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Commentary on Proverbs 5 verses 1–14
Here we have,
I. A solemn preface, to introduce the caution which follows, Pro 5:1, Pro 5:2. Solomon here addresses himself to his son, that is, to all young men, as unto his children, whom he has an affection for and some influence upon. In God's name, he demands attention; for he writes by divine inspiration, and is a prophet, though he begins not with, Thus saith the Lord. "Attend, and bow thy ear; not only hear what is said, and read what is written, but apply thy mind to it and consider it diligently." To gain attention he urges, 1. The excellency of his discourse: "It is my wisdom, my understanding; if I undertake to teach thee wisdom I cannot prescribe any thing to be more properly called so; moral philosophy is my philosophy, and that which is to be learned in my school." 2. The usefulness of it: "Attend to what I say," (1.) "That thou mayest act wisely - that thou mayest regard discretion." Solomon's lectures are not designed to fill our heads with notions, with matters of nice speculation, or doubtful disputation, but to guide us in the government of ourselves, that we may act prudently, so as becomes us and so as will be for our true interest. (2.) "That thou mayest speak wisely - that thy lips may keep knowledge, and thou mayest have it ready at thy tongue's end" (as we say), "for the benefit of those with whom thou dost converse." The priest's lips are said to keep knowledge (Mal 2:7); but those that are ready and mighty in the scriptures may not only in their devotions, but in their discourses, be spiritual priests.
II. The caution itself, and that is to abstain from fleshly lusts, from adultery, fornication, and all uncleanness. Some apply this figuratively, and by the adulterous woman here understand idolatry, or false doctrine, which tends to debauch men's minds and manners, or the sensual appetite, to which it may as fitly as any thing be applied; but the primary scope of it is plainly to warn us against seventh-commandment sins, which youth is so prone to, the temptations to which are so violent, the examples of which are so many, and which, where admitted, are so destructive to all the seeds of virtue in the soul that it is not strange that Solomon's cautions against it are so very pressing and so often repeated. Solomon here, as a faithful watchman, gives fair warning to all, as they regard their lives and comforts, to dread this sin, for it will certainly be their ruin. Two things we are here warned to take heed of: -
1.That we do not listen to the charms of this sin. It is true the lips of a strange woman drop as a honey-comb (Pro 5:3); the pleasures of fleshly lust are very tempting (like the wine that gives its colour in the cup and moves itself aright); its mouth, the kisses of its mouth, the words of its mouth, are smoother than oil, that the poisonous pill may go down glibly and there may be no suspicion of harm in it. But consider, (1.) How fatal the consequences will be. What fruit will the sinner have of his honey and oil when the end will be, [1.] The terrors of conscience: It is bitter as wormwood, Pro 5:4. What was luscious in the mouth rises in the stomach and turns sour there; it cuts, in the reflection, like a two-edged sword; take it which way you will, it wounds. Solomon could speak by experience, Ecc 7:26. [2.] The torments of hell. If some that have been guilty of this sin have repented and been saved, yet the direct tendency of the sin is to destruction of body and soul; the feet of it go down to death, nay, they take hold on hell, to pull it to the sinner, as if the damnations slumbered too long, Pro 5:5. Those that are entangled in this sin should be reminded that there is but a step between them and hell, and that they are ready to drop into it. (2.) Consider how false the charms are. The adulteress flatters and speaks fair, her words are honey and oil, but she will deceive those that hearken to her: Her ways are movable, that thou canst not know them; she often changes her disguise, and puts on a great variety of false colours, because, if she be rightly known, she is certainly hated. Proteus-like, she puts on many shapes, that she may keep in with those whom she has a design upon. And what does she aim at with all this art and management? Nothing but to keep them from pondering the path of life, for she knows that, if they once come to do that, she shall certainly lose them. Those are ignorant of Satan's devices who do not understand that the great thing he drives at in all his temptations is, [1.] To keep them from choosing the path of life, to prevent them from being religious and from going to heaven, that, being himself shut out from happiness, he may keep them out from it. [2.] In order hereunto, to keep them from pondering the path of life, from considering how reasonable it is that they should walk in that path, and how much it will be for their advantage. Be it observed, to the honour of religion, that it certainly gains its point with all those that will but allow themselves the liberty of a serious thought and will weigh things impartially in an even balance, and that the devil has no way of securing men in his interests but by diverting them with continual amusements of one kind or another from the calm and sober consideration of the things that belong to their peace. And uncleanness is a sin that does as much as any thing blind the understanding, sear the conscience, and keep people from pondering the path of life. Whoredom takes away the heart, Hos 4:11.
