CRITICAL NOTES,—
Proverbs 6:24. Evil woman, literally. “the woman of evil.”
Proverbs 6:26. Last clause means “an adulteress allures to that which may cost a man his life” (Stuart).
Proverbs 6:30. Despise. Some translators render this word “scorn,” others “disregard.” Stuart, Wordsworth, and others adopt the former and understand the words to mean “men do not despise the thief, they do despise the adulterer.” Noyes and others, adopting the latter rendering, take the sentence to mean “men punish even a thief, how much more an adulterer.”
Proverbs 6:34. Jealousy, i.e., of the injured husband.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH— Proverbs 6:24-35
A SPECIAL SIN AND ITS PENALTIES FROM WHICH HE WHO KEEPS GOD’S LAW WILL BE KEPT
I. From the huntress of souls. The animals of tropical jungles are compelled at intervals to forsake their safe retreats and come down to the brink of the river to quench their thirst. This necessity of their life involves them in danger. The instinct of the lion tells him that the antelope will be compelled, by the cravings of his nature, to come to the place of water, and therefore he lays in wait there to make him an easy prey. And the hunter, being fully aware of the same fact, crouches by the river-side and takes both the lion and his prey. Thus the natural bodily instincts are used as means by which the lives of the creatures are destroyed. The danger of which the young man is here warned arises out of the existence of a God-given and, therefore, lawful desire. The huntress of souls—as she is well named in Proverbs 6:25—takes advantage of this lawful propensity and uses it as a means of the destruction of her victim. She knows that the young man, from the strength of his lawful desires, is, comparatively, an easy prey to the seducer, hence it is to him that she points her weapons. These weapons are:
1. Flattery. Fair words cost nothing. A score of base coin can be purchased for a copper, and are worth exchanging for one golden piece. The dogs lick the hand of the vendor of their meat, but this not out of any affection for him. They do not use their tongue out of any affection for him, but for what he has. So the adulteress, and so indeed all flatterers. They give the base coin only in the hope of getting gold in return—fair words for real benefits. They will lick the back of the hand in order to get something out of the palm.
2. Her beauty. The beauty of a woman is a powerful weapon, and, if rightly used, may be a means of greatly blessing others. But, alas, how often has it been debased to the vilest purposes, how many times have strong men been cast down by it, how many sons of the mighty has it brought low, even to the dust! The keeping in the heart of the law of God’s word will teach the young man to estimate flattering words and mere external beauty at their real worth.
II. From the inevitable marks left upon both constitution and character by unlawful intercourse (Proverbs 6:27-28). A man’s raiment cannot be kindled into a flame without its retaining the marks after the fire has been extinguished. The scar of the burn will remain even after the wound is healed. So those who yield to the solicitations of the “strange woman” will find that soul and body will suffer from the effects of the sin long after the action has been committed.
III. From the deserved contempt of all the pure-minded (Proverbs 6:30-31). It is a sin compared with which a theft is a light crime in the eyes of God, and therefore in the eyes of the best men. A thief may make restitution for his crime, bnt this sin cannot be atoned for by an after act. Gold may be repaid fourfold, but dishonour brought upon a husband by a wife’s infidelity is a blot which cannot be effaced. The loss of the poor man’s ewe-lamb might be atoned for, but David could not have restored to Uriah an innocent wife. (See 2 Samuel 12:1-6). Hence the much heavier punishment under the Mosaic law for adultery than for theft. (See Exodus 22:1-4; Leviticus 20:10).
IV. From the fury of a lawful jealousy (Proverbs 6:34). Where there is true love there is a jealousy for the honour and reputation of the object loved. The man who is not jealous for the honour of his country is not a patriot. The father who is not jealous for the reputation of his family is not worthy of the name. And so the husband who is not jealous of his own and his wife’s honour is a stranger to real love. There is a right and lawful jealousy. God calls Himself “a jealous God” (Exodus 20:5). There are rights which belong to Him alone, and He is justly displeased if they are given to any other being. Paul tells the Corinthian Church that he was “jealous over them with a godly jealousy” (2 Corinthians 11:2). He was their Father in Christ, and he felt that his honour as well as theirs was staked upon their living holy lives. And the righteous jealousy of the injured husband spoken of in the text is to be dreaded, because it is righteous—because it has just grounds for its existence, and because God will see to it that the wrong is avenged.
ILLUSTRATION OF Proverbs 6:25
This probably refers to the care with which women in the East paint their eyelids, in a great measure in order to captivate the men, who, from the manner in which they are muffled up, can often see no more of their persons than their eyes—which may, indeed, be one reason why so much pains are taken to set them off.
