PROVERBS

God will tells for every one,
My son,attend unto my wisdom,and bow thine ear to my understanding,that thou mayest Regard discretion,and that thy lips may keep knowledge,forthe lips of a strsnge women drop As an honeycomb,and her mouth is smoother than oil,but her end is bitter as Wormwood,sharp as a twoedged sword.her feet go down to death,her steps take hold on Hell.lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life,her ways are moveable,that thou canst not Know them,hear me now therefore,O ye children,and depart not from the words of my Mouth.remove thy way far from her,and come not nigh the door of her house.lest thy give Thine honour unto others,and thy years unto the cruel. lest strangers be in filled with thy Wealth, and thy labours be in the house of a stranger

                                                                                       The adulteress, her husband, children, friends, bawds, and such like persons she is concerned with; these share the wealth of the adulterer, abound with it, and live profusely on it, until he is stripped quite bare and destitute: or, "with thy strength"; (See Gill on Proverbs 5:9). Jarchi interprets it of the prophets of Baal, that exact money by their falsehoods; it may well enough be applied to the fornicating merchants of Rome, who wax rich through the abundance of her delicacies and adulteries, ( Revelation 18:3 ) ; persons, strangers indeed to God and Christ, and all true religion; and thy labours [be] in the house of a stranger;

that is, wealth gotten by hard labour, with toil and sweat, grief and trouble, as the word used F17 signifies; and yet, after all, not enjoyed by himself and his lawful wife and children, but by the strange woman and her accomplices, and spent in maintaining whores, bawds, and bastards; hence the fable of the Harpies eating and spoiling the victuals of Phineus, who were no other than harlots that consumed his substance {r}: and sometimes they are carried into a strange country, and possessed by foreigners. These are the wretched effects and miserable consequences of adultery, and therefore by all means to be shunned and avoided. Jarchi understands it of the house of idolatry, or an idol's temple; and everyone knows what vast riches are brought into the temples or churches of the Papists by idolatry.

![the_strange_women_mousepad-beige.jpg]
Solomon cautions all young men, as his children, to abstain from fleshly lusts. Some, by the adulterous woman, here understand idolatry, false doctrine, which tends to lead astray men's minds and manners; but the direct view is to warn against seventh-commandment sins. Often these have been, and still are, Satan's method of drawing men from the worship of God into false religion. Consider how fatal the consequences; how bitter the fruit! Take it any way, it wounds. It leads to the torments of hell. The direct tendency of this sin is to the destruction of body and soul. We must carefully avoid every thing which may be a step towards it. Those who would be kept from harm, must keep out of harm's way. If we thrust ourselves into temptation we mock God when we pray, Lead us not into temptation. How many mischiefs attend this sin! It blasts the reputation; it wastes time; it ruins the estate; it is destructive to health; it will fill the mind with horror. Though thou art merry now, yet sooner or later it will bring sorrow. The convinced sinner reproaches himself, and makes no excuse for his folly. By the frequent acts of sin, the habits of it become rooted and confirmed. By a miracle of mercy true repentance may prevent the dreadful consequences of such sins; but this is not often; far more die as they have lived. What can express the case of the self-ruined sinner in the eternal world, enduring the remorse of his conscience!

()