Proverbs 5:20
in Proverbs 5Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, or embrace the bosom of a stranger?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
For why shouldest thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, And embrace the bosom of a foreigner?
KJV
And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
⋯
This verse in Proverbs 5
Commentary
6 notes on this verseWhen Scripture says, "Do not keep going steady with a foreign woman," it is advising us to make use of secular education but not to settle there permanently. Each generation received beneficial gifts at the appropriate points, but they were in preparation for the Word of the Lord.
This site's exposition
embrace the bosom of a stranger
on Proverbs 5:20-23
The father's question, “Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress,” borrows the word given to married love and turns it against misdirected desire. In the last verses “the cords of his sin entangle him,” sin's own discipline, the trap a man ties for himself.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
Why are you led astray, my son, by a foreign woman? etc. And it should be understood of both the prostitute and heresy.
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
By figures, in which well, cistern, and fountain [Pr 5:15, 18] represent the wife, and rivers of waters [Pr 5:16] the children, men are exhorted to constancy and satisfaction in lawful conjugal enjoyments. In Pr 5:16, fountains (in the plural) rather denote the produce or waters of a spring, literally, "what is from a spring," and corresponds with "rivers of waters."
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Emphasis is laid (see the Pro 2:16 note) upon the origin of the beguiler.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְלָ֤מָּה | velamah | and <to> why? | H4100 → | 752 times |
| תִשְׁגֶּ֣ה | tishgeh | will you go astray | H7686 → | 21 times |
| בְנִ֣י | veni | O son my | H1121 → | 4930 times |
| בְזָרָ֑ה | vezarah | with a strange [woman] | H2114 → | 77 times |
| וּ֝תְחַבֵּ֗ק | utechabek | <so> may you embrace? | H2263 → | |
| חֵ֣ק | chek | [the] bosom of | H2436 → | 38 times |
| נָכְרִיָּֽה׃ | nakheriyah | a foreign [woman] | H5237 → | 45 times |
וְלָ֤מָּהand <to> why?
velamahH4100 →752 times
תִשְׁגֶּ֣הwill you go astray
tishgehH7686 →21 times
בְנִ֣יO son my
veniH1121 →4930 times
בְזָרָ֑הwith a strange [woman]
vezarahH2114 →77 times
וּ֝תְחַבֵּ֗ק<so> may you embrace?
utechabekH2263 →
חֵ֣ק[the] bosom of
chekH2436 →38 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
Proverbs 22:14The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit; he who is under the wrath of the LORD will fall into it.
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…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Proverbs 23:27
For a prostitute is a deep pit, and an adulteress is a narrow well.
- Proverbs 6:24–29
to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.
- Ecclesiastes 7:26
Through
Proverbs 6:24to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.
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 5:3
Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Proverbs 7:5
that they may keep you from the adulteress, from the stranger with seductive words.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Proverbs 2:16
Through
1 Kings 11:1King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh—women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women.
it leads to
- Proverbs 6:24
to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- 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.
- Proverbs 6:24
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; Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata Book 1; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763).