Proverbs 5:11
in Proverbs 5At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent,
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And thou mourn at thy latter end, When thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
KJV
And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
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This verse in Proverbs 5
Commentary
9 notes on this verseAnd thou mourn at the last,.... Or roar as a lion, as the word (s) signifies; see Pro 19:12; expressing great distress of mind, horror of conscience, and vehement lamentations; and yet not having and exercising true repentance, but declaring a worldly sorrow, which worketh death.
This site's exposition
do not turn aside from the words of my mouth
on Proverbs 5:7-11
The counsel turns practical, “Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house,” making distance the safeguard. The losses named are severe and public, “your years to one who is cruel,” and “your labors” spent to “enrich the house of a foreigner”.
This site's exposition
At the end of your life you will groan
Groan translates naham, the growl of a lion or the roar of the sea, as Adam Clarke notes. The word for body means what is left, the remnant of a spent frame. The honey of verse 3 ends in that sound.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
And you moan at the last, etc. To be prefixed from above, Lest perhaps. And the sense is: Therefore keep yourself chaste, lest you be forced to groan in punishments, when not only the carnal allurements pass away, but also with the body itself being …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
The lusts of uncleanness not only war against the soul, which the sinner neglects and is in no care about, but they war against the body too, which he is so indulgent of and is in such care to please and pamper, such deceitful, such foolish, such hurtful lusts are they.
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
When thy flesh and thy body are consumed - The word שאר shear, which we render body, signifies properly the remains, residue, or remnant of a thing: and is applied here to denote the breathing carcass, putrid with the concomitant disease of debauchery: a public reproach which the justice of God entails on this species of iniquity. The mourning here spoken of is of the most excessive kind: the word נהם naham is often applied to the growling of a lion, and the hoarse incessant murmuring of the sea.
THE wise man saw the young and simple straying into the house of the strange woman. The house seemed so completely different from what he knew it to be that he desired to shed a light upon it, that the young man might not sin in the dark, but might understand the nature of his deeds. The wise man looked abroad and he saw but one lamp suitable to his purpose. It was named, "At the last."
THE wise man saw the young and simple straying into the house of the strange woman. The house seemed so completely different from what he knew it to be that he desired to shed a light upon it, that the young man might not sin in the dark, but might understand the nature of his deeds. The wise man looked abroad and he saw but one lamp suitable to his purpose. It was named, "At the last." So, snatching this, he held it up in the midst of the strange woman's den of infamy and everything was changed from what it had been before—the truth had come to light and the deceptive had vanished. The young man dreamed of pleasure. In wanton dalliance he hoped to find delight. But when the lamp of "At the last" began to shine, he saw rottenness in his bones, filthiness in his flesh. He saw pains and griefs and sorrows as the necessary consequence of sin and, wisely guided, wisely taught, the simple-minded started back and listened to the admonitions of the teacher, "Come not near the door of her house, for her gates lead down to the chambers of death." Now if this lamp of "At the last" was found so useful in this one particular case, I think it must be equally useful everywhere else! And it may help us all to understand the truth of matters if we will look at them in the light which this wonderful lamp yields. I can only compare my text in its matchless power to Ithuriel's spear with which, according to Milton, he touched the toad and straightway Satan appeared in his true colors. If I can apply my text to certain things today, they will come out in their true light. "At the last," shall be the rod in my hand with which I shall touch tinsel and it shall disappear, and you will see it is not gold.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Yet one more curse is attendant on impurity. Then, as now, disease was the penalty of this sin.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
And you shall moan when your end comes The end will be that you will moan when your end comes.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
lest strangers be sated with your strength The prophets of Baal, who collect money with their lies and their hastiness.
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
5 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְנָהַמְתָּ֥ | venahamta | and you will groan | H5098 → | |
| בְאַחֲרִיתֶ֑ךָ | veacharitekha | at end your | H319 → | 61 times |
| בִּכְל֥וֹת | bikhlot | when wastes away | H3615 → | 208 times |
| בְּ֝שָׂרְךָ֗ | besarekha | flesh your | H1320 → | 270 times |
| וּשְׁאֵרֶֽךָ׃ | usheerekha | and body your | H7607 → |
וְנָהַמְתָּ֥and you will groan
venahamtaH5098 →
בְאַחֲרִיתֶ֑ךָat end your
veacharitekhaH319 →61 times
בִּכְל֥וֹתwhen wastes away
bikhlotH3615 →208 times
בְּ֝שָׂרְךָ֗flesh your
besarekhaH1320 →270 times
וּשְׁאֵרֶֽךָ׃and body your
usheerekhaH7607 →
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
Hebrews 13:4Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.
it leads to
- Genesis 2:24
For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
- Proverbs 5:15–23
Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.
- 1 Corinthians 7:2–16
But because there is so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband.
- Galatians 5:19
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery;
- Genesis 1:27–28
So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
- Genesis 2:24
Through
Revelation 22:15But outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
it leads to
- Revelation 21:8
But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This…
- Galatians 5:19–21
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery;
- Philippians 3:2
Watch out for those dogs, those workers of evil, those mutilators of the flesh!
- Revelation 21:8
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); Bede, Commentary on Proverbs; Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 667: “Last Things” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.