Proverbs 9:18

Pro 9:18 But he knoweth not that the dead [are] there; [and that] her guests [are] in the depths of hell.

Ver. 18. That the dead are there.] {See Trapp on "Pro 2:18"} {See Trapp on "Pro 7:27"}

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.

Pro_9:18

Her guests are in the depths of hell.

Whose guests shall we be?

It is through blindness and inconsideration that any man is entangled in the snares of the foolish woman. We are naturally starving creatures, and cannot find happiness within ourselves. As every man must have food to satisfy the natural cravings of hunger, so every soul must have some gratification to the desires of happiness. Wisdom and Folly do each spread a leash for men. The question is, Whose guests shall we be? And did we possess any wisdom, or any true and well-directed self-love, it might be easily decided. The entertainments of Wisdom are soul-quickening provision. They that hear her calls shall eat that which is good, and their souls shall live for ever. The guests of Wisdom are in the heights of heaven. They feast on the hidden manna, and on the fruits of the tree of life. The provisions of the foolish woman are a deadly, though perhaps a slow, poison. Her guests have their portion with the wicked giants who brought on the world a universal deluge, and with the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, who are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Let us consider where Joseph now is, and what blessings are come upon the crown of the head of him who so bravely resisted temptations the most alluring and the most threatening. Let us, on the other hand, remember Sodom and Gomorrah. (G. Lawson.)

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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He goes within:

18 And he knows not that the dead are there;

In the depths of Hades, her guests.

How near to one another the house of the adulteress and Hades are, so that a man passes through the one into the other, is already stated in Pro 2:18; Pro 7:27. Here, in the concluding words of the introduction to the Book of Proverbs, addressed to youth, and for the most part containing warning against sinful pleasure, these two further declarations are advanced: the company assembled in the house of lewdness consists of רפאים, i.e., (cf. p. 83) the old, worn-out, who are only in appearance living, who have gone down to the seeming life of the shadowy existence of the kingdom of the dead; her (כסילות) invited ones (cf. Pro 7:26, her slaughtered ones) are in the depths of Hades (not in the valleys, as Umbreit, Lwenstein, and Ewald translate, but in the depths, Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, ἐπὶ τοῖς βαθέσι; for עמקי is not only plur. to עמק, but also per metaplasmum to עמק, Pro 25:3, as אמרי to אמר), thus in שׁאול תּחתּית (Deu 32:22); they have forsaken the fellowship of the life and of the love of God, and have sunk into the deepest destruction. The house of infamy into which Folly allures does not only lead to hell, it is hell itself; and they who permit themselves to be thus befooled are like wandering corpses, and already on this side of death are in the realm of wrath and of the curse.

(Note: The lxx has considerable additions introduced after Pro 9:18, as also after Pro 9:12, of which we shall elsewhere speak.)

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

9:18 Folly’s dinner guests end up in the depths of the grave, in contrast to the reward for Wisdom’s guests (see 9:6).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(Compare Pro 2:18-19; Pro 7:27).

Next: Proverbs Chapter 10

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 18. But he knoweth not that the dead are there] See on Pr 2:18. He does not know that it was in this way the first apostates from God and truth walked. רפאים rephaim; γιγαντες, the GIANTS. - Septuagint. The sons of men, the earth-born, to distinguish them from the sons of God, those who were born from above. See Clarke on Ge 6:1, c.

Her guests are in the depths of hell.] Those who have been drawn out of the way of understanding by profligacy have in general lost their lives, if not their souls, by their folly. The Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic make a long addition to this verse: "But draw thou back, that thou mayest not die in this place neither fix thy eyes upon her; so shalt thou pass by those strange waters. But abstain thou from strange waters, and drink not of another's fountain, that thou mayest live a long time, and that years may be added to thy life." Of this addition there is nothing in the Hebrew, the Chaldee, or the Vulgate, as now printed: but in the editio princeps are the following words: - Qui enim applicabitur illi descendet ad inferos; nam qui abscesserit ab ea salvabitur. These words were in the copy from which my old MS. Bible has been made, as the following version proves: Who forsoth schal ben joyned to hir, schal falle doun on to hell: for whi he that goth awai fro hir, schal be saved. Three of my own MSS. have the same reading.

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

(18) The dead are there.—Comp. on Pro_2:18.

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

18. the dead] To enter her house is to quit the land of the living, and enter the dark abode of the “shades,” Heb. Rephaim. See Pro_2:18, note.

hell] Heb. Sheol. See Pro_9:5, note, and comp. Pro_2:18, Pro_7:27.

The LXX. after their manner, expand the warning here, and repeat the figure of “waters” and the “fountain,” Pro_5:15-18.

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.

Compare the marginal reference. With this warning the long introduction closes, and the collection of separate proverbs begins. Wisdom and Folly have each spoken; the issues of each have been painted in life-like hues. The learner is left to choose.

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

Giants. Who lived when all flesh had corrupted its ways, (Genesis vi. 12.) and were sentenced to hell, Job xxvi. 5., and Isaias xiv. 9. (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).

Knoweth not, i.e. he doth not consider it seriously, whereby he proveth his folly.

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

18. He — The “simple” of the preceding verse.

The dead — רפאים, rephaim, the ghosts, spectres, shades.

Her guests — Her invited ones. The sentiment may be: He who accepts her invitation may be considered as already among the ghosts of the infernal world — “as good as dead.” She invites him, though he knows it not, to his utter ruin.

In the depths of hell — בעמקי שׁאול, (be’himke sheol,) the depths of the under world — the infernal regions. This is a striking picture: a dark den of impurity, haunted by horrible spectres, the shades of the guests invited by the congenial pollutions of the place from the infernal pit. Into such horrors art thou plunging, O young man, whosoever thou art, that givest the rein to thy appetites and passions! Comp. Pro_7:27; Pro_2:18.

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

The deluded youth is supposed to be persuaded by the seductions of Folly and to enter her house. The writer, then, in a few weighty words, shows the terrible result of this evil compliance. But he knoweth not that the dead are there . (see on Pro_2:18 Pro_7:27) There are none "there," in her house, who can be said to be living, they are rephaim, shadowy ghosts of living men, or else demons of the nether world. The Septuagint and Vulgate, with a reference to Gen_6:4, translate ghgeneiv and gigantes. Her guests are in the depths of hell (sheol); Septuagint, "He knows not that giants perish at her side, and he meets with a trap of hell." The terrible warning may profitably be repeated more than once, It is like Christ"s awful saying, three times enunciated, "Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched". (Mar_9:44, 46, 48) The LXX has another paragraph at the end of this verse, which has no counterpart in the Hebrew: "But start away, delay not in the place, nor put thy name "eye," al. by her; for thus shalt thou pass over (diabhsh ) strange water; but abstain thou from strange water, and of a strange spring drink not, that thou mayest live long, and years of life may be added to thee."

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

hell

Heb. "Sheol," (See Scofield "Hab 2:5")

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.