Proverbs 5:14

Pro 5:14 I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.

Ver. 14. I was almost in all evil.] Abraham Ben Ezra reads it in the future tense, Brevi ero in omni malo, I shall shortly be in all evil; and so his repentance here appears to be poenitentia sera, Iscariotica, such as was that of Judas and of those popelings, {Rev 18:19} a desperate repentance, and not "toward God," {Act 20:24} not a repentance for sin, as it is offensivum Dei, et aversivum a Deo, an offence against God, and a turning away from him. Such a repentance in this man had been, as the Romans said of Pompey, {a} Eχθρου πατρος φιλτατον τεχνον, a fair and happy daughter of an ugly and odious mother - of his sin I mean, the sight whereof had sent him to Christ.

In the midst of the congregation.] That is, Openly, and before all men. And this he brings as an aggravation of his misery, that there were so many eye witnesses thereof. No unclean person can have any assurance that his sin shall always be kept secret, no, not in this life. The Lord hath oft brought such - sometimes by terror of conscience, sometimes by frenzy - to that pass, that themselves have been the blazers and proclaimers of their own secret filtifiness. Yea, observe this, saith one, {b} in them that are the most cunning in this sin, that, though nobody peradventure can convince them evidently of the fact, yet everybody, through the just judgment of God, condemns them we for it. As the Lord seeth their secret villanies, even so ofttimes he testifieth agaiust them, accordins to that which he threateneth, "I will be a swift witness against the adulterers." {Mal 3:5}

{a} Plut. in Pomp. Vita.

{b} Hildersh. on John iv.

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.

14. In all evil — The common interpretation is, The gratification of my lusts by degrees led me into nearly all kinds of wickedness; not merely in secret, but openly; in the assembly of God’s people even, in the presence of the magistrates and judges. Such persons, however sacred the place, have eyes full of adultery, which cannot cease from sin. Compare Num_25:7; Num_35:12. But very respectable critics interpret differently, namely, that the adulterer was exposed to punishment for his crime, and this punishment usually terminated in his being sold into slavery — probably to a cruel master. Pro_5:9. If the injured person prosecuted the adulterer, he might insist on the punishment of death, (Deu_22:22,) but if he chose he might act more leniently, and sell him into bondage, the price obtained being accepted as a mulct for the crime. What a slave earns by his toil goes into the house of his master, and becomes his wealth. Pro_5:10. By the assembly (Pro_5:14) is understood the magistrates and judges — the sanhedrin, which surrounded him to condemn and punish him by stoning to death. Understood thus, the all evil of the verse would mean the great evil, the extreme danger, to which he was exposed. See Stuart in loco; also Zockler, who translates, “Well nigh had I fallen into utter destruction, in the midst of the assembly and the congregation.”

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

Although I was faithfully instructed in the truth, yet had I almost fallen to utter shame and destruction notwithstanding my good bringing up in the assembly of the godly.

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

evil--for affliction, as in Gen 19:20; Gen 49:15.

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

Verse 14. I was almost in all evil] This vice, like a whirlpool, sweeps all others into its vortex.

In the midst of the congregation and assembly.] In the mydel of the Curche and of the Synagoge - Old MS. Bible. Such persons, however sacred the place, carry about with them eyes full of adultery, which cannot cease from sin.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(14) I was almost in all evil . . .—Rather, I had almost fallen into every sin: I was so infatuated that I might have committed any sin, and that openly before all. Or, I might have been visited with extremest punishment at the hands of the congregation, death by stoning (Lev_20:10, Joh_8:5). The offender’s eyes are now opened, and he shudders at the thought of the still greater troubles into which he might, in his infatuation, have fallen.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14. I was almost in all evil] Ewald and other commentators take this to mean, I had a narrow escape from incurring the extreme penalty which the law of Moses prescribes for this sin (Lev_20:10): I almost, or well nigh, was convicted and stoned to death in public, “in the midst of the congregation and the assembly.” But the writer, if this were his meaning, has hardly chosen a happy phrase in which to convey it to us. It is better to understand the clause as added to lend aggravation to the sin, rather than to the punishment or danger. The words “congregation” and “assembly,” sometimes with the addition, “of Israel,” “of Jehovah,” “of God” (see for examples which abound in the Pentateuch, Exo_16:3; Lev_4:15; Deu_31:30; Num_16:3; Num_27:17; Neh_13:1), had come to be the common designation of Israel, as the people of Jehovah, the holy nation, separated from the abominations of the heathen. The Greek equivalents for these words (ἐν μέσῳ ἐκκλησίας καὶ συναγωγῆς LXX.) became naturally the titles of the Church under its Jewish and Christian aspects. To sin then “in the midst of the congregation and assembly” was to sin against light and knowledge, and to disgrace the body of which the sinner was a member. Somewhat similarly we hear it said, as an aggravation of crime or immorality, that it has been done “in a Christian country.”

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.

