For the commandment is a lamp, and the teaching a light, and reproofs of instruction are the way of life
Proverbs 6 has been warning a young man about traps he cannot afford to walk into. Verse 23 says why a parent's words are worth carrying everywhere. They light up a dark road, and even their sting keeps him alive.
This verse sits inside a warning about sexual temptation.
Proverbs 6:20-26 turns to another trap, and it is more dangerous than most. It is especially dangerous for the young, though not for them only. That is why the appeal is so tender, and why it calls up memories — memories that never failed to warn of this cunning trap in the lusts of the flesh.
Two images stand side by side. The second reaches further than the first.
"For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light." A lamp is exactly what you need in a filthy place. That is how we are told to think of the prophetic word. It came when things had gone wrong, it warns that worse is at hand, and it promises God's judgment when it is least expected. In the same place we are told of a better light still — the truth fully revealed and crowned by the hope of Christ's coming for more glorious scenes. Here the light does not rise so high. Even so, the teaching seems to go beyond the commandment. It is wider, more definite, and more personal. How fitting, then, that it is called a "light"!
A lit path is the difference between walking with confidence and groping in the dark. One writer links this verse with Psalm 119:105.
"For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light" (v. 23). Psalm 119:105 confirms this precious reminder, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." Only by this word can a person have full confidence. The way ahead of him is lit, while unbelievers walk in darkness.
The lamp is not decoration. It is meant to move feet. One writer points to a time when it did.
The Jewish exiles who came back to Jerusalem from Babylon in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah are an example of this guidance by the word of God. The people asked Ezra the scribe to read aloud to them from the book of the law, so that they might learn what the will of God was (Neh. 8:1). There they found that they were commanded to keep the Feast of Tabernacles at just that time of year (Neh. 8:14). The commandment of the Lord shone as a lamp for their feet (Prov. 6:23), and the people obeyed His word at once.
The verse ends not with comfort but with "the reproofs of discipline." That is no change of subject. Light does one thing wherever it falls: it shows up what does not belong.
At times we need the last phrase here, "the reproofs of discipline are the way of life." The light exposes everything that does not agree with the truth. So when we receive the light, we welcome the reproofs that come with it. This is vital power to keep us from the evil woman. She knows how to seduce by flattery anyone who is not protected by the light of God (v. 24). Such warnings are truly needed. Even God's own people are not safe from this temptation, as we see in the history of David, and, sadly, in cases we have known ourselves. We depend on God's preserving grace all the time.
Correction wounds pride. The verse calls that wound the way of life, because of what lies behind the reproof.
And we are reminded that "the reproofs of discipline are the way of life." How much we owe to it! It humbles our good opinion of ourselves. Yet it takes pains with us in love, and it turns even our faults to good account.
- Lamp — the commandment lights a dirty, unclear place. It is the light you need when things have gone wrong and worse is coming.
- Light — the teaching goes further than the bare command, wider in breadth, more definite, and more personal.
- Path — with this light the way ahead is clear, and you can walk with confidence. Without it, people walk in darkness.
- Obedience — light calls for action. When the returning exiles saw the command shine, they obeyed at once.
- Reproof — the same light exposes what does not agree with the truth. So correction is not the opposite of the gift but part of it. It humbles our pride, yet it takes pains with us in love and turns even our faults to good account. That is why it is called the way of life.
to keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.
Everything in the verses just before this one — a father's command, a mother's teaching, a lamp, a light, correction — has one purpose. It all exists to keep a person away from one ruin, and the danger is named as a voice: a smooth tongue.
The instruction of the previous verses is not general advice. It has a target, and one writer marks the moment the chapter arrives at it.
At last comes the main point here — "to keep you from the evil woman, from the smoothness of the tongue of a strange woman." How many people have trusted themselves and walked straight into the trap! A little liberty quickly leads to shameful sin.
The safeguard offered is not willpower but a word carried everywhere, working around the clock — while you move, while you sleep, when you wake.
The son must take these lessons in purity to heart from his earliest years, from the mother no less than the father. Indeed it falls to the mother most of all to shape the direction of the young. So bind these words "continually on your heart, tie them about your neck." They are both shield and ornament. Our world is as evil as our own fallen nature. When one walks, do we not need direction? When one sleeps, do we not need a guard? And when one wakes alone, is it not good and pleasant to have such a word shining and talking with us?
The word "strange" is not about nationality alone. It describes someone who has stepped outside the ties God Himself gives, and the same writer traces how her sweetness turns.
