will I go out to learn Torah?
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. 6 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
8 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| שׁוּחָ֣ה | shuchah | [is] a pit | H7745 → | |
| עֲ֭מֻקָּה | ʾamukah | deep | H6013 → | 17 times |
| פִּ֣י | pi | [the] mouth of | H6310 → | 498 times |
| זָר֑וֹת | zarot | strange [women] | H2114 → | 77 times |
| זְע֥וּם | zeum | [one who] is cursed of | H2194 → | 12 times |
| יְ֝הוָ֗ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| יִפָּל | yipol- | he will fall | H5307 → | 435 times |
| שָֽׁם׃ | sham | there | H8033 → | 834 times |
שׁוּחָ֣ה[is] a pit
shuchahH7745 →
עֲ֭מֻקָּהdeep
ʾamukahH6013 →17 times
פִּ֣י[the] mouth of
piH6310 →498 times
זָר֑וֹתstrange [women]
zarotH2114 →77 times
זְע֥וּם[one who] is cursed of
zeumH2194 →12 times
יְ֝הוָ֗הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
יִפָּלhe will fall
yipol-H5307 →435 times
שָֽׁם׃there
shamH8033 →834 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 5:3–5
Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,
- Proverbs 2:16
It will rescue you from the forbidden woman, from the stranger with seductive words
- Proverbs 2:18–19
For her house sinks down to death, and her tracks to the departed spirits.
- 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 7:21–27
With her great persuasion she entices him; with her flattering lips she lures him.
- Proverbs 5:3–5
Through
Nehemiah 13:26Did 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…
it leads to
- 1 Kings 11:1–8
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.
- 1 Kings 3:13
Moreover, I will give you what you did not request—both riches and honor—so that during all your days no man in any kingdom will be your equal.
- 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…
- 1 Kings 11:1–8
Where this verse is studied
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); Ambrose of Milan, LETTER 15; Bede, Commentary on Proverbs; Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.