I was almost in all evil,.... Scarce a sin but he was guilty of; contempt of private and public instructions, the instructions of parents and ministers of the Gospel, and following lewd women, commonly lead to the commission of all other sins, even the most atrocious. Some understand this, not of the evil of sin, but of the evil of punishment; and that the sense is, that there is scarce any calamity, distress, or misery, that a man can be in, but his profaneness and lewdness had brought him into; and he was just upon the brink of hell itself: and so Jarchi paraphrases it,

"there was but a step between me and hell.''

Aben Ezra observes, that the past is put for the future, "I shall be"; and then the meaning is, in a little or in a short time I shall be in complete misery; and so they are the words of one under consciousness of sin, despairing of mercy;

in the midst of the congregation and the assembly; that is, either be despised and neglected the instructions which were given in a public manner; or he committed all the evil he did openly; not only in company with wicked men, which he frequented, but even in the presence and before the people of God; yea, before the civil magistrates, the great sanhedrim, which is sometimes designed by the last word here used: or when he was in the house of God, attending public worship, his eyes were full of adultery, and his heart of impure lusts; and neither place, service, nor people of God, where he was, commanded any awe and reverence in him, nor in the least restrained his unclean thoughts and wanton desires; and which is mentioned as an aggravation of guilt. Or else the sense is, that his calamities and miseries were as public as his crimes; he was made a public example of, and all the people were witnesses of it; which served to spread his infamy, and make his punishment the more intolerable: both the sins and punishment of those that commit fornication with the whore of Rome will be public and manifest, Rev 18:5.

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

The conscience-stricken sinner had been “almost” given up to every form of evil in the sight of the whole assembly of fellow-townsmen; “almost,” therefore, condemned to the death which that assembly might inflict Lev 20:10; Deu 22:22. The public scandal of the sin is brought in as its last aggravating feature.

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

Evil. Infirm and worn out, having lost my reputation, &c. (Calmet) --- Though I lived among the faithful, I was under no restraint. (Menochius)

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).

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. In how little a time, and for what short and momentary pleasures, am I now come into extreme and remediless misery!

In the midst of the congregation and assembly: I, who designed and expected to enjoy my lusts with secrecy and impunity, am now made a public example and shameful spectacle to all men, and that in the congregation of Israel, where I was taught better things, and where such actions are most infamous and hateful.

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

I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly; i.e. such was my shamelessness that there was scarcely any wickedness which I did not commit, unrestrained even by the presence of the congregation and assembly. The fact which the ruined youth laments is the extent and audacity of his sins. It is not that he accuses himself of hypocrisy in religion (Delitzsch), but he adds another clement in his career of vice. He has disregarded the warnings and reproofs of his teachers and friends; but more, the presence of the congregation of God"s people, a silent but not a less impressive protest, had no restraining effect upon him. The words, "the congregation and assembly" (Hebrew, kahal v"edah), seem to be used to heighten the conception, rather than to express two distinct and separate ideas, since we find them both used interchangeably to designate the congregation of the Israelites. The radical conception of kahal ("congregation") is the same as that of the LXX ekklhsia and Vulgate ecclesia, viz. the congregation looked upon from the point of its being called together, kahal being derived from kahal, which in hiph. is equivalent to "to call together," while that of edah is the congregation looked at from the point of its having assembled edah being derived from yaad, in niph. equivalent to "to come together." The latter will therefore stand for any assembly of people specially convened or coming together for some definite object, like the LXX sunagwgh and the Vulgate synagoga. The term edah is, however, used in a technical sense as signifying the seventy elders, or senators, who judged the people. (see Num_25:7 Num_35:12) Rabbi Salomon so explains haedah as "the congregation," in Jos_20:6 and Num_27:21. Other explanations, however, have been given of these words. Zockler takes kahal as the convened council of elders acting as judges, (Deu_33:4, Deu_33:5) and edah as the concourse (coetus) of the people executing the condemning sentence, (Num_15:15; cf. Psa_7:7) and renders, "Well nigh had I fallen into utter destruction in the midst of the assembly and the congregation." Fleischer, Vatablus, and Bayne take much the same view, looking upon ra ("evil," Authorized Version) as "punishment," i.e. the evil which follows as a consequence of sin a usage supported by 2Sa_16:18 Exo_5:19 1Ch_7:23 Psa_10:6 rather than as evil per se, i.e. that which is morally bad, as in Exo_32:22. Aben Ezra considers that the perfect is used for the future; "In a little time I shall be involved in all evil;" i.e. punishment, which is looked forward to prospectively. For "almost" (ki-mat, equivalent to "within a little," "almost," "nearly"), see Gen_26:10 Psa_73:2 Psa_119:87.

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

A moment - In how little a time am I now come into remediless misery! Assembly - And that in the congregation of Israel, where I was taught better things.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

I was almost in all evil There is but a step between me and Gehinnom. (Because of a little thing, I was now “in all evil,” for I did not obey my instructors; had I obeyed them, this would not have happened to me. From Rabbi Joseph Kara.)

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.