relation of 26 and 27a there comes a word, certainly not unwelcome, such as 27b, which impresses the moral stamp on these thoughts. That with Pro 4:27 the admonition of his father, which the poet, placing himself back into the period of his youth, reproduces, is not yet concluded, the resumption of the address בּני, Pro 5:1, makes evident; while on the other hand the address בּנים in Pro 5:7 shows that at that point there is advance made from the recollections of his father's house to conclusions therefrom, for the circle of young men by whom the poet conceives himself to be surrounded. That in Pro 5:7. a subject of the warning with which the seventh address closes is retained and further prosecuted, does not in the connection of all these addresses contradict the opinion that with Pro 5:7 a new address begins. But the opinion that the warning against adultery does not agree (Zöckler) with the designation רך, Pro 4:3, given to him to whom it is addressed, is refuted by 1Ch 22:5; 2Ch 13:7.
Chap. 5
Verses 1-6
Here a fourth rule of life follows the three already given, Pro 4:24, Pro 4:25, Pro 4:26-27 : 1 My son, attend unto my wisdom, And incline thine ear to my prudence, 2 To observe discretion, And that thy lips preserve knowledge. 3 For the lips of the adulteress distil honey, And smoother than oil is her mouth; 4 But her end is bitter like wormwood, Sharper than a two-edged sword. 5 Her feet go down to death, Her steps cleave to Hades. 6 She is far removed from entering the way of life, Her steps wander without her observing it.
Wisdom and understanding increase with the age of those who earnestly seek after them. It is the father of the youth who here requests a willing ear to his wisdom of life, gained in the way of many years' experience and observation. In Pro 5:2 the inf. of the object is continued in the finitum, as in Pro 2:2, Pro 2:8. מזמּות (vid., on its etymon under Pro 1:4) are plans, projects, designs, for the most part in a bad sense, intrigues and artifices (vid., Pro 24:8), but also used of well-considered resolutions toward what is good, and hence of the purposes of God, Jer 23:20. This noble sense of the word מזמּה, with its plur., is peculiar to the introductory portion (chap.