2.That we do not approach the borders of this sin, Pro 5:7, Pro 5:8.
(1.)This caution is introduced with a solemn preface: "Hear me now therefore, O you children! whoever you are that read or hear these lines, take notice of what I say, and mix faith with it, treasure it up, and depart not from the words of my mouth, as those will do that hearken to the words of the strange woman. Do not only receive what I say, for the present merely, but cleave to it, and let it be ready to thee, and of force with thee, when thou art most violently assaulted by the temptation."
(2.)The caution itself is very pressing: "Remove thy way far from her; if thy way should happen to lie near her, and thou shouldst have a fair pretence of being led by business within the reach of her charms, yet change thy way, and alter the course of it, rather than expose thyself to danger; come not nigh the door of her house; go on the other side of the street, nay, go through some other street, though it be about." This intimates, [1.] That we ought to have a very great dread and detestation of the sin. We must fear it as we would a place infected with the plague; we must loathe it as the odour of carrion, that we will not come near. Then we are likely to preserve our purity when we conceive a rooted antipathy to all fleshly lusts. [2.] That we ought industriously to avoid every thing that may be an occasion of this sin or a step towards it. Those that would be kept from harm must keep out of harm's way. Such tinder there is in the corrupt nature that it is madness, upon any pretence whatsoever, to come near the sparks. If we thrust ourselves into temptation, we mocked God when we prayed, Lead us not into temptation. [3.] That we ought to be jealous over ourselves with a godly jealousy, and not to be so confident of the strength of our own resolutions as to venture upon the brink of sin, with a promise to ourselves that hitherto we will come and no further. [4.] That whatever has become a snare to us and an occasion of sin, though it be as a right eye and a right hand, we must pluck it out, cut it off, and cast it from us, must part with that which is dearest to us rather than hazard our own souls; this is our Saviour's command, Mat 5:28-30.
(3.)The arguments which Solomon here uses to enforce this caution are taken from the same topic with those before, the many mischiefs which attend this sin. [1.] It blasts the reputation. "Thou wilt give thy honour unto others (Pro 5:9); thou wilt lose it thyself; thou wilt put into the hand of each of thy neighbours a stone to throw at thee, for they will all, with good reason, cry shame on thee, will despise thee, and trample on thee, as a foolish men." Whoredom is a sin that makes men contemptible and base, and no man of sense or virtue will care to keep company with one that keeps company with harlots. [2.] It wastes the time, gives the years, the years of youth, the flower of men's time, unto the cruel, "that base lust of thine, which with the utmost cruelty wars against the soul, that base harlot which pretends an affection for thee, but really hunts for the precious life." Those years that should be given to the honour of a gracious God are spent in the service of a cruel sin. [3.] It ruins the estate (Pro 5:10): "Strangers will be filled with thy wealth, which thou art but entrusted with as a steward for thy family; and the fruit of thy labours, which should be provision for thy own house, will be in the house of a stranger, that neither has right to it nor will ever thank thee for it." [4.] It is destructive to the health, and shortens men's days: Thy flesh and thy body will be consumed by it, Pro 5:11. 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. Those that give themselves to work uncleanness with greediness waste their strength, throw themselves into weakness, and often have their bodies filled with loathsome distempers, by which the number of their months is cut off in the midst and they fall unpitied sacrifices to a cruel lust. [5.] It will fill the mind with horror, if ever conscience be awakened. "Though thou art merry now, sporting thyself in thy own deceivings, yet thou wilt certainly mourn at the last, Pro 5:11. Thou art all this while making work for repentance, and laying up matter for vexation and torment in the reflection, when the sin is set before thee in its own colours." Sooner or later it will bring sorrow, either when the soul is humbled and brought to repentance or when the flesh and body are consumed, either by sickness, when conscience flies in the sinner's face, or by the grave; when the body is rotting there, the soul is racking in the torments of hell, where the worm dies not, and "Son, remember," is the constant peal [plea?]. Solomon here brings in the convinced sinner reproaching himself, and aggravating his own folly. He will then most bitterly lament it. First, That because he hated to be reformed he therefore hated to be informed, and could not endure either to be taught his duty (How have I hated not only the discipline of being instructed, but the instruction itself, though all true and good!) or to be told of his faults - My heart despised reproof, Pro 5:12. He cannot but own that those who had the charge of him, parents, ministers, had done their part; they had been his teachers; they had instructed him, had given him good counsel and fair warning (Pro 5:13); but to his own shame and confusion does he speak it, and therein justifies God in all the miseries that were brought upon him, he had not obeyed their voice, for indeed he never inclined his ear to those that instructed him, never minded what they said nor admitted the impressions of it. Note, Those who have had a good education and do not live up to it will have a great deal to answer for another day; and those who will not now remember what they were taught, to conform themselves to it, will be made to remember it as an aggravation of