Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

Adam Clarke Commentary

Her feet go down to death - She first, like a serpent, infuses her poison, by which the whole constitution of her paramour is infected, which soon or late brings on death.

Her steps take hold on hell - First, the death of the body; and then the damnation of the soul. These are the tendencies of connections with such women.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Her feet go down to death,.... The ways in which she walks, and in which she leads others, issue oftentimes in corporeal death; and always in eternal death, if grace prevent not; and unless men are brought to a sense of sin, to repent of it and leave it. The Septuagint and Arabic versions render it, "the feet of imprudence" or "folly", in opposition to wisdom; that is, the feet of the foolish woman, such an one the harlot is; and such is the whore of Rome, notwithstanding all her boasted knowledge and wisdom. And into perdition, or the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death, she goes herself, and hither she brings all that follow her idolatrous practices, Revelation 17:8;

her steps take hold on hell; make sure of it; hell is the certain portion of the harlot, and of all those that follow her lewd courses, unless reclaimed by the grace of God; and this will be the case of the worshippers of antichrist, or who give into the idolatries of the church of Rome, or commit fornication with her, Revelation 14:9. Or, "her steps support hell"^F8יתמכו "sustentabunt", Montanus; "sustinant", Vatablus; "sustentent", Mercerus, Gejerus. ; keep it up, and fill it with inhabitants; millions are carried into it by her means: or, reach unto hell; she stops not till she comes there, and her followers with her. The word may be rendered "the grave", and may respect such whores who haunted burying places, and prostituted themselves among the graves; and were called from hence "bustuariae moechae"^F9Vid. Turnebi Adversar. l. 13. c. 19. & Sept. vers. in Jer. ii. 23. .

Geneva Study Bible

(c) All her doings lead to destruction.

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

feet …, steps — that is, course of life ends in death.

Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.

Feet — Her manner of life.

Scofield's Reference Notes

hell

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

John Trapp Complete Commentary

Proverbs 5:5 Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.

Ver. 5. Her feet go down to death.] The Romans were wont to have their funerals at the gates of Venus’s temple, to signify that lust was the harbinger and hastener of death, saith Plutarch. As for whores, they were of old shut out of the city, and forced to seek places among the graves. Hence they were called Maechae bustuariae. De scortis dictum inter busta prostrantibus, saith Turnebus. (a) {See Trapp on "Proverbs 2:18"}

Her steps take hold on hell.] Whither she is hastening, and hurrying with her all her stallions and paramours, {See Trapp on "Proverbs 2:18"} {See Trapp on "Proverbs 2:19"} and where, "by how much more deliciously they have lived, by so much more they shall have of sorrow and torment." [Revelation 18:7]

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Her feet; her course or manner of life.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

5.Down to death — Intercourse with her leads to certain destruction.

Hell — , (sheol,) the under world, according to the conceptions of the ancients. The place of departed spirits. Compare Proverbs 1:12; Proverbs 2:18; Proverbs 7:22.

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

hell = the grave. Hebrew. sheol. App-35.

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Unabridged

Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.

Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell - in awful contrast to "taking hold of the paths of life" (Proverbs 2:19). Death of the body: spiritual death here; eternal death hereafter.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(5) Take hold on hell.—They lead straight to it.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

2:18,19; 7:27