--- title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah" author: "Adam Clarke" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 714 of 914 url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/714/ cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah, section 714. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/714/" --- # Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah *Adam Clarke* Clarke's learned notes on the Hebrew and Greek, verse by verse, from Genesis to Revelation: volume 1 of 2. ## 714. Proverbs · 9 of 46 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/714/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/714/#p-N ### Verse 20 [¶1] Keep thy father's commandment - See on [Pro 1:8] (note). ### Verse 21 [¶3] Bind them continually upon thine heart - See on [Pro 3:3] (note). And see a similar command, to which this is an allusion, [Deu 6:6-8] (note). ### Verse 22 [¶5] When thou goest, it shall lead thee - Here the law is personified; and is represented as a nurse, teacher, and guardian, by night and day. An upright man never goes but as directed by God's word and led by God's Spirit. [¶6] When thou sleepest - He commends his body and soul to the protection of his Maker when he lies down and sleeps in peace. And when he awakes in the morning, the promises and mercies of God are the first things that present themselves to his recollection. ### Verse 23 [¶8] For the commandment is a lamp - It illuminates our path. It shows us how we should walk and praise God. [¶9] And the law is light - A general light, showing the nature and will of God, and the interest and duty of Man. [¶10] And reproofs of instruction - Or, that instruction which reproves us for our sins and errors leads us into the way of life. ### Verse 24 [¶12] To keep thee from the evil woman - Solomon had suffered sorely from this quarter; and hence his repeated cautions and warnings to others. The strange woman always means one that is not a man's own; and sometimes it may also imply a foreign harlot, one who is also a stranger to the God of Israel. ### Verse 25 [¶14] Neither let her take thee with her eye-lids - It is a very general custom in the East to paint the eye-lids. I have many Asiatic drawings in which this is expressed. They have a method of polishing the eyes with a preparation of antimony, so that they appear with an indescribable lustre; or, as one who mentions the fact from observation, "Their eyes appear to be swimming in bliss." ### Verse 26 [¶16] By means of a whorish woman - In following lewd women, a man is soon reduced to poverty and disease. The Septuagint gives this a strange turn: timh gar pornhv, osh kai enov artou. "For the price or hire of a whore is about one loaf." So many were they in the land, that they hired themselves out for a bare subsistence. The Vulgate, Syriac, and Arabic, give the same sense. The old MS. Bible has it thus: The price forsothe of a strumpet is unneth oon lof: the woman forsothe taketh the precious liif of a mam. The sense of which is, and probably the sense of the Hebrew too, While the man hires the whore for a single loaf of bread; the woman thus hired taketh his precious life. She extracts his energy, and poisons his constitution. In the first clause אשה זונה ishshah zonah is plainly a prostitute; but should we render אשת esheth, in the second clause, an adulteress? I think not. The versions in general join אשת איש esheth ish, together, which, thus connected, signify no more than the wife of a man; and out of this we have made adulteress, and Coverdale a married woman. I do not think that the Old MS. Bible gives a good sense; and it requires a good deal of paraphrase to extract the common meaning from the text. Though the following verses seem to countenance the common interpretation, yet they may contain a complete sense of themselves; but, taken in either way, the sense is good, though the construction is a little violent. ### Verse 27 [¶18] Can a man take fire - These were proverbial expressions, the meaning of which was plain to every capacity. ### Verse 29 [¶20] So he that goeth In to his neighbor's wife - As sure as he who takes fire into his bosom, or who walks upon live coals, is burnt thereby; so sure he that seduces his neighbour's wife shall be guilty. That is, he shall be punished. ### Verse 30 [¶22] Men do not despise a thief if he steal - Every man pities the poor culprit who was perishing for lack of food, and stole to satisfy his hunger; yet no law clears him: he is bound to make restitution; in some cases double, in others quadruple and quintuple; and if he have not property enough to make restitution, to be sold for a bondsman; [Exo 22:1-4]; [Lev 25:39]. ### Verse 32 [¶24] But whoso committeth adultery - The case understood is that of a married man: he has a wife; and therefore is not in the circumstances of the poor thief, who stole to appease his hunger, having nothing to eat. In this alone the opposition between the two cases is found: the thief had no food, and he stole some; the married man had a wife, and yet went in to the wife of his neighbor. [¶25] Destroyeth his own soul - Sins against his life, for, under the law of Moses, adultery was punished with death; [Lev 20:10]; [Deu 22:22]. ### Verse 33 [¶27] A wound and dishonor shall he get - Among the Romans, when a man was caught in the fact, the injured husband took the law into his own hand; and a large radish was thrust up into the anus of the transgressor, which not only overwhelmed him with infamy and disgrace, but generally caused his death. ### Verse 34 [¶29] Jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare - He will not, when he has detected the adulterer in the fact, wait for the slow progress of the law: it is then to him the day of vengeance; and in general, he avenges himself on the spot, as we see above. ### Verse 35 [¶31] He will not regard any ransom - This is an injury that admits of no compensation. No gifts can satisfy a man for the injury his honor has sustained; and to take a bribe or a ransom, would be setting up chastity at a price. ### Introduction [¶33] A farther exhortation to acquire wisdom, in order to be preserved from impure connections, [Pro 7:1-5]. The character of a harlot, and her conduct towards a youth who fell into her snare, vv. 6-23. Solemn exhortations to avoid this evil, [Pro 7:24-27]. ### Verse 1 [¶35] My son, keep my words - See [Pro 2:1]. ### Verse 2 [¶37] As the apple of thine eye - As the pupil of the eye, which is of such essential necessity to sight, and so easily injured. ### Verse 3 [¶39] Bind them upon thy fingers - See on [Pro 3:3] (note). ### Verse 4 [¶41] Thou art my sister - Thou art my dearest friend, and I will treat thee as such. ### Verse 5 [¶43] The strange woman - The prostitute, the adulteress. ### Verse 6 [¶45] I looked through my casement - The casement is a small aperture in a large window, or a window opening on hinges. Here it means the lattice, for they had no glass windows in the East. And the latticed windows produced a double advantage