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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.
Your flight is a good one if your heart does not act out the counsels of sinners and their designs. Your flight is a good one if your eye flees the sight of cups and drinking vessels, so that it may not become envious as it lingers over the wine. Your flight is good if your eye turns away from the woman stranger, so that your tongue may keep the truth. Your flight is a good one if you do not answer the fool according to his folly. Your flight is good if you direct your footsteps away from the countenance of fools. Indeed, one swiftly goes astray with bad guides; but if you wish your flight to be a good one, remove your ways far from their words.
Keep your way far from her, etc. And the apostle says, Flee fornication (1 Corinthians 6). Because indeed the first remedy of this vice is to be far from those whose presence either allures or cooperates in the vice. But it also benefits weak listeners to be entirely separated from the hearing of heretics.
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SUMMARY
Proverbs 5:8 delivers a powerful and urgent imperative from a father to his son, commanding an absolute and proactive separation from the seductive influence of the "strange woman" or adulteress. This verse functions as a critical, practical directive within the broader warning against sexual immorality presented in Proverbs 5. It underscores that true wisdom extends beyond merely resisting temptation in the moment; it demands the intentional establishment of significant distance—both physically and relationally—from any source that could lead to moral compromise and spiritual ruin. The verse emphasizes the profound danger of even approaching the periphery of sin, advocating for decisive and complete avoidance as a foundational principle for a righteous and flourishing life.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Proverbs 5:8 masterfully employs several literary devices to convey its urgent and vital message. The primary device is Imperative Mood, as both "Remove" and "come not nigh" are direct, forceful commands, conveying the non-negotiable nature of the instruction. This direct address underscores the father's earnest desire for his son's well-being and the critical importance of the warning. The verse also utilizes Metaphor extensively; "thy way" is a metaphor for one's life course or moral conduct, while "the door of her house" is a powerful metaphor for the entry point of temptation or moral ruin. This vivid imagery makes the abstract concept of avoiding sin tangible and relatable, painting a clear picture of the boundary to be maintained. Furthermore, the use of Hyperbole or extreme language ("far from her," "not nigh") emphasizes the absolute nature of the required separation, suggesting that no amount of distance is too much when dealing with such potent temptation. There is also an element of Antithesis implied, as this path of extreme avoidance stands in stark contrast to the destructive "way" of the adulteress described earlier in the chapter, highlighting the binary choice between life and death.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Proverbs 5:8 encapsulates a profound theological principle: the wisdom of proactive avoidance in the face of temptation. This is not merely pragmatic advice but a spiritual discipline rooted in understanding the insidious nature of sin and the inherent human propensity to fall. It teaches that true spiritual strength often lies not in confronting temptation head-on, but in strategically removing oneself from its sphere of influence, recognizing that certain battles are best won by not fighting them in the first place. This principle aligns with God's call to holiness and separation from the world's corrupting influences, emphasizing that our environment and associations profoundly impact our spiritual walk. It underscores the biblical understanding that sin is not just an act but a process, often beginning with small compromises or lingering in dangerous proximity. The verse calls for a radical commitment to purity that anticipates and preempts the very possibility of moral failure.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Proverbs 5:8 offers timeless wisdom for navigating the pervasive temptations of our modern world. In an era saturated with digital allure, blurred moral lines, and constant connectivity, the command to "remove thy way far from her" and "come not nigh the door of her house" takes on new and profound urgency. This isn't just about physical proximity to an individual but about the intentional creation of distance from any person, place, or digital content that compromises one's moral integrity or spiritual purity. It calls believers to a radical commitment to holiness, recognizing that even small concessions or lingering near the "door" of temptation can lead to devastating consequences. Applying this verse means proactively identifying personal vulnerabilities and establishing clear, non-negotiable boundaries—whether it is managing online interactions, discerning entertainment choices, selecting social circles, or even curating one's thought life. It is a call to cultivate a lifestyle of vigilance, self-control, and a deep reverence for God's standards, understanding that prevention is always superior to the painful and often destructive process of recovery from sin. This wisdom empowers us to live lives of integrity, guarding our hearts and minds against the subtle encroachments of evil.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
What does "the strange woman" mean in Proverbs?
Answer: In the book of Proverbs, "the strange woman" (Hebrew: 'ishshah zarah or nokriyah) is a recurring motif, primarily referring to an adulteress or a harlot. She is depicted as someone whose ways lead to death and destruction, contrasting sharply with Lady Wisdom, who leads to life. While she might literally refer to a foreign woman, her "strangeness" primarily denotes her deviation from the covenantal and moral norms of Israelite society, particularly regarding sexual fidelity within marriage. She represents any seductive influence that draws one away from the path of righteousness and into moral ruin, especially through sexual sin. This figure embodies the allure of illicit pleasure and the devastating consequences of pursuing it outside of God's design for marriage.
Is this verse only about sexual temptation, or does it have broader application?
Answer: While Proverbs 5 explicitly addresses sexual immorality, the principle of Proverbs 5:8—proactive avoidance of temptation—has broad and profound application to all areas of life. The "door of her house" can be understood metaphorically as any entry point to sin or compromise. This includes financial temptations, substance abuse, gossip, anger, pride, or any habit or relationship that draws one away from God's will and into destructive patterns. The wisdom is to identify our personal "doors" of temptation and establish significant distance from them, rather than testing our limits or lingering in dangerous "gray areas." This principle is echoed throughout Scripture, such as in 1 Thessalonians 5:22, which advises abstaining from "every form of evil," emphasizing a comprehensive approach to holiness.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Proverbs 5:8, with its urgent call to flee temptation and maintain distance from moral compromise, finds its ultimate fulfillment and empowering reality in Jesus Christ. While the Old Testament law and wisdom literature provided commands for righteous living, humanity's inherent sinfulness often rendered them incapable of consistent obedience. Jesus, however, is the embodiment of perfect wisdom and purity, who successfully "removed His way far" from every temptation. He never "came nigh the door" of sin, flawlessly fulfilling the righteous requirements of the law and demonstrating perfect obedience to God's will, even when directly confronted by Satan in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11). For believers, Christ's work provides not just a perfect example, but also the very means for obedience. Through His atoning sacrifice, we are forgiven for our past failures, and through the indwelling Holy Spirit, we are empowered to live lives that reflect His purity. The Spirit enables us to "flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace" (2 Timothy 2:22), giving us the strength to "walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16). Thus, what was a wise but often difficult command in Proverbs becomes a Spirit-empowered reality for those who are "in Christ," who provides both the motivation and the divine ability to truly "remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house."