Matthew Henry on Proverbs 23:19-28
Here is good advice for parents to give to their children; words are put into their mouths, that they may train them up in the way they should go. Here we have,
I. An earnest call to young people to attend to the advice of their godly parents, not only to this that is here given, but to all other profitable instructions: "Here, my son, and be wise, Pro 23:19. This will be an evidence that thou art wise and a means to make thee wiser." Wisdom, as faith, comes by hearing. And again (Pro 23:22): "Hearken unto thy father who begot thee, and who therefore has an authority over thee and an affection for thee, and, thou mayest be sure, can have no other design than thy own good." We ought to give r…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 23:28
increaseth . . . transgressors-- (Pro 5:8-10). The vice alluded to is peculiarly hardening to the heart.
John Gill on Proverbs 23:28
She also lieth in wait as for a prey,.... At the door of her house, in the corner of the streets, in the dark of the night; laying her snares, and spreading her nets, for unwary persons, to make a prey of their virtue and of their money. Or, "as a man of prey" (k); a thief and robber, so Gersom; thus she watches and takes all opportunities to seize on persons, and rob them of their substance, health, and credit; or rather "as a beast of prey"; ravenous, devouring, and insatiable; so the Targum,
"as a beast ravening, she lies in wait with her eyes;''
and increaseth the transgressors among men; there is none that occasions wore sin, or makes more sinners, than a whorish woman; swearing, lyin…
Read the whole note in the consoleKeil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 23:26-28
This hexastich warns against unchastity. What, in chap. 1-9, extended discourses and representations exhibited to the youth is here repeated in miniature pictures. It is the teacher of wisdom, but by him Wisdom herself, who speaks:
26 Give me, my son, thine heart;
And let thine eyes delight in my ways.
27 For the harlot is a deep ditch,
And the strange woman a narrow pit.
28 Yea, she lieth in wait like a robber,
And multiplieth the faithless among men
We have retained Luther's beautiful rendering of Pro 23:26,
(Note: The right punctuation of 26a is תּנה־בני לבּך, as it is found in the editions: Ven. 1615; Basel 1619; and in those of Norzi and Michaelis.)
in which this proverb, as a warning w…
