Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Proverbs 9:17

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Proverbs 9:17. Stolen waters are sweet — I suppose this to be a proverbial mode of expression, importing that illicit pleasures are sweeter than those which are legal. The meaning is easy to be discerned; and the conduct of multitudes shows that they are ruled by this adage. On it are built all the adulterous intercourses in the land.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Invitations from ‘Wisdom’ and ‘Folly’ (9:1-18)

Wisdom is again personified in a gracious lady. This time she invites the silly and the ignorant to a great feast that she has prepared in her magnificent house. She wants them to come and enjoy the life-giving gifts of wisdom and discernment that she freely offers (9:1-6).
Whether people desire wisdom depends largely upon the character they have developed in themselves over the years. When people grow conceited in their opinions and blind to their failures, they usually react with bitterness when criticized. Those who are wise welcome criticism and so increase their wisdom (7-9). People are responsible individually for their own gain or loss of wisdom. Everything depends on whether they are willing to learn from God (10-12).
In contrast to the invitation of the gracious lady Wisdom is the invitation of the shameless prostitute Folly. She also invites the silly and the ignorant, but the only thing she can offer is stolen food to be eaten in secret - unlawful pleasures that ruin a person’s life (13-18).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

FOLLY ALSO CRIES TO THE SIMPLE, TURN YE IN HITHER

"The foolish woman is clamorous; She is simple, and knoweth nothing. And she sitteth at the door of her house, On a seat in the high places of the city, To call to them that pass by, Who go right on their ways: Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither; And as for him that is void of understanding, she saith to him, Stolen waters are sweet, And bread eaten in secret is pleasant. But he knoweth not that the dead are there; That her guests are in the depths of Sheol."

This is one of the most impressive chapters in the Bible. It is this picture of the two women, Wisdom and Folly. "The two give the contrast between rectitude and sexual debauchery."International Critical Commentary, op. cit., p. 188. Both of them shout their messages from the highest places, inviting the simple ones to "turn in hither." One of these is holy, pure, eternal, righteous and the Great Benefactor of all who heed her cry. The other is unholy, shameless, wicked and seductive, bringing desolation and death to all who follow her, and whose guests are in the depths of the grave. And every man makes his choice of which he shall patronize.

Keil noted that, "Folly is here the incarnation of worldly lust."C. F. Keil, Keil-Delitzsch's Old Testament Commentaries (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company), Vol. 6, p. 172.

The description of this evil woman stresses her ignorance, noisiness, aggressiveness and persuasiveness. She diligently advocates the sin which she covets.

"She knoweth nothing" The text here is a little uncertain, and the RSV reads it, "The woman knows no shame." The literal Hebrew here reads, "The woman of folly is boisterous, simplicity, and knows not what."Arthur S. Peake, A Commentary on the Bible (London: T. C. and E. C. Jack, Ltd., 1924), p. 402. "The woman Folly is here regarded as a real person (personified); and between her and Virtue man has to make his choice."The Pulpit Commentary, op. cit., p. 183.

"Stolen waters are sweet" "The secret enjoyment of sexual immorality is here offered by Folly. Her pleasures cannot be experienced in open daylight, but secretly, under the cover of darkness."The Interpreter's Bible, op. cit., p. 838.

Sin, due to the depravity of man, is made more attractive by the very fact of its being prohibited. "Pleasures are attractive because they are forbidden (Romans 7:7); and this is the one great proof of the inherent corruption of human nature."Barnes' Notes on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, a 1987 reprint of the 1878 Edition), op. cit., p. 33.

"He knoweth not that the dead are there" With this warning the long first section of Proverbs (called by Cook the introduction)Ibid. is brought to a conclusion, and that great collection of separate proverbs for which the book is generally remembered begins at once in Proverbs 10. "Wisdom and Folly have both spoken, and their houses have been realistically painted for us. The learner is now challenged to choose."Ibid.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

The besetting sin of all times and countries, the one great proof of the inherent corruption of man’s nature. Pleasures are attractive because they are forbidden (compare Romans 7:7).

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 9 continues in its praise of wisdom.

Wisdom hath built her house, she has hewn out the seven pillars: She has killed her beasts; she has mingled her wine; and she has furnished her table. And she has sent forth her maidens: and she cries upon the highest places of the city, Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: as for him that wanteth understanding, she says to him, Come, and eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled. Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding ( Proverbs 9:1-6 ).

