Proverbs 5:4
in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.
BSB
ASV
But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword.
KJV
But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.
Even when the sinner looks for gratification, he doesn't find the fruit of his sin pleasant. As the wisdom of God says in another place, "Bread of deceit is pleasant to a man, but after he eats it, his mouth will be filled with gravel." And, "Honey drips from the lips of an adulteress, and for a time it tastes sweet, but in the end you will find it more bitter than gall and sharper than a two-edged sword." So he eats and is quite pleased for a little while.
"In the end," [Solomon] says, "you will find what seemed sweet in the beginning to be more bitter than gall and sharper than the edge of a sword." But the nature of righteousness is the opposite: In the beginning, it seems more bitter, but in the end, when it produces fruits of virtue, it is found to be sweeter than honey.
Bitter as wormwood - כלענה Kelanah, like the detestable herb wormwood, or something analogous to it: something as excessive in its bitterness, as honey is in its sweetness.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Hebrews 4:12For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
leads to
“Is not My word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that smashes a rock?”
so My word that proceeds from My mouth will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish what I please, and it will prosper where I send it.
And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
The unfolding of Your words gives light; it informs the simple.
For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.
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…
leads to
The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit; he who is under the wrath of the LORD will fall into it.
Through
Psalms 55:21His speech is smooth as butter, but war is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, yet they are swords unsheathed.
leads to
My soul is among the lions; I lie down with ravenous beasts— with men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.
Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,