Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Strangers - The whole gang of those into whose hands the slave of lust yields himself. The words are significant as showing that the older punishment of death Deuteronomy 22:21; Ezekiel 16:38; John 8:5 was not always inflicted, and that the detected adulterer was exposed rather to indefinite extortion. Besides loss of purity and peace, the sin, in all its forms, brings poverty.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth,.... The adulteress, her husband, children, friends, bawds, and such like persons she is concerned with; these share the wealth of the adulterer, abound with it, and live profusely on it, until he is stripped quite bare and destitute: or, "with thy strength"; See Gill on Proverbs 5:9. Jarchi interprets it of the prophets of Baal, that exact money by their falsehoods; it may well enough be applied to the fornicating merchants of Rome, who wax rich through the abundance of her delicacies and adulteries, Revelation 18:3; persons, strangers indeed to God and Christ, and all true religion;

and thy labours be in the house of a stranger; that is, wealth gotten by hard labour, with toil and sweat, grief and trouble, as the word used^F17עצביך "dolores tui", Montanus, Cocceius, Michaelis. signifies; and yet, after all, not enjoyed by himself and his lawful wife and children, but by the strange woman and her accomplices, and spent in maintaining whores, bawds, and bastards; hence the fable of the Harpies eating and spoiling the victuals of Phineus, who were no other than harlots that consumed his substance^F18Heraclitus de Incredibil. c. 3. : and sometimes they are carried into a strange country, and possessed by foreigners. These are the wretched effects and miserable consequences of adultery, and therefore by all means to be shunned and avoided. Jarchi understands it of the house of idolatry, or an idol's temple; and everyone knows what vast riches are brought into the temples or churches of the Papists by idolatry.

Geneva Study Bible

(f) The goods gotten by your travel.

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

wealth — literally, “strength,” or the result of it.

labours — the fruit of thy painful exertions (Psalm 127:2). There may be a reference to slavery, a commuted punishment for death due the adulterer (Deuteronomy 22:22).

Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;

Strangers — Not only the strange women themselves, but others who are in league with them.

Labors — Wealth gotten by thy labours.

John Trapp Complete Commentary

Proverbs 5:10 Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours [be] in the house of a stranger;

Ver. 10. Lest strangers be filled.] This sin is a purgatory to the purse, though a paradise to the desires. How soon had the prodigal {Aσωτος, Luke 15:13, quasi ασωστος} wasted his portion when once he fell among harlots, those sordida poscinummia, those crumenimulgae. "Ask me never so much gift, and I will give it," said Shechem. [Genesis 34:12] "What pledge shall I give thee? and she said, Thy signet, thy bracelets," &c., [Genesis 37:18] and if she had asked more, she might have had it. "Ask what thou wilt, and it shall be given thee," said Herod to his dancing damsel; nay, he sware "to her that whatsoever she should ask, he would give it to her to the half of his kingdom," [Mark 6:22-23] so strongly was he enchanted and bewitched with her tripping on the toe and wanton dancing. (a) This detestable sin is able to destroy kings, as Solomon’s mother taught him. [Proverbs 31:3] And surely Solomon by the many women that he kept, was so exhausted in his estate (for all his great riches) that he was forced to oppress his subjects with heavy taxes and tributes, which occasioned the revolt of ten tribes. The whore "lyeth in wait for a prey," [Proverbs 23:28] and "by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a morsel of bread" [Proverbs 6:26] - to extreme beggary.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Strangers; not only the strange women themselves, but bawds, panders, and other adulterers, who are in league with them.

Thy labours; wealth gotten by thy labours.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

10.Lest strangers — Those of another family, perhaps of another country, satiate their lusts at thy expense, and furnish their house and table with the fruits of thy labour. Some suppose the allusion is to the prosecution of the adulterer, and the sale of him as a bondman.

George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Strength. Or children, ver. 16., and Genesis xlix. 3. (Calmet)

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

wealth. Hebrew strength: put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Cause), App-6, for what is produced by it.

labours. Put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Cause), for what is produced by it.

a stranger = a foreigner. Hebrew. nakar. Not the same word as in verses: Proverbs 5:3, Proverbs 5:17. See note above and on Proverbs 2:16.

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Unabridged

Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;

Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth, and thy labours (be) in the house of a stranger. "Strangers" mean the adulteress, her husband, and children, or else her favourites. For it is not thee that she wants, but "thy wealth" and "thy labours" - i:e., thy hard earnings (Psalms 127:2 ; Isaiah 58:3). Maurer translates, 'And lest strangers (be filled) with (the fruits of) thy labours in the house.' Thus the ellipsis of "be" is avoided. But the Chaldaic, Septuagint, Vulgate, Arabic, Syriac, and Ethiopic, all support the English version.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

strangers

6:35; Hosea 7:9; Luke 15:30

wealth

Heb. strength.

31:3