In other words, wisdom is inviting everybody to come and partake of her. That is why David said to Solomon, "Hey, son, wisdom's the principal thing. Get wisdom." Now Solomon's saying, "Wisdom is inviting people. I prepared a banquet. I've prepared for you. Come and partake of me." And now he says in verse Proverbs 9:7 ,

He that reproves a scorner will be mocked ( Proverbs 9:7 ):

If you have a scorner and you reprove him, what is he going to do? He's going to turn right around and mock you. He's not going to receive it.

and he that rebukes a wicked man [going to get smashed in the nose]. So reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: but if you rebuke a wise man, he will love you for it ( Proverbs 9:7-8 ).

So if you rebuke someone and he punches you in the nose, you know he's wicked. If he loves you for it, you know he's a wise man. One of the proverbs says, "A fool hateth instruction."

So give instruction to the wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom ( Proverbs 9:9-10 ):

Now this sounds very much like verse Proverbs 9:6 of chapter 1 where after Solomon introduces Proverbs and tells you what a proverb is and what the purpose of proverbs are, he begins with the first proverb declaring, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge" ( Proverbs 1:6 ). Now he says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." And it sounds like these are parallel statements, but there's a vast difference between the two. And the difference lies not in the difference between wisdom and knowledge, but the difference between the word beginning in the Hebrew that is translated in both places beginning. They are two different Hebrew words with two different meanings.

After telling what a proverb is and what the purpose of proverbs are, to gain understanding and to know the way of righteousness and so forth, he then declared, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." The word in verse Proverbs 9:6 of chapter 1 is a Hebrew word which means "the sum total of knowledge." All knowledge is encompassed in the fear of the Lord. In other words, if a man doesn't fear the Lord, he's dumb, stupid. The fear of the Lord is really the sum of knowledge.

The word beginning here is the Hebrew word for primary or commencement, the starting place. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," the starting place for wisdom. It's the sum total of knowledge but it's the starting place of wisdom. Now the difference between wisdom and knowledge is that knowledge will give you facts. Wisdom will direct you to the correct action in lieu of these facts.

There are a lot of people that have a lot of knowledge, but they don't have much wisdom. They may have a lot of facts. They may have a lot of knowledge stored up in their head, but they're absolutely dumb when it comes to their actions. I am constantly amazed at what dumb things smart men do. Men who have their Ph.D.s and all of this vast knowledge, and yet they don't have any wisdom. They're just off their rockers.

The government keeps a group of men that are almost humanoids. And they sit day after day at these desks in these think tanks, and these guys when they start shaving, just shave all the way, you know. Their heads are bare and big heads, and they just sit there at the desk day after day after day just sitting, and the government pays them royally for this. And they are thinking in these far out abstract concepts. And they may sit there for a month and never say a word to anybody. You can walk in, walk around. They don't even recognize that you're there. And yet, they come up with these outlandish, far out concepts. Pretty soon after several months, they'll go up the board and start writing out formulas and all these kind of stuff, designs. And then the government has other men who have to take these formulas and designs and see if they'll really work.

We have a friend who was in the second phase, and he told us about these little humanoids almost that sit there at their desks, and of these wild kind of concepts. How that they are thinking about how to transmit brainwave patterns from the outsides so that people can see without eyes. You know, just by the transmitting of brainwave patterns that go across the place so they get the illusion of sight and so forth, though they don't have eyes. Or transmit the sound in without the hearing apparatus, normal hearing apparatus; you'll be able to hear. And all these kind of things that they are actually working on and developing and trying to create. Far out kind of concepts.

Now these guys have a lot of knowledge, but they don't have much wisdom. This friend of mine was telling me that quite often they'll be stuck, because, he said, they cannot, many of them cannot add a simple column of figures. Their minds are too complex to deal with simple math. And of course, they don't have any family life. I mean, they just live an isolated kind of existence in their own sort of in their own minds, and they are just trained to get into themselves and into their own minds and concepts. Far out kind of stuff.

So knowledge is having an accumulation of facts. Wisdom is knowing what to do with them. The proper use of knowledge or the application of knowledge. So the importance of wisdom. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning," that's the starting place of wisdom.

Last chapter we read, "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil" ( Proverbs 8:13 ). Fear of the Lord. The word fear bugs some people because we have in our minds the concept of a phobia. But the word translated fear is not a phobia type of fear. But it is that kind of awe and reverential fear as we really think about God, His greatness, His power, who He is. Just that awe that comes over you. So that fear of the Lord, desiring to do what God would have me to do. Love what God loves. Hate what God hates. That desire recognizing who God is. To seek to please Him, that's what the fear of the Lord is about. That's the beginning of wisdom.

and the knowledge of the Holy is understanding ( Proverbs 9:10 ).