He is the One who puts and keeps us in the relationships which are the ground of our duties. But a strange woman is such because she ignores and forsakes them, and seeks to entice others. Fair words of flattery may be the beginning, sweet to the flesh. But her end is extreme bitterness, and often deep wounds.
The verse also calls her an adulteress. One writer weighs how much worse that makes the evil.
We are not our own, and we must beware of an immoral woman, and still more of another man's wife, an adulteress. Here the evil is even worse: ruin of both soul and body, and an object of God's special judgment.
The danger starts with words. One writer says plainly what flattery really is.
Accepting flattery is accepting falsehood, because flattery is really deceit. It is not even meant honestly, and it is not sober, real fact. Satan uses such methods with great skill.
These warnings have a sobering history. The king who wrote them down did not keep them himself.
The strange women against whom the Spirit of God warned him in his youth are the women of other nations, Gentiles… The Spirit of the Lord foresaw the sad end of this great and wise king. So He warned him against the strange woman, using the picture of a prostitute, who traps people and whose ways end in death. But he did not heed the heavenly wisdom that had instructed and warned him… The lure of the strange woman, which his own inspired pen had warned about, became a sad fact in his own history.
Commentators read this woman in different ways. Writing on a similar warning earlier in the book, one sees the danger as affection given to the wrong person.
This short section warns us about the danger of our affections going astray. The verses before this appeal encourage us to give our whole affection to the One who has a right to it. This strange woman will make a bid for our affections, which belong to Christ alone… We must avoid this woman if we are to keep our affections for Christ.
- Purpose. The lamp, the light and the correction of the previous verses are not decoration. They exist to keep you from the evil woman and her smooth tongue. That is "the main point here."
- Guard. The protection is a word bound to the heart. It leads you as you walk, keeps you as you sleep, and talks with you when you wake — "both shield and ornament."
- Definition. She is "strange" because she ignores the relationships God gives, and pulls others out of theirs.
- Weapon. Her speech is the first trap. Flattery is deceit accepted as truth: sweet at the start, bitter and wounding at the end.
- Warning. The wise king heard this warning in his youth and still ignored it. Knowing the verse will not by itself keep you. Give your heart to the One who has a right to it.
Lust not after her beauty in thy heart, neither let her take thee with her eyelids;
Proverbs 6:25 sits inside a father's urgent warning to his son. It moves the danger from the street into the man himself: where does sin start, and what can stop it before the act?
The verse forbids something invisible: wanting her beauty inside. One writer draws the same line from Jesus' words. This is not about the glance you cannot avoid.
The Lord is not speaking here about accidental, unintended looks, which are hard to avoid. He is speaking about the deliberate lustful look: "everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent…" So the sinful thought in the heart comes first, before the intentional look.
The second half of the verse describes capture: she takes him. One writer explains the eyelashes from the customs of the time, then turns the warning on his own day.
The women of that region painted their faces. They plucked their eyebrows into an almond shape. It is sad that in the society of the twentieth century the women and girls of a so-called Christian civilization do the same thing — and we fear they do it for the same purpose as the immoral woman described in this chapter.
This warning follows straight after the strange woman's smooth tongue. One writer marks how short the fall is from a small allowance to open sin.
At last comes the main point here — these words are meant "to keep you from the evil woman, from the smoothness of the tongue of a strange woman." How many a man has trusted himself and been lured in! A little freedom quickly betrays him into shameful sin. The Jews were God's people, but our relationship is much closer. We are His children, bought with a price, which they in their blindness despised. We are not our own. We are called to beware of an immoral woman, and even more of another man's wife, an adulteress. Here the evil is worse still: ruin of both soul and body, and an object of God's special judgment.
Verse 25 does not stand alone. Two verses earlier Proverbs calls the commandment a lamp and the teaching a light. That light is what makes the warning work.
Only this Word gives full confidence. It lights the way in front of you, while unbelievers walk in darkness. At times we need the last phrase here, "Reproofs of instruction are the way of life." The light exposes everything that does not fit the truth, and when we receive the light we welcome the reproofs it brings with it. This is a vital power to keep us from the evil woman. She knows how to seduce by flattery anyone the light of God does not protect.
The danger is inward, so the remedy goes inward too. The son must tie the words on his heart, and one writer names two things they do at once.
