Proverbs Chapter 5 verse 20 Holy Bible
For why shouldest thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, And embrace the bosom of a foreigner?
read chapter 5 in ASV
Why let yourself, my son, go out of the way with a strange woman, and take another woman in your arms?
read chapter 5 in BBE
And why shouldest thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
read chapter 5 in DARBY
And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
read chapter 5 in KJV
read chapter 5 in WBT
For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another?
read chapter 5 in WEB
And why dost thou magnify thyself, My son, with a stranger? And embrace the bosom of a strange woman?
read chapter 5 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerses 20, 21. - The adulterer to be restrained by the fact of God's omniscience and the Divine punishment. Vers. 20 and 21 should apparently be taken together. The teaching assumes a higher tone, and rises from the lower law which regulates fidelity to the wife, based upon personal attractions, to the higher law, which brings the husband's conduct into relation with the duty he owes to Jehovah. Not merely is his conduct to be regulated by love and affection alone, but it is to be fashioned by the reflection or consciousness that the Supreme Being presides over all, and takes cognizance of human action. Without losing sight that the marriage contract has its own peculiar obligations, the fact is insisted upon that all a man's ways are open to the eyes of the Lord. Verse 20. - And why; i.e. what inducement is there, what reason can be given, for conjugal infidelity, except the lewd and immoral promptings of the lower nature, except sensuality in its lowest form? Ravished. The verb shagah recurs, but in a lower sense, as indicating "the foolish delirium of the libertine hastening after the harlot" (Zockler). With a strange woman (Hebrew, b'zarah); i.e. with a harlot. On zarah, see Proverbs 2:16 and Proverbs 7:5. The b' (בְּ) localizes the sources of the intoxication. Embrace (Hebrew, t'khab-bek). On this verb, see Proverbs 4:8. The bosom of a stranger (Hebrew, kheh nok'riyyah). A parallel expression having the same force as its counterpart. The more usual form of khek is kheyk, and means "the bosom" of a person. In Proverbs 16:33 it is used of the lap, and in Proverbs 17:23 and Proverbs 21:14 for the bosom or folds of a garment.