We are living in a day and age when we have so confused the issue of good and evil, right and wrong. That people really don't know what is right or what is wrong. We have the Situation Ethics. And now more recently, this value clarification where there is the denial of any kind of universal base of good or truth or right. It's all relative to the situation. But understanding the knowledge of the holy, that which is holy, that which is pure, that's what understanding is about. It's understanding God and what He has declared.

Wisdom is still speaking and it says.

For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased. If you be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself: but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it. A foolish woman is clamorous ( Proverbs 9:11-13 ):

He evidently knew much, a lot about women. He had enough wives to have quite an understanding. No doubt in the law of averages, you have a thousand wives you're going to have some really weird ones, contentious ones and everything else. And he'll get to them later on. "A foolish woman is clamorous."

she is simple, she doesn't know anything. For she sits at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city, to call the passengers who go right on their ways: Whoso is simple, let him turn in to her: and as for him that wants understanding, she says to him, [Hey] stolen waters are sweet, bread eaten in secret is pleasant. But he doesn't know that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell ( Proverbs 9:13-18 ). "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

C. Wisdom and folly contrasted ch. 9

This chapter contrasts wisdom and folly in a very symmetrical structure. Proverbs 9:1-6 correspond to Proverbs 9:13-18 remarkably. This chiastic form of presentation sets off the central verses (Proverbs 9:7-12) as the most important in the chapter.

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

3. Folly’s feast 9:13-18

Proverbs 9:1-6 personify wisdom in the figure of a lady preparing a feast and issuing invitations. Proverbs 9:13-18 personify folly in the guise of a harlot doing the same thing. The contrasts between these sections are full of nuances. Proverbs 9:4; Proverbs 9:16 are almost identical invitations. The end of this book contains another picture of a wise woman (Proverbs 31:10-31).

In view of what God has revealed so far about wisdom, any person can determine just how wise or how foolish he or she may be. This is not a mystery. It has little to do with intelligence but everything to do with commitment. If a person recognizes divine revelation as such and decides to understand it, submits to it, and lives by it the best he can, he is wise. On the other hand, if he rejects God’s Word and decides to live his life with no regard to what God has said, he is a fool.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Stolen waters are sweet,.... Wells and fountains of waters in those hot countries were very valuable, and were the property of particular persons; about which there were sometimes great strife and contention; and they were sometimes sealed and kept from the use of others; see Genesis 26:18; now waters got by stealth from such wells and fountains were sweeter than their own, or what might be had in common and without difficulty, to which the proverb alludes. By which in general is meant, that all prohibited unlawful lusts and pleasures are desirable to men, and sweet in the enjoyment of them; and the pleasure promised by them is what makes them so desirable, and the more so because forbidden: and particularly as adultery, which is a sort of theft r, and a drinking water out of another's cistern, Proverbs 5:15; being forbidden and unlawful, and secretly committed, is sweeter to an unclean person than a lawful enjoyment of his own wife; so false worship, superstition, and idolatry, the inventions of men, and obedience to their commands, which are no other than spiritual adultery, are more grateful and pleasing to a corrupt mind than the true and pure worship of God;

and bread [eaten] in secret is pleasant; or, "bread of secret places" s; hidden bread, as the Targum, Vulgate Latin, and Syriac versions; that which is stolen and is another's t, and is taken and hid in secret places, fetched out from thence, or eaten there: the sweet morsel of sin, rolled in the mouth, and kept under the tongue; secret lusts, private sins, particularly idolatry, to which men are secretly enticed, and which they privately commit, Deuteronomy 13:6; the same thing is designed by this clause as the forager.

r "Furtiva Verus", Ovid de Arte Amandi, l. 1. "Furta Jovis, furtiva munuscula", Catullus ad Mantium, Ep. 66. v. 140, 145. So Propertius, l. 2. eleg. 30. v. 28. γλυκυ τι κλεπτομενον μελημα

κυπριδος, Pindar; for which he was indebted to Solomon, according to Clemens of Alexandria, Paedagog. l. 3. p. 252. s סתרים "latebraram", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Michaelis. t "Quas habeat veneres aliens pecunia nescis", Juvenal. Satyr. 13.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      13 A foolish woman is clamorous: she is simple, and knoweth nothing.   14 For she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city,   15 To call passengers who go right on their ways:   16 Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him,   17 Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.   18 But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell.

