Proverbs 7:24-27 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Hearken unto me now therefore “This is a true representation, my dear children, of the folly and danger of these lewd courses, in which youth is prone to be engaged; and therefore do not look upon it as an idle speculation, but give diligent heed unto it, and be ruled by my advice.” Let not thy heart decline, &c. “Let not one of you so much as entertain a thought of going to such a woman, much less of consenting to her enticements.” Go not astray in her paths Do not leave the right and straight way, to go into such crooked paths as hers are. For she hath cast down many wounded “Do not presume on being safe in such courses, and of making a good retreat at last; for many have been the examples of no mean persons who have fallen in their reputation, their estates, their health, their comforts of life, and, in truth, have utterly perished” by an adulterous woman. “Innumerable are the mighty whom she hath brought to ruin.” The translation of the LXX. is, “She hath cast down many whom she hath wounded; and they whom she hath slain are innumerable.” Her house is the way to hell “In short, to follow her unto her house is the direct way to hell: every step taken to her bed is, in truth, a going down to the dismal chambers of death, and to the most horrid miseries.” Bishop Patrick. Calmet justly observes, that “Solomon had no need to go further than his own family for unhappy examples of the ill effects of lust. He was, indeed, himself, afterward, a sad proof of what he here says. How many lions hath the weakness of woman tamed, who, though mean and miserable herself, makes a prey of the great ones of the earth!”