Proverbs 5:10

Pro 5:10 Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours [be] in the house of a stranger;

Ver. 10. Lest strangers be filled.] This sin is a purgatory to the purse, though a paradise to the desires. How soon had the prodigal {Aσωτος, Luk 15:13, quasi ασωστος} wasted his portion when once he fell among harlots, those sordida poscinummia, those crumenimulgae. "Ask me never so much gift, and I will give it," said Shechem. {Gen 34:12} "What pledge shall I give thee? and she said, Thy signet, thy bracelets," &c., {Gen 37:18} and if she had asked more, she might have had it. "Ask what thou wilt, and it shall be given thee," said Herod to his dancing damsel; nay, he sware "to her that whatsoever she should ask, he would give it to her to the half of his kingdom," {Mar 6:22-23} so strongly was he enchanted and bewitched with her tripping on the toe and wanton dancing. {a} This detestable sin is able to destroy kings, as Solomon’s mother taught him. {Pro 31:3} And surely Solomon by the many women that he kept, was so exhausted in his estate (for all his great riches) that he was forced to oppress his subjects with heavy taxes and tributes, which occasioned the revolt of ten tribes. The whore "lyeth in wait for a prey," {Pro 23:28} and "by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a morsel of bread" {Pro 6:26} - to extreme beggary.

{a} ορχησατο, tripudiabat baccharum more.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The goods gotten by thy travel.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

wealth--literally, "strength," or the result of it.

labours--the fruit of thy painful exertions (Psa 127:2). There may be a reference to slavery, a commuted punishment for death due the adulterer (Deu 22:22).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

10. wealth] The word may mean either that which a man acquires, his wealth (A.V. text, R.V. marg.), or that by which he acquires it, his strength (R.V. text, A.V. marg.) of mind and body. Gen_49:3 would seem to favour the latter rendering here. σῆς ἰσχύος, LXX., viribus tuis, Vulg. The suggestion of Ewald and others that these verses (9, 10) point to the commutation of the capital sentence into one of slavery, whether voluntarily undergone by the adulterer to escape death, or exacted by the injured husband, and that thus the guilty man’s years would be given unto the cruel, and his labours would be in the house of an alien, is not supported by any proof that such commutation was practised. On the contrary the holy law (Deu_22:22) appears to nave been strictly maintained (Eze_16:38; Eze_16:40; Joh_8:5); and in Pro_6:34-35 we are expressly told that the husband will accept no compensation. While escaping, probably because undetected, the penalty of death, the victim of lust would like the prodigal son “devour his living with harlots,” and so come to be in want and misery.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth,.... The adulteress, her husband, children, friends, bawds, and such like persons she is concerned with; these share the wealth of the adulterer, abound with it, and live profusely on it, until he is stripped quite bare and destitute: or, "with thy strength"; See Gill on Pro 5:9. Jarchi interprets it of the prophets of Baal, that exact money by their falsehoods; it may well enough be applied to the fornicating merchants of Rome, who wax rich through the abundance of her delicacies and adulteries, Rev 18:3; persons, strangers indeed to God and Christ, and all true religion;

and thy labours be in the house of a stranger; that is, wealth gotten by hard labour, with toil and sweat, grief and trouble, as the word used (q) signifies; and yet, after all, not enjoyed by himself and his lawful wife and children, but by the strange woman and her accomplices, and spent in maintaining whores, bawds, and bastards; hence the fable of the Harpies eating and spoiling the victuals of Phineus, who were no other than harlots that consumed his substance (r): and sometimes they are carried into a strange country, and possessed by foreigners. These are the wretched effects and miserable consequences of adultery, and therefore by all means to be shunned and avoided. Jarchi understands it of the house of idolatry, or an idol's temple; and everyone knows what vast riches are brought into the temples or churches of the Papists by idolatry.

(q) "dolores tui", Montanus, Cocceius, Michaelis. (r) Heraclitus de Incredibil. c. 3.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Strangers - The whole gang of those into whose hands the slave of lust yields himself. The words are significant as showing that the older punishment of death Deu 22:21; Eze 16:38; Joh 8:5 was not always inflicted, and that the detected adulterer was exposed rather to indefinite extortion. Besides loss of purity and peace, the sin, in all its forms, brings poverty.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Strength. Or children, ver. 16., and Genesis xlix. 3. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

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.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

10. Lest strangers — Those of another family, perhaps of another country, satiate their lusts at thy expense, and furnish their house and table with the fruits of thy labour. Some suppose the allusion is to the prosecution of the adulterer, and the sale of him as a bondman.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Another temporal consequence of, and deterrent against, a life of profligacy. Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger. The margin reads, "thy strength" for "thy wealth," but the text properly renders the original koakh, which means "substance," "wealth," "riches the youth"s possessions in money and property (Delitzsch). The primary meaning of the word is "strength" or "might," as appears from the verb kakhakh , "to exert one"s self," from which it is derived, but the parallel atsabeyka, "thy toils," rendered "thy labours," determines its use in the secondary sense here. Compare the similar passage in Hos_7:9, "Strangers have devoured his strength koakh, i.e. "his possessions", and he knoweth it not". (see also Job_6:22) Koakh is the concrete product resulting from the abstract strength or ability when brought into action. Thy labours (atsabeyka); i.e. thy toils, the product of laborious toil, that which you have gotten by the labour of your hands, and earned with the sweat of your brow. Fleischer compares the Italian i miri sudori, and the French mes sueurs. The singular etsev signifies "heavy toilsome labour," and the plural (atsavim, "labours," things done with toil, and so the idea passes to the resultant of the labour. Compare the very similar expression in Psa_127:2, lekhem naatsavim, equivalent to "bread obtained by toilsome labour;" Authorized Version, "the bread of sorrows." The Authorized Version properly supplies the verb "be" against those (e.g. Holden et alli) who join on "thy labours" to the previous verb "be filled," as an accusative, and render, "and with thy labours in the house of a stranger." So also the LXX and the Vulgate, "and thy labours come" (elywsi , LXX) or "be" (sint, Vulgate) "to the house of strangers" (eiv oikouv allotriwn ) or, "in a strange house" (in aliena domo). In the latter case the Vulgate is wrong, as nok"ri in the phrase beyth nok"ri is always personal (Delitzsch), and should be rendered, as in the Authorized Version, "in the house of a stranger." The meaning of the verse is that a life of impurity transfers the profligate"s substance, his wealth and possessions, to others, who will be satiated at his expense, and, being strangers, are indifferent to his ruin.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

lest strangers be sated with your strength The prophets of Baal, who collect money with their lies and their hastiness.

and your labors And your toil, with which you were saddened and fatigued.

in the house of an alien In the pagan temple of the pagans.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.