Proverbs 5:8-14 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Come not nigh the door of her house Lest thine eyes affect thy heart, and her allurements prevail over thee. Lest thou give thine honour Thy dignity and reputation, the strength and vigour of thy body and mind; unto others Unto whores, and their base attendants; and thy years The flower of thine age, and thy precious time, unto the cruel To the harlot, who, though she pretends love, yet, in truth, is one of the most cruel creatures in the world, wasting thy estate and body, without the least pity, and destroying thy soul for ever. Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth Not only the strange women themselves, but others who are in league with them; and thy labours Wealth gotten by thy labours; in the house of a stranger Of a strange family, whose house and table are furnished with the fruit of thy care and labours. And thou mourn at the last Bitterly bewail thy madness and misery, when it is too late; when thy flesh and thy body, or even thy body, are consumed By those manifold diseases which the indulgence of fleshly lusts bring upon the body; And say, How have I hated instruction! How stupidly foolish have I been in not considering all this sooner! How senselessly bent upon my own ruin! And my heart despised reproof I am amazed to think how I hated the cautions that were given me to avoid such ways, and the just reproofs I received for inclining to them. And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers Of my parents, friends, and God's ministers, who informed me of my danger, and faithfully and seasonably warned me of those mischiefs and miseries in which I am now involved. I was almost in all evil I gave myself up to follow my lusts, which, in a short time, engaged me in almost every kind of wickedness, from which the reverence of no persons could restrain me, not even a regard to the congregation and assembly of God's people.