their sin, and consequently of their ruin. Secondly, That by the frequent acts of sin the habits of it were so rooted and confirmed that his heart was fully set in him to commit it (Pro 5:14): I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly. When he came into the synagogue, or into the courts of the temple, to worship God with other Israelites, his unclean heart was full of wanton thoughts and desires and his eyes of adultery. Reverence of the place and company, and of the work that was doing, could not restrain him, but he was almost as wicked and vile there as any where. No sin will appear more frightful to an awakened conscience than the profanation of holy things; nor will any aggravation of sin render it more exceedingly sinful than the place we are honoured with in the congregation and assembly, and the advantages we enjoy thereby. Zimri and Cozbi avowed their villany in the sight of Moses and all the congregation (Num 25:6), and heart-adultery is as open to God, and must needs be most offensive to him, when we draw nigh to him in religious exercises. I was in all evil in defiance of the magistrates and judges, and their assemblies; so some understand it. Others refer it to the evil of punishment, not to the evil of sin: "I was made an example, a spectacle to the world. I was under almost all God's sore judgments in the midst of the congregation of Israel, set up for a mark. I stood up and cried in the congregation," Job 30:28. Let that be avoided which will be thus rued at last.
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SUMMARY
Proverbs 5:13 presents the poignant and bitter lament of an individual who, having suffered the devastating consequences of their choices, looks back with profound regret on a life characterized by a willful rejection of wise counsel. This verse serves as a powerful and timeless warning, illustrating that the path of folly, particularly in the realm of moral purity and sexual integrity as highlighted in the surrounding chapter, inevitably leads to self-inflicted pain, sorrow, and ruin, stemming directly from a stubborn refusal to heed the protective and life-giving instruction offered by teachers and mentors.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Proverbs 5:13 employs several potent literary devices to convey its message of profound regret and the dire consequences of folly. The most prominent is Parallelism, specifically synonymous parallelism, where the second clause ("nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!") reiterates and intensifies the meaning of the first ("And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers"). This repetition emphasizes the dual nature of the rejection: a refusal to obey the spoken word and a refusal to even listen receptively. The verse also uses Metonymy, where "voice" stands for the instruction itself, and "ear" represents the faculty of hearing, understanding, and receptivity. The phrase "inclined mine ear" is a vivid Idiom or Metaphor for attentive listening and a willing posture to learn. The entire verse functions as a Lament, a heartfelt cry of deep regret and self-reproach from a past, painful perspective, serving as a powerful Warning to the present listener. The speaker's Confession of their own culpability ("I have not obeyed," "mine ear") adds to the pathos and authenticity of the warning, making it resonate with profound human experience.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
This verse powerfully articulates a core biblical truth: the path of wisdom is the path of life and flourishing, and the rejection of wisdom inevitably leads to destruction and regret. It underscores the profound value God places on instruction and obedience, not as arbitrary rules, but as divinely ordained safeguards designed for human well-being and protection. The lament of Proverbs 5:13 echoes the broader biblical narrative of humanity's struggle with obedience to divine instruction, from the Garden of Eden onward. It highlights that true freedom and ultimate well-being are found not in autonomous self-will, but in humble submission to the guidance of those who speak truth, ultimately culminating in submission to God's revealed Word. The pain of regret expressed here is a theological consequence of choosing self-indulgence and rebellious autonomy over the protective and life-giving boundaries of God's design for human existence.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Proverbs 5:13 serves as a timeless and convicting mirror, inviting us to examine our own posture toward wise counsel and divine instruction. The bitter lament of the speaker is a stark reminder that the consequences of rejecting wisdom are not merely theoretical or distant but deeply personal, painful, and often self-inflicted. In a world saturated with competing voices, the allure of instant gratification, and a pervasive spirit of autonomy, this verse calls us to cultivate a posture of profound humility and teachability. It urges us to actively seek out, cherish, and submit to the guidance of parents, spiritual mentors, and, preeminently, the inspired Word of God, recognizing that such counsel is a divine gift intended for our protection, flourishing, and ultimate good. To "incline our ear" means to listen with an open heart, a receptive spirit, and a readiness to receive correction and direction, even when it challenges our desires or confronts our comfortable habits. By embracing wisdom now, we can preempt the profound regret that inevitably comes from choosing fleeting pleasure over lasting peace, safeguarding our future from the self-inflicted wounds of disobedience and folly. This verse compels us to consider the long-term trajectory of our choices and to choose the path of wisdom today.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Who are the "teachers" and "them that instructed me" in this verse, and why is their counsel so important?