ILLUSTRATION OF Proverbs 6:28
This image would hardly occur to us, who never go barefoot, and are never or rarely exposed to any liability of treading upon burning coals. If we desired to express the same sentiment by a similar image, we should say, “Can one handle hot coals and not be burned?” But in the East travelling parties kindle fires in the open air for cooking and for warmth, and a passenger might easily burn his naked foot by treading inadvertently upon the hot but not glowing place of one of these recently quitted fires.—Kitto.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Proverbs 6:24. Bound and kept in the heart as a friend, that law will prevail to keep the youth “from the strange woman.” Observing a great swelling wave rolling forward to devour him, this faithful teacher imparts to the young voyager on life’s troubled sea a principle which will bear him buoyant over it. A slender vessel floats alone upon the ocean, contending with the storm. A huge wave approaches, towering high above her hull. All depends upon how the ship shall take it. If she go under it she will never rise again: if she is so trimmed that her bows rise with the first approaches, she springs lightly over it, and gets no harm. The threatening billow passes beneath her, and breaks with a growl behind her, but the ship is safe. The law and love of the Lord, taught by his mother in childhood, and maintaining its place yet as the friend of his bosom and the ruler of his conscience, will give the youth a spring upward proportionate to the magnitude of the temptation coming on.—Arnot.
That which is said of Jael is true of the strange woman. She brought forth soft words, but a hard nail; in her mouth was a gentle hammer, but in her hand a heavy one. Open force is more easily resisted, but that which is hid in the beginning with fair words in the end stingeth most cruelly.—Jermin.
“Flattery.” That constitutes the risk. If impenitence would tell the truth, or even if we would allow the truth, there would be no danger. But hers is an alien tongue in this,—that though we deliberately admit it is a cheat, we accept its flattery.—Miller.
Proverbs 6:26. A famine of bread followeth the gluttony of lust, and it is life itself that is destroyed by it. He that is thus brought to a morsel of bread on earth, shall be brought to a drop of water in hell, if repentance do not in time beg a gracious pardon for him. That man’s life is precious, the devil himself affirmeth, who seeketh to make it vile; he saith, who laboureth to destroy it, that “Skin for skin, all that a man hath will he give for his life” (Job 2:4). How unworthy valuers are they therefore of their own lives who esteem them less than the devil does, and who make them a prey to the adulteress, who as a lion hunteth after them.—Jermin.
Nothing is so bewitching aswomanly enchantment. Nothing in esse, when it is base, is so contemptible. Nothing sweeps a man with such a perfect storm of influence. Nothing leaves him so perfectly defrauded and unpaid.—Miller.
Proverbs 6:27-28. “Fire” is a favourite emblem for wickedness. “Wickedness burneth as the fire” (Isaiah 9:18, see also Isaiah 65:5). The
(1) pain, the
(2) waste, the
(3), growth, and
(4) the small beginnings of sin are all instanced in the fire. “Bosom.” Here is just where sin is taken. Sin is not only the inward but the outward enemy, not only the coals in our bosom but the coals (or fierce tempting occasions) in the midst of which we walk—Miller.
Sin and punishment are linked together by a chain of adamant. “The fire of lust kindles the fire of hell,” says Henry. He cannot afterwards plead the strength of the temptation. Why did he not avoid it? Who that knows how much tinder he carries about with him would wilfully lightup the sparks?—Bridges.
Perhaps such an one may think to tread upon coals, thereby to tread them out, but he will first tread the fire into his own feet: perhaps such an one may think to walk in the ways of lust, thereby to walk them out, but he will first walk out the strength of his body and means. The affections are the feet of man’s soul, and if they walk upon this fire they will be inflamed suddenly.—Jermin.
Proverbs 6:29. Though the plea of a sleepy conscience be not guilty, the sentence of God is, not innocent. It was for this wickedness that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah; it was for it He brought the deluge of waters upon the world, and as it is observed, for no other sin do we read, that God is said to have repented to have made man, but for this.—Jermin.
Proverbs 6:30. Compared with an adulterer, a thief is not treated with so much ignominy. The laws of modern society have reversed the maxims of Solomon; and, to the dishonour of Christian nations, an adulterer, who steals what is most precious to a man, and what is irretrievable, is treated by the law with more lenity than a thief, who robs him of what is comparatively of little value and may be easily replaced.—Wordsworth.
Adultery is worse than theft. It is before us in the commandments as the greater sin (Exodus 20:14-15).
1. It is a far greater theft.
2. The provocation to theft is greater. Want drives the one, wantonness draws the other. One may preserve his bodily life by his sin, the other destroys it. Hunger is a great provocation to evil (ch. Proverbs 30:9). Necessity is a sore weapon.—Francis Taylor.
Proverbs 6:33. The three things here mentioned may be referred to three causes. The wound to the devil, the enemy of mankind, the dishonour to God, dishonoured by the adulterer, the reproach to sin, which is the true object of reproach. The devil woundeth out of malice, God dishonoureth in justice, sin reproacheth by nature; and where nature hath fastened the reproach or stain it is not any art that can take it out or wipe it away. He that giveth this good counsel was himself an example of what he writeth. As Jerome saith, Solomon, the sun of men, the treasure of God’s delights, the peculiar house of wisdom, blurred with the thick ink of dishonour, lost the light of his soul, the glory of his house, the sweet perfume of his name, by the love of a woman.—Jermin.
What an indelible blot is the matter of Uriah upon David still.—Trapp.
Proverbs 6:34. Howbeit he may not kill the adulterer, but if no law will relieve a man, yet let him know that he shall do himself no disservice by making God his chancellor.—Trapp.