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Thursday, July 17th, 2025
the Week of Proper 10 / Ordinary 15
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Complete Jewish Bible

Proverbs 5:4

but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Adultery;   Harlot (Prostitute);   Lasciviousness;   Women;   Wormwood;   Young Men;   Thompson Chain Reference - Evil;   Temptresses;   Women;   Wormwood;   The Topic Concordance - Disobedience;   Whoredom;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Arms, Military;   Sword, the;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Prostitution;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Hemlock;   Sword;   Wormwood;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Arms and Armor;   Plants in the Bible;   Proverbs, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Wormwood;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Gall ;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Hemlock;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Proverbs book of;   Wormwood;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Sword;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Wormwood;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Bitter;   End;   Wormwood;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Chastity;   Sword;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
in the end she’s as bitter as wormwoodand as sharp as a double-edged sword.
Hebrew Names Version
But in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, And as sharp as a two-edged sword.
King James Version
But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
English Standard Version
but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
New Century Version
But in the end she will bring you sorrow, causing you pain like a two-edged sword.
New English Translation
but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
Amplified Bible
But in the end she is bitter like [the extract of] wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword.
New American Standard Bible
But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword.
World English Bible
But in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, And as sharp as a two-edged sword.
Geneva Bible (1587)
But the end of her is bitter as wormewood, and sharpe as a two edged sworde.
Legacy Standard Bible
But her end is bitter as wormwood,Sharp as a two‑edged sword.
Berean Standard Bible
her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.
Contemporary English Version
But all that you really get from being with her is bitter poison and pain.
Darby Translation
but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
Easy-to-Read Version
But in the end, she will bring only bitterness and pain. It will be like bitter poison and a sharp sword.
George Lamsa Translation
But the end of her life is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
Good News Translation
but when it is all over, she leaves you nothing but bitterness and pain.
Lexham English Bible
But her end is bitter as the wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
Literal Translation
but afterwards, she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a sword of mouths;
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
But at ye last she is as bitter as wormwod, and as sharpe as a two edged swerde.
American Standard Version
But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword.
Bible in Basic English
But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword;
JPS Old Testament (1917)
But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
King James Version (1611)
But her end is bitter as wormewood, sharpe as a two edged sword.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
But at the laste she is as bitter as wormewood, and as sharpe as a two edged sworde.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
but afterwards thou wilt find her more bitter than gall, and sharper than a two-edged sword.
English Revised Version
But her latter end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
but the last thingis ben bittir as wormod, and hir tunge is scharp as a swerd keruynge on ech side.
Update Bible Version
But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword.
Webster's Bible Translation
But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
New King James Version
But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword.
New Living Translation
But in the end she is as bitter as poison, as dangerous as a double-edged sword.
New Life Bible
But in the end she is as bitter tasting as wormwood, and as sharp as a sword that cuts both ways.
New Revised Standard
but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
But, the latter end of her, is bitter as wormwood, sharp, as a two-edged sword!
Douay-Rheims Bible
But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword.
Revised Standard Version
but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
Young's Literal Translation
And her latter end [is] bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a sword [with] mouths.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword.

Contextual Overview

1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding; 2 so that you will preserve discretion and your lips keep watch over knowledge. 3 For the lips of a woman who is a stranger drop honey, her mouth is smoother than oil; 4 but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword. 5 Her feet go down to death, her steps lead straight to Sh'ol; 6 she doesn't walk the level path of life — her course wanders all over, but she doesn't know it. 7 So now, children, listen to me; don't turn away from what I am saying: 8 distance your way from her, stay far from the door of her house; 9 so that you won't give your vigor to others and your years to someone who is cruel, 10 so strangers won't be filled with your strength and what you worked for go to a foreign house.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

her: Proverbs 6:24-35, Proverbs 7:22, Proverbs 7:23, Proverbs 9:18, Proverbs 23:27, Proverbs 23:28, Ecclesiastes 7:26, Hebrews 12:15, Hebrews 12:16

sharp: Judges 16:4-6, Judges 16:15-21, Psalms 55:21, Hebrews 4:12

Reciprocal: Numbers 5:18 - the bitter water Numbers 5:27 - if she be defiled Proverbs 2:18 - General Proverbs 14:13 - General Revelation 8:11 - Wormwood

Cross-References

Genesis 1:28
God blessed them: God said to them, "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the air and every living creature that crawls on the earth."
Genesis 5:1
(vi) Here is the genealogy of Adam. On the day that God created man he made him in the likeness of God;
Genesis 5:3
After Adam lived 130 years he fathered a son like himself and named him Shet.
Genesis 5:7
After Enosh was born, Shet lived another 807 years and had sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:10
After Kenan was born, Enosh lived another 815 years and had sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:13
After Mahalal'el was born, Kenan lived another 840 years and had sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:19
After Hanokh was born, Yered lived 800 years and had sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:22
After Metushelach was born, Hanokh walked with God 300 years and had sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:26
After Lemekh was born, Metushelach lived 782 years and had sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:30
After Noach was born, Lemekh lived 595 years and had sons and daughters.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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 Ecclesiastes 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,

Revelation 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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Proverbs 5:4. 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.


 
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