Answer: The "teachers" (Hebrew: yârâh) and "them that instructed me" (Hebrew: lâmad) primarily refer to parents, especially the father, who were responsible for imparting moral, practical, and spiritual wisdom within the family unit in ancient Israel. They could also include other wise elders, scribes, or community leaders who served as mentors. Their counsel is crucial because it represents the accumulated wisdom of generations, often rooted in divine principles and covenantal instruction. In the context of Proverbs, this instruction is designed to guide individuals away from destructive paths, such as sexual immorality and financial ruin, and towards a life of righteousness, honor, and flourishing. Rejecting their guidance is tantamount to rejecting the very safeguards God provides for a stable, blessed, and prosperous life, leading inevitably to regret and ruin, as the lament in this verse so powerfully illustrates.
What kind of "regret" is being expressed in Proverbs 5:13, and how does it relate to the broader context of Proverbs 5?
Answer: The regret expressed in Proverbs 5:13 is a profound, retrospective sorrow over self-inflicted suffering due to past disobedience and stubborn refusal to listen. It is the bitter realization that one's current distress—which, in the broader context of Proverbs 5, includes the loss of wealth, health, reputation, peace, and even life itself (Proverbs 5:9-11)—could have been entirely avoided had wise counsel been humbly heeded. This is not merely a fleeting sadness but a deep, agonizing recognition of one's own culpability and foolish choices. The father presents this lament to his son as a powerful rhetorical device, allowing the son to hear the voice of his own potential future regret, thereby emphasizing the urgency and gravity of the warning against the seductive and ultimately destructive allure of the adulterous woman. It's a "could have been" moment of profound self-reproach.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Proverbs 5:13, a lament over the rejection of wise instruction, finds its profound Christ-centered fulfillment and ultimate answer in several transformative ways. Firstly, while the speaker regrets not obeying human teachers, the ultimate Teacher and perfect embodiment of all wisdom is Jesus Christ. He is presented in the New Testament as the very wisdom of God incarnate (1 Corinthians 1:24), through whom all things were created and in whom all wisdom and knowledge are hidden (Colossians 1:16 and Colossians 2:3). The failure to "incline the ear" to human instruction, as lamented in Proverbs, foreshadows humanity's far greater failure to receive and obey the divine instruction perfectly embodied in Christ. Yet, unlike the lamenting individual in Proverbs, Jesus Christ perfectly "inclined His ear" to the Father's will, perfectly obeying unto death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8). Furthermore, the dire consequences of rejecting wisdom, as seen in Proverbs 5:13, culminate in the ultimate spiritual judgment for those who reject Christ, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and the only path to the Father (John 14:6). Conversely, for those who, by grace through faith, turn to Christ, the bitter regret of past disobedience and folly is replaced by the profound joy of forgiveness, redemption, and the transformative power of His indwelling Spirit, who enables true obedience and leads into all truth (John 16:13). Thus, the lament of Proverbs 5:13 points to humanity's desperate need for a perfect Teacher and a perfect obedient one, both found in Jesus, who offers not only redemption from the very regret the verse describes but also the wisdom and power to live a life of true flourishing.