Prov. 5 An exhortation to the study of wisdom, Prov. 5:1–2. To shun the company of strange women, Prov. 5:3–5. The mischief of whoredom and riots, Prov. 5:14. In a married estate exhorted to chastity in that state, and to rejoice with the wife of his youth, Prov. 5:15–19.

Regard, or, keep, i.e. hold fast, as it is in the next clause. Discretion; spiritual wisdom for the conduct of thy life, as this word is used Prov. 1:4, and elsewhere in this book.

It concerns thee to get and to use discretion, that thou mayst be able to resist and repel those manifold temptations to which thou art exposed. Drop as an honeycomb; her words and discourses are sweet, and charming, and prevalent.

Her design, and the effect of that lewdness to which she enticeth men, is the sinner’s destruction.

Her feet; her course or manner of life.

Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, to prevent thy serious consideration of the way and manner of rescuing thyself from this deadly course of life. Movable; various and changeable.

Lest thine eyes affect thine heart, and her allurements prevail over thee.

Thine honour; thy dignity and reputation, the strength and rigour of thy body and mind, which is an honour to a man, and which are commonly wasted by adulterous practices. Unto others; unto whores, and their husbands, and children, and friends.

Strangers; not only the strange women themselves, but bawds, panders, and other adulterers, who are in league with them. Thy labours; wealth gotten by thy labours.

Thou mourn at the last; bitterly bewail thy own madness and misery when it is too late. Thy flesh and thy body; thy flesh, even thy body; the particle and being put expositively.

How have I hated instruction! oh what a mad beast have I been, to hate and slight the fair warnings which were given me, and against mine own knowledge, to run headlong into this pit of destruction! which are not the words of a true penitent mourning for and turning from his sin, but only of a man…

Of my teachers; of my parents, and friends, and ministers, who faithfully and seasonably informed me of those mischiefs and miseries which now I feel.

I was almost in all evil. Oh what a miserable man am I! There is scarce any misery, in respect of estate, or body, or soul, into which I am not already plunged. The words also are and may well be rendered thus, In a moment I am come into all evil.

This metaphor contained here, and Prov. 5:16–18, is to be understood either, 1. Of the free and lawful use of a man’s estate, both for his own comfort, and for the good of others. Or rather, 2. Of the honest use of matrimony, as the proper remedy against these filthy practices.

Thy fountains; thy children proceeding from thy wife, called thy fountain, Prov. 5:18, and from thyself, as the Israelites are said to come from the fountain of Israel, Deut. 33:28, Ps. 68:26, Isa. 51:1.

Hereby thou mayst be secured, that thou dost not father and leave thine estate to other men’s children; whereas the parents of harlots’ children are common or uncertain.

Thy fountain; thy wife, as the next clause explains it. Be blessed; she shall be blessed with children; for barrenness was esteemed a curse and reproach, especially among the Israelites.

As the loving hind, or, as the beloved hind, Heb. the hind of loves; as amiable and delightful as the hinds are, either, 1. To their males, the harts; or, 2.

Why wilt thou destroy and damn thyself for those delights which thou mayst enjoy without sin or danger?

Before the eyes of the Lord; God sees all thy filthy actions, though done with all possible cunning and secrecy. He taketh an exact account of all their doings, that he may recompense them according to the kinds, degrees, numbers, and aggravations of all their unchaste actions.

In vain doth he think to disentangle himself from his lusts by repenting when he grows in years, and to escape punishments; for he is in perfect bondage to his lusts, and is neither able nor willing to set himself at liberty; and if he do escape the rage of a jealous husband, and the sentence of…

Without instruction; because he neglected instruction. Or, without correction or amendment. He shall die in his sins, and not repent of them, as he designed and hoped to do before his death.