Tanak Foundations-Concepts in Proverbs-Chapter 5

Prov 5.1-23 is a chapter that deals with the harlot, both literally and spiritually, and a warning to avoid the pitfalls of false doctrine that comes through the harlot (Rev 17.5; Mic 7.10). The harlot is contrasted with the virtuous woman-Prov 31.10).

Prov 5.1-14 is telling us to avoid the harlot both physically and spiritually.

v 1…My son, give attention (listen up) to my wisdom (spiritual not the flesh), incline your ear to my understanding (listen to what I have understood to be true).

v2…That you may observe discretion, and your lips may reserve knowledge (repeating them often).

v 3…For the lips on an adulteress (the harlot) drip honey (the harlot presents herself as the virtuous woman spiritually and she speaks seduction) and smoother than oil is her speech (oil symbolizes prosperity and joy-Deut 33.24; Isa 61.3).

v 4…But in the end she is bitter as wormwood (wormwood symbolizes poison), sharp as a two-edged sword (cuts more than one way).

v 5…Her feet go down to death (leads all who listen to her there), her steps lay hold on Sheol.

v 6…She does not ponder (think) the paths of life; her ways are unstable (moveable, unlike the ways of Torah and Yeshua-Isa 33.6 ), she does not know it (the way of life, where she will end nor does she care).

v 7…Now then, my sons, listen to me (for caution) and do not depart from the words of my mouth (my warnings, admonitions and directions).

v 8…Keep (guard) your way far from her (keep your distance; also from false doctrine which is defined as anything contrary to the Torah-Rom 3.20), and do not go near the door of her house (do not enter a house of false teaching or even go near them).

v 9…Lest you give your vigor (life) to others and your years to the cruel one (the harlot will take your health and your money).

v 10…Lest strangers (aliens) be filled with your strength (wealth) and your hard-earned goods go to the house of an alien (lose your wealth wasting money, and this can be applied to wasting money on false teaching).

v 11…And you groan at your latter end when your flesh and your body are consumed (by pain, sorrow, punishment and sickness because of your lifestyle).

v 12…And you say, “How I have hated instruction and my heart spurned reproof (of those who tried to warn him)!

v 13…And I have not listened to the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to my instructors (a Hebrew parallelism)!

v 14…I was almost in utter ruin in the midst of the assembly and congregation (in public).

Prov 5.15-23 gives us a contrast between a wife and a harlot, spiritually alluding to choosing the virtuous woman (a Torah-based faith in Yeshua) and the harlot (false teachers and doctrine).

v 15…Drink water from your own cistern and fresh water from your own well (love your wife, the virtuous woman, and stay away from the harlot).

v 16…Should your springs be dispensed abroad, streams of water in the streets (life giving water is a type of proper sexual activity and it should be channeled in the right direction with your wife, bearing legitimate children).

v 17…Let them be yours alone (your children by her are yours) and not for strangers with you (if you have children by the harlot, you can’t be sure they are yours).

v 18…Let your fountain (virility) be blessed (with children), and rejoice in the wife of your youth (stay with her).

v 19…As a loving hind and a grateful doe (a deer, a clean animal), let her breasts satisfy you at all times (don’t seek satisfaction elsewhere), be exhilarated (ravished) always with her love.

v 20…For why should you, my son, be exhilarated (ravished) with an adulteress (the harlot), and embrace the bosom of a stranger (spiritually, why would we partake of the milk of a false teacher).

v 21…For the ways of a man are before the eyes of Yehovah (both those who stay with the virtuous woman and those who go with the harlot), and he watches all his paths (he not only observes them, but ponders them in the balance of justice).

v 22..His own iniquities will capture the wicked, and he will be held with the cords of his sin (he has been committing. They now have been twisted together by constant practice and now hold him to be brought to judgment).

v 23..He will die for lack of instruction, and in the greatness of his folly he will go astray (continue with the harlot instead of following the Torah/virtuous woman. His “folly” may be referring to his belief that he can free himself from the cords of his sin at anytime).

Posted in All Teachings, Articles, Idioms, Phrases and Concepts, Prophecy/Eschatology, The Festivals of the Lord, The Tanak, Tying into the New Testament

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