And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart [is] snares and nets, [and] her hands [as] bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her.
Ver. 26. And I found more bitter than death.] Amantes amentes: Amor amaror, Plus aloes quam mellis habet. Knowest thou not that there is bitterness in the end? Heus scholastiae, said the harlot to Apuleius, Hark, scholar, your sweet bits will prove bitter in the close. a
“ Principium dulce est, at finis amoris amarus. ”
The pomegranate, with its sweet kernels, but bitter rind, is an emblem of the bitter sweet pleasure of sin. It is observed of our Edward III that he had always fair weather at his passage into France, and foul upon his return. b Laeta venire Venus, tristis abire solet. The panther hides her head till she sees her time to make prey of those other beasts that, drawn by her sweet smell, follow her to their own destruction. c The poet's fable, that pleasure and pain complained one of another to Jupiter, and that, when he could not decide the controversy between them, he tied them together with chains of adamant, never to be sundered.
The woman.] The wanton woman, that shame of her sex. A bitch, Moses calls her; Deu 23:18 St Paul, a living ghost, a walking sepulchre of herself. 1Ti 5:6 Cum careat pura mente, cadaver agit. "This I find," saith Solomon, where "I" is "I" with a witness; he had found it by woeful experience, and now relates it for a warning to others. Saith he -
“ Quid facies facies veneris cum veneris ante?
Non sedeas, sed eas: ne pereas, per eas. ”
Whose heart is snares and nets. ] Heb., Hunters' snares; for she "hunteth for the precious life," Pro 6:26 and the devil, by her, hunts for the precious soul, there being not anything that hath more enriched hell than harlots. All is good fish that comes to these nets; but they are "taken alive by the devil at his pleasure" 2Ti 2:26
And her hands as bands.] To captivate and enslave those that haunt her, as Delilah did Samson, as the harlot did the young novice, Pro 7:22 as Solomon's Moabitish mistress did him, and as it is said of the Persian kings, that they were captivarum suarum captivi, d captives to their concubines, who dared to take the crown from their heads, or do anything to them almost, when others might not come near them uncalled upon pain of death Est 4:11
Whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her.] As Joseph did, and Bellerophon, though with a difference: Joseph out of a principle of chastity, Bellerophon of continence. The continent person refrains either for love of praise, or fear of punishment, but not without grief, for inwardly he is scalded with boiling lust, as Alexander, Scipio, and Pompey were, when, tempted with the exquisiteness and variety of choicest beauties, they forbare. Vellem, si non essem imperator. I would if I were not a general. But now the chaste man, who is good before God - one whom he approves and takes pleasure in - is holy both in body and spirit, 1Co 7:34 and this with delight, out of fear of God and love of virtue. God did much for that libidinous gentleman, who, sporting with a courtezan in a house of sin, happened to ask her name, which she said was Mary; whereat he was stricken with such a remorse and reverence, that he instantly not only cast off the harlot, but amended his future life. e
But the sinner shall be taken by her.] See Trapp on " Pro 22:14 " The poet's fable, that when Prometheus had discovered truth to men, that had long lain hid from them, Jupiter, or the devil, to cross that design, sent Pandora, - that is, pleasure - that should so besot them, as that they should neither mind nor make out after truth and honesty.
a Dulce et amarum gustulum carpis.
b Speed, 710. Walsingham.
c Solin., cap. 27.
d Plutarch.
e Montaigne's Essays.