Proverbs 5:4

Pro 5:4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.

Ver. 4. But her end is bitter as wormwood.] The pleasure passeth, the sting remaineth; for in the froth of this filthy pleasure is bred that hell worm of guilt that never dieth. {a}

“ Principium dulce est, sed finis amoris amarus:

Laeta venire Venus, tristis abire solet. ”

Diana of the Ephesians was so artificially portrayed, that she seemed to smile most pleasantly upon such as came into her temple, but to frown at those that went out. So doth sensual pleasure. Heus tu scholastiae, dulce et amarum gustulum carpis, &c., said the harlot to Apuleius; hark, scholar, it is but a bitter sweet that you are so fond of. {b} Plus aloes quam mellis habet; { c} knowest thou not that there will be bitterness in the end? The chroniclers {d} have observed of our Edward III that he had always fair weather at his passage into France, and foul upon his return. Such is the way of the harlot; the sin committed with her is as the poison of asps. When an asp stings a man, it doth first tickle him so as it makes him laugh, till the poison by little and little get to the heart, and then it pains him more than ever before it delighted him. See Luk 6:25; Luk 16:25 Heb 12:15-16 Job 13:26 Ecc 7:27-28.

{a} In amore multum est amari.

{b} Dulcis acerbitas amarissima voluptas. - Tertul.

{c} Plutarch.

{d} Speed, Walsing.

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.

her end--literally, "her future," in sense of reward, what follows (compare Psa 37:37; Psa 73:17). Its nature is evinced by the use of figures, opposite those of Pro 5:3. The physical and moral suffering of the deluded profligate are notoriously terrible.

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 4. Bitter as wormwood] כלענה Kelanah, like the detestable herb wormwood, or something analogous to it: something as excessive in its bitterness, as honey is in its sweetness.

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

(4) Bitter as wormwood.—The absinthium of Rev_8:11, where, apparently, it is considered as a poison. So God’s message to St. John (Rev_10:10) was in his mouth sweet as honey (comp. Psa_19:10), but made his belly bitter: that is, he met with much sorrow and trouble in making it known to men, but through this “much tribulation” (Act_14:22) he “entered into the kingdom of heaven.”

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

4. wormwood] The reference is perhaps not merely to the bitterness, but to the noxiousness of this herb. See Deu_29:18, and Rev_8:10-11, where “many men died of the waters” into which the star named “wormwood” had fallen.

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.

But her end is bitter as wormwood,.... Which is opposed to the honeycomb her lips are said to drop; so that, as Juvenal says (g), "plus aloes quam mellis habet": the end which she brings persons to, or the issue of complying with her, is bitterness; such as loss of credit, substance, and health, remorse of conscience, and fear of death, corporeal and eternal; see Ecc 7:26;

sharp as a twoedged sword; which cuts every way; as committing sin with an harlot hurts both soul and body; and the reflection upon it is very cutting and distressing, and destroys all comfort and happiness. This is the reverse of her soothing and softening speech, which is as oil. Such also will be the sad case of the worshippers of the beast, or whore of Rome; who will gnaw their tongues for pain, and be killed with the twoedged sword that proceedeth out of the mouth of Christ, Rev 16:10.

(g) Satyr. 6. v. 180. "Lingua dicta dulcia dabis, corde amara facilis", Plauti Truculentus, Act. 1. Sc. 1. v. 77. Cistellaria, Act. 1. Sc. 1. v. 70, 71, 72.

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

Wormwood - In Eastern medicine this herb, the absinthium of Greek and Latin botanists, was looked upon as poisonous rather than medicinal. Compare Rev 8:11.

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

Sword. "It is a crime even to hearken." (St. Ambrose, de Abrah. ii. 11.) She seeks thy ruin, ver. 5., and chap. ii. 16.

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).

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

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

4. Bitter as wormwood — As the accursed or poisonous herb or root. The ancients regarded this herb, whatever it was, as poisonous. There are sundry passages referring to it as noxious. See Deu_29:18; Heb_12:15; Rev_8:10-11. “Wormwood,” says Zockler, “is a plant about two feet high, belonging to the genus artemesia, (artemesia absinthium,) which produces a very firm stock with many branches, grayish leaves, and small, almost round, pendent blossoms. It has a bitter and saline taste, and seems to have been regarded as a poison.” It was a fitting popular emblem of the results of illicit love. Such love is full of poison, and in the end will be as destructive as a double-edged sword. This is more plainly stated in the following verse.

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

The contrast is drawn with great vividness between the professions of the "strange woman" and the disastrous consequences which overtake those who listen to her enticements. She promises enjoyment, pleasure, freedom from danger, but her end is bitter as wormwood. "Her end," not merely with reference to herself, which may be and is undoubtedly true, but the last of her as experienced by those who have intercourse with her her character as it stands revealed at the last. So it is said of wine, "At the last," i.e. its final effects, if indulged in to excess, "it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder". (Pro_23:22) Bitter as wormwood. The Hebrew, laanah , "wormwood," Gesenius derives from the unused root laan, "to curse." It is the equivalent to the absinthium of the Vulgate. So Aquila, who has aqinyion . The LXX improperly renders colh , "gall." In other places the word laanah is used as the emblem of bitterness, with the superadded idea of its being poisonous, also according to the Hebrew notion, shared in also by the Greeks, that the plant combined these two qualities. Thus in Deu_29:18 it is associated with rosh, "a poisonful herb" (margin), and the Targum terms it, agreeably with this notion, "deadly wormwood." The same belief is reproduced in Rev_8:11, "And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and many men died of the waters because they were made bitter". (cf. Jer_9:15 Amo_5:7:6:12) The apostle, no doubt, has it in mind when he speaks of any "root of bitterness," in Heb_12:15. The herb is thus described by Umbreit: "It is a plant toward two feet high, belonging to the genus Artemisia (species Artemisia absinthium), which produces a very firm stalk with many branches, grayish leaves, and small, almost round, pendent blossoms. It has a bitter and saline taste, and seems to have been regarded in the East as also a poison, of which the frequent combination with rosh gives an intimation." Terence has a strikingly similar passage to the one before usIn melle sunt linguae sitae vestrae atque orations Lacteque; corda felle sunt lita atque acerbo aceto.

"Your tongues are placed in honey and your speech is milk; your hearts are besmeared with gall and sharp vinegar" ("Trucul.," 1:11. 75). Sharp as a two-edged sword; literally, as a sword of edges (kherev piphiyyoth), which may mean a sword of extreme sharpness. Her end is as sharp as the sharpest sword. But it seems better to take the term as it is understood in the Authorized Version, which has the support both of the Vulgate, gladius biceps, and the LXX, macaira distomov , i.e. "a two-edged sword." Compare "a two-edged sword" (kherev piphiyyoth) of Psa_149:6. The meaning is, the last of her is poignancy of remorse, anguish of heart, and death. In these she involves her victims.

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

But - The effect of that to which she entices men, is destruction.

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