a little or few (often adverbial or compar.) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
evil
רָ֑עRa'
H7451
bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral) · adjective, masculine singular absolute
midst
בְּת֖וֹךְbe.Tokh
H8432
a bisection · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
congregation
קָהָ֣לka.Hal
H6951
assemblage (usually concretely) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
assembly
וְעֵדָֽהve.'e.Dah
H5712
a stated assemblage (specifically · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Proverbs 13:20 He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.
1 Corinthians 10:6-8 Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.
2 Peter 2:10-18 But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are n…
Numbers 25:1-6 And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab.
Hosea 4:11-14 Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart.
Jude 1:7-13 Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh,…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Proverbs 5:1-14
Here we have,
I. A solemn preface, to introduce the caution which follows, Pro 5:1, Pro 5:2. Solomon here addresses himself to his son, that is, to all young men, as unto his children, whom he has an affection for and some influence upon. In God's name, he demands attention; for he writes by divine inspiration, and is a prophet, though he begins not with, Thus saith the Lord. "Attend, and bow thy ear; not only hear what is said, and read what is written, but apply thy mind to it and consider it diligently." To gain attention he urges, 1. The excellency of his discourse: "It is my wisdom, my understanding; if I undertake to teach thee wisdom I cannot prescribe any thing to be more properly ca…
I was almost in all evil,.... Scarce a sin but he was guilty of; contempt of private and public instructions, the instructions of parents and ministers of the Gospel, and following lewd women, commonly lead to the commission of all other sins, even the most atrocious. Some understand this, not of the evil of sin, but of the evil of punishment; and that the sense is, that there is scarce any calamity, distress, or misery, that a man can be in, but his profaneness and lewdness had brought him into; and he was just upon the brink of hell itself: and so Jarchi paraphrases it,
"there was but a step between me and hell.''
Aben Ezra observes, that the past is put for the future, "I shall be"; and…
The poet now tells those whom he warns to hear how the voluptuary, looking back on his life-course, passes sentence against himself.
12 And thou sayest, "Why have I then hated correction,
And my heart despised instruction!
13 And I have not listened to the voice of my teachers,
Nor lent mine ear to my instructors?
14 I had almost fallen into every vice
In the midst of the assembly and the congregation!"
The question 12a (here more an exclamation than a question) is the combination of two: How has it become possible for me? How could it ever come to it that.... Thus also one says in Arab.: Kyf f'alat hadhâ (Fl.). The regimen of איך in 12b is becoming faint, and in 13b has disappeared. The Ka…
The Church Fathers
I was almost in all evil, etc. The Church and the Synagogue are Greek names, and they signify the same thing in Latin, that is, an assembly of many together. But if they are distinguished more subtly, the Church is interpreted as a calling together, the Synagogue as a gathering together. And indeed the old people of God were called by both names. Now, however, for the sake of distinction, that one is called the Synagogue, ours is called the Church, rightfully indeed because of the greater faith and knowledge, because even irrational creatures can be gathered. Finally, God said, Let the waters be gathered into one gathering. Only the rational and sensible can be called together. But these names sometimes signify the gathering of the wicked. Hence that, "Fire burned their assembly" (Psalm 105); and, "I hated the assembly of evildoers" (Psalm 26). Therefore, what the late penitent, contemptuous of wisdom, says, "I was almost in all evil, in the midst of the congregation and assembly," seems to refer to someone sadly recognizing the magnitude of his own damnation, because he was involved in almost every sin, worthy of undergoing such torments. This adds to the heap of his miseries, that he was not merely the last of sinners, but rather in the midst and almost the leader. Or indeed, placed bodily in the midst of holy assemblies, he did not fear to lead a different life from them. And this is particularly felt about heretics because they could not be recalled from error by the sayings and examples of either the ancient fathers or the new ones.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Roe — (Heb. tsebi), properly the gazelle (Arab. ghazal), permitted for food (Deut. 14:5; comp. Deut. 12:15, 22; 15:22; 1 Kings 4:23), noted for its swiftness and beauty and grace of form (2 Sam. 2:18; 1…
Harlot (Prostitute) · To be shunned — To be shunned
Temptation · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Young Men · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Some sexually transmitted diseases were well known in the ancient Near East. Leviticus 15:1-15 describes what is probably gonorrhea; other texts from Mesopotamia describe “the disease of intercourse” and the “disease of Ishtar” (goddess of love) with the physical symptoms of venereal diseases.
Rashi on Proverbs 5:14
I was almost in all evil There is but a step between me and Gehinnom. (Because of a little thing, I was now “in all evil,” for I did not obey my instructors; had I obeyed them, this would not have happened to me. From Rabbi Joseph Kara.)
