(16) To deliver thee from the strange woman.--Another work of wisdom, to save from profligacy. Of the two epithets here used, "strange" (z?rah) and "stranger" (nokhriyyah), the first implies that she belonged to another family, the second to another nation. It would seem as if the evil example of Solomon (1Kings 11:1), in marrying foreign women, had become common in Israel, and that they, by their vicious lives, had become a deadly source of corruption. Brought up in the lax views of morality which prevailed among heathen nations at this time, they would not consider themselves bound by the high standard of purity which was enjoined upon Hebrew women by the Law.

(16-19) Besides the literal sense of this passage, as given above, commentators have very generally found in it a spiritual meaning, a warning against idolatry and apostasy. The union of Israel to God is so frequently spoken of in the prophets under the figure of a marriage, and their rejection of Him for idols as adultery, that the passage may well bear this further sense, especially as Jeremiah (Jeremiah 3:4) has borrowed this very phrase, "guide of her youth," for a passage in which he is reproving the Jews for their faithlessness. The figure is also very common in the New Testament, as descriptive of the union of Christ and the Church.

Verse 16. - To deliver thee from the strange woman. This is the second form of temptation against which wisdom (discretion) is a preservative, and the great and especial dangers arising from it to youth, owing to its seductive allurements, afford the reason why the teacher is so strong in his warnings on this subject. Two terms are employed to designate the source of this evil - "the strange woman" (אִָשה זָרָה, ishshah zara), and "the stranger" (נָכְרִיָה, nok'riyah) - and both undoubtedly, in the passage before us, mean a meretricious person, one who indulges in illicit intercourse. The former term is invariably employed in this sense in the Proverbs (Proverbs 5:2, 20; Proverbs 7:5; Proverbs 22:14; Proverbs 23:33) of the adulteress (זָרִים, zarim), and Jeremiah 2:25. The participle זָר (zar), from the verb זוּר (zur), of which זָרָה (zarah) is the feminine form, is, however, used in a wider sense, as signifying

(1) one of another nation, or one of another family;

(2) or some one different from one's self;

(3) or strange.

Thus:

(1) in Isaiah 1:7 we have "Strangers devour it (your land) in your presence;" but in Exodus 30:33 "the stranger" is one not the high priest.

(2) The "stranger" is another (Proverbs 11:15; Proverbs 14:10; Proverbs 20:16; Proverbs 27:2, 13).

(3) The "strange fire" (אֵשׁ זָרָה, esh zarah) is the unlawful fire as opposed to the holy fire (Leviticus 10:1); the "strange god" (אֵל זָר, el zar) is the foreign god (Psalm 81:9). But the idea of foreign origin implied in the word is more strongly brought out in the next term, נָכְרִיָה (nok'riyah), on which Delitzsch remarks that it scarcely ever divests itself of a strange, foreign origin. This word is used to designate those "strange women" whom Solomon loved in his old age, and who turned his heart aside to worship false gods (1 Kings 11:1-8), "outlandish women," as they are termed in Nehemiah 13:26; it designates "the strange wives" of Ezra 10, and Nehemiah 13:27; and is applied to Ruth the Moabitess (Ruth 2:10). Again, it has to be further observed that the laws of the Mosaic code against prostitution were of a most stringent nature (Leviticus 19:29; Leviticus 21:9; Deuteronomy 23:17), and no doubt served to maintain a higher standard of morality among Israelitish women than that observed among the Midianites, Syrians, and other nations. Strong prohibitions were directed against the intermarriage of Israelites with the women of the surrounding nations; but the example set by Solomon would serve to weaken the force of these prohibitions, and would lead to a large influx of women of a different nationality. The conclusion we arrive at is that the class mentioned in the text, though not Israelitish by birth, were yet so by adoption, as the context clearly indicates (ver. 17) the fact of marriage and the acceptance of certain religious observances. Such women, after a temporary restraint, would eventually set all moral and religious obligations at defiance. and would become the source of temptation to others. The allegorical interpretation given to this passage by the LXX. is to be rejected on the ground that the previous section (vers. 12-15) speaks of perverse men. Which flattereth with her words; literally, who has made smooth her words, the hiph. perfect being used of חָלַק (khalak), "to make smooth," or "flattering." The preterite shows what her habitual practice is, and is used of an action still continuing, and so may be fitly rendered by the present, as in the Authorized Version: "She has acquired the art of enticing by flattering words, and it is her study to employ them;" cf. the Vulgate, quae mollit sermones suos, "who softens her words;" and the Syriac, quae subvertit verba sua, "who subverts her words," i.e. "uses deceit." The expression occurs again in Proverbs 5:3; Proverbs 6:24; Proverbs 7:5.

2:10-22 If we are truly wise, we shall be careful to avoid all evil company and evil practices. When wisdom has dominion over us, then it not only fills the head, but enters into the heart, and will preserve, both against corruptions within and temptations without. The ways of sin are ways of darkness, uncomfortable and unsafe: what fools are those who leave the plain, pleasant, lightsome paths of uprightness, to walk in such ways! They take pleasure in sin; both in committing it, and in seeing others commit it. Every wise man will shun such company. True wisdom will also preserve from those who lead to fleshly lusts, which defile the body, that living temple, and war against the soul. These are evils which excite the sorrow of every serious mind, and cause every reflecting parent to look upon his children with anxiety, lest they should be entangled in such fatal snares. Let the sufferings of others be our warnings. Our Lord Jesus deters from sinful pleasures, by the everlasting torments which follow them. It is very rare that any who are caught in this snare of the devil, recover themselves; so much is the heart hardened, and the mind blinded, by the deceitfulness of this sin. Many think that this caution, besides the literal sense, is to be understood as a caution against idolatry, and subjecting the soul to the body, by seeking any forbidden object. The righteous must leave the earth as well as the wicked; but the earth is a very different thing to them. To the wicked it is all the heaven they ever shall have; to the righteous it is the place of preparation for heaven. And is it all one to us, whether we share with the wicked in the miseries of their latter end, or share those everlasting joys that shall crown believers?To deliver thee from the strange woman,.... As the Gospel of Christ and its doctrines, or the instructions of wisdom, are a means of delivering persons from the evil man, his company, ways, and works; so from a naughty woman, an adulteress, called a "strange" woman; not because of another nation, or unknown, but because she belongs to another person, and not to him whom she entices into her embraces. Gersom interprets this of the sensitive appetite, and Jarchi of idolatry; as others do also of superstition and all false doctrine, and everything that is contrary to true wisdom; and the whole that is here and afterwards said may well enough be applied to the whore of Rome, from whose fornication, or spiritual adultery, that is, idolatry, will worship, and antichristian doctrines, the Gospel delivers men; see Proverbs 7:5, &c.

even from the stranger which flattereth with her words; that useth smooth and soft words to work upon the passions, move the affections, and win the hearts of men; and ensnare them and draw them to commit wickedness with her; see Proverbs 5:3; and so antichrist, and all false teachers and heretics, with good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple, Romans 16:18.