Proverbs Chapter 2 verse 16 Holy Bible
To deliver thee from the strange woman, Even from the foreigner that flattereth with her words;
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To take you out of the power of the strange woman, who says smooth words with her tongue;
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To deliver thee from the strange woman, from the stranger who flattereth with her words;
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To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words;
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To deliver you from the strange woman, Even from the foreigner who flatters with her words;
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To deliver thee from the strange woman, From the stranger who hath made smooth her sayings,
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Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 16. - To deliver thee from the strange woman. This is the second form of temptation against which wisdom (discretion) is a preservative, and the great and especial dangers arising from it to youth, owing to its seductive allurements, afford the reason why the teacher is so strong in his warnings on this subject. Two terms are employed to designate the source of this evil - "the strange woman" (אִָשה זָרָה, ishshah zara), and "the stranger" (נָכְרִיָה, nok'riyah) - and both undoubtedly, in the passage before us, mean a meretricious person, one who indulges in illicit intercourse. The former term is invariably employed in this sense in the Proverbs (Proverbs 5:2, 20; Proverbs 7:5; Proverbs 22:14; Proverbs 23:33) of the adulteress (זָרִים, zarim), and Jeremiah 2:25. The participle זָר (zar), from the verb זוּר (zur), of which זָרָה (zarah) is the feminine form, is, however, used in a wider sense, as signifying (1) one of another nation, or one of another family; (2) or some one different from one's self; (3) or strange. . . .
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(16) To deliver thee from the strange woman.--Another work of wisdom, to save from profligacy. Of the two epithets here used, "strange" (z?rah) and "stranger" (nokhriyyah), the first implies that she belonged to another family, the second to another nation. It would seem as if the evil example of Solomon (1Kings 11:1), in marrying foreign women, had become common in Israel, and that they, by their vicious lives, had become a deadly source of corruption. Brought up in the lax views of morality which prevailed among heathen nations at this time, they would not consider themselves bound by the high standard of purity which was enjoined upon Hebrew women by the Law.(16-19) Besides the literal sense of this passage, as given above, commentators have very generally found in it a spiritual meaning, a warning against idolatry and apostasy. The union of Israel to God is so frequently spoken of in the prophets under the figure of a marriage, and their rejection of Him for idols as adultery, that the passage may well bear this further sense, especially as Jeremiah (Jeremiah 3:4) has borrowed this very phrase, "guide of her youth," for a passage in which he is reproving the Jews for their faithlessness. The figure is also very common in the New Testament, as descriptive of the union of Christ and the Church.