Here the son must take to heart those instructions to purity from his earliest years — from the mother no less than the father. Indeed it falls to the mother most of all to shape the direction of the young. So bind these words "continually on your heart, tie them about your neck." They are both shield and ornament in a world as evil as our fallen nature. When one walks, do we not need direction? When one sleeps, do we not need to be guarded?
Nobody outgrows this verse. One writer points out that God's own people still need the warning.
Such warnings are truly necessary. Even the saints of God are not exempt from this temptation. We see it in the history of David, and sadly in cases we have known ourselves. We depend continually on God's preserving grace.
- Heart — The command targets the desire, not just the deed. The sinful thought comes before the look.
- Eyes — After the heart comes the look. Her beauty is painted on purpose, and one writer found the same thing in his own century.
- Light — God's word comes first, as a lamp. It exposes what flattery hides and reproves us before ruin.
- Binding — Tie the instruction on your heart. It is shield and ornament: it guides you awake and guards you asleep.
- Grace — Believers are not their own; they were bought with a price. Even so, David's story shows that no one stands without God's preserving grace.
for by means of a whorish woman [a man is brought] to a loaf of bread, and another's wife doth hunt for the precious soul.
Proverbs 6:26 closes a father's warning about immorality. He prices it in blunt commercial terms, and two questions follow: why is the price so cheap, and why is the married woman the deadlier danger?
The verse names two losses. One writer reads them as the two things this woman is after: what a man owns, and what a man is.
Two further marks of this evil woman are before us here: she is after our treasures and she is after our life... The word translated "soul" here — "life" in other versions — really means a living soul. The sons of wisdom live to God. This woman hunts that life, and if we yield to her she will destroy it in practice... While she pretends to give, it is perfectly clear that her own selfish interest is what she has at heart. The sure result of yielding to her is spiritual poverty and a lifeless profession of faith in this world.
The verse before it forbids desire in the heart and capture by a glance, and one commentator ties that inward beginning to how quickly the fall comes.
How many a one trusting himself has been decoyed! A little license rapidly betrays into shameful sin. "Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes." The Jews were God's people. Our relationship is much closer: we are His children, bought with a price, which they in their blindness despised. We are not our own, and we are called to beware of a promiscuous woman, and still more of another's wife, an adulteress. Here the evil is more serious still: ruin of both soul and body, and the object of God's special judgment.
The two halves of the verse are not equal. The same writer shows why the second clause weighs more.
The warning here is even stronger. It deals with a more serious and destructive evil. This is not only the evil woman, or a strange woman, or a promiscuous woman. It is the wife of another, as in the last clause. The language rises in severity, because marriage is a tie God Himself made. He hates the breaking of it, and He judges those who break it.
Verse 26 gives the reason; the verses just above give the protection. One writer connects the lamp and the light directly to this danger — light works by exposing.
At times we need the last phrase here: "the reproofs of discipline are the way of life." The light must expose everything inconsistent with truth. When we receive the light, we welcome the reproofs that come with it. How vital this is as a power to keep us from the evil woman! She knows how to seduce by flattery anyone who is not protected by the light of God.
He then applies the warning to God's own people:
We deeply need such warnings. Even God's people are not exempt from this temptation. We see it in the history of David, and sadly in cases we have known ourselves. We depend at every moment on God's preserving grace.
Commentators differ on how far the picture reaches. Some read the strange woman as plain immorality. Another sees her as a rival for the heart, and reads the hunt in this verse as a hunt for affection.
This strange woman will make a bid to secure our affections, to which Christ alone has a right. In the later part of this book we meet with this appeal: "My son, give me your heart" (Proverbs 23:26)... This explains the spiritual jealousy of the apostle Paul. Writing to the Corinthians, he said he wished to present them "as a pure virgin to Christ" (2 Corinthians 11:2). We must avoid this woman if our affections are to be kept for Christ.
- Price — Sin is priced honestly here. This woman is after both what you own and what you are, and she pretends to give while she takes.
- Heart — The hunt starts inside, at desire and a glance. Self-trust is the weak point: a little license quickly becomes shameful sin.
- Weight — The two halves are not equal. The language climbs from the loose woman to another man's wife. Marriage is a tie God Himself made, and He judges those who break it.
- Light — The safeguard sits in the verses just before: command as lamp, teaching as light, reproof as the way of life. Light protects by exposing, so welcoming correction is part of how God keeps us.
- Owner — No one is exempt. David's history proves it, and we depend on preserving grace every day. The heart the strange woman hunts is the heart Christ asks for: "My son, give me your heart."