      We have heard what Christ has to say, to engage our affections to God and godliness, and one would think the whole world should go after him; but here we are told how industrious the tempter is to seduce unwary souls into the paths of sin, and with the most he gains his point, and Wisdom's courtship is not effectual. Now observe,

      I. Who is the tempter--a foolish woman, Folly herself, in opposition to Wisdom. Carnal sensual pleasure I take to be especially meant by this foolish woman (Proverbs 9:13; Proverbs 9:13); for that is the great enemy to virtue and inlet to vice; that defiles and debauches the mind, stupefies conscience, and puts out the sparks of conviction, more than any thing else. This tempter is here described to be, 1. Very ignorant: She is simple and knows nothing, that is, she has no sufficient solid reason to offer; where she gets dominion in a soul she works out all the knowledge of holy things; they are lost and forgotten. Whoredom, and wine, and new wine, take away the heart; they besot men, and make fools of them. (2.) Very importunate. The less she has to offer that is rational the more violent and pressing she is, and carries the day often by dint of impudence. She is clamorous and noisy (Proverbs 9:13; Proverbs 9:13), continually haunting young people with her enticements. She sits at the door of her house (Proverbs 9:14; Proverbs 9:14), watching for a prey; not as Abraham at his tent-door, seeking an opportunity to do good. She sits on a seat (on a throne, so the word signifies) in the high places of the city, as if she had authority to give law, and we were all debtors to the flesh, to live after the flesh, and as if she had reputation, and were in honour, and thought worthy of the high places of the city; and perhaps she gains upon many more by pretending to be fashionable than by pretending to be agreeable. "Do not all persons of rank and figure in the world" (says she) "give themselves a greater liberty than the strict laws of virtue allow; and why shouldst thou humble thyself so far as to be cramped by them?" Thus the tempter affects to seem both kind and great.

      II. Who are the tempted--young people who have been well educated; these she will triumph most in being the ruin of. Observe, 1. What their real character is; they are passengers that go right on their ways (Proverbs 9:15; Proverbs 9:15), that have been trained up in the paths of religion and virtue and set out very hopefully and well, that seemed determined and designed for good, and are not (as that young man, Proverbs 7:8; Proverbs 7:8) going the way to her house. Such as these she has a design upon, and lays snares for, and uses all her arts, all her charms, to pervert them; if they go right on, and will not look towards her, she will call after them, so urgent are these temptations. (2.) How she represents them. She calls them simple and wanting understanding, and therefore courts them to her school, that they may be cured of the restraints and formalities of their religion. This is the method of the stage (which is too close an exposition of this paragraph), where the sober young man, that has been virtuously educated, is the fool in the play, and the plot is to make him seven times more a child of hell than his profane companions, under colour of polishing and refining him, and setting him up for a wit and a beau. What is justly charged upon sin and impiety (Proverbs 9:4; Proverbs 9:4), that it is folly, is here very unjustly retorted upon the ways of virtue; but the day will declare who are the fools.

      III. What the temptation is (Proverbs 9:17; Proverbs 9:17): Stolen waters are sweet. It is to water and bread, whereas Wisdom invites to the beasts she has killed and the wine she has mingled; however, bread and water are acceptable enough to those that are hungry and thirsty; and this is pretended to be more sweet and pleasant than common, for it is stolen water and bread eaten in secret, with a fear of being discovered. The pleasures of prohibited lusts are boasted of as more relishing than those of prescribed love; and dishonest gain is preferred to that which is justly gotten. Now this argues, not only a bold contempt, but an impudent defiance, 1. Of God's law, in that the waters are the sweeter for being stolen and come at by breaking through the hedge of the divine command. Nitimur in vetitum--We are prone to what is forbidden. This spirit of contradiction we have from our first parents, who thought the forbidden tree of all others a tree to be desired. 2. Of God's curse. The bread is eaten in secret, for fear of discovery and punishment, and the sinner takes a pride in having so far baffled his convictions, and triumphed over them, that, notwithstanding that fear, he dares commit the sin, and can make himself believe that, being eaten in secret, it shall never be discovered or reckoned for. Sweetness and pleasantness constitute the bait; but, by the tempter's own showing, even that is so absurd, and has such allays, that it is a wonder how it can have any influence upon men that pretend to reason.

      IV. An effectual antidote against the temptation, in a few words, Proverbs 9:18; Proverbs 9:18. He that so far wants understanding as to be drawn aside by these enticements is led on, ignorantly, to his own inevitable ruin: He knows not, will not believe, does not consider, the tempter will not let him know, that the dead are there, that those who live in pleasure are dead while they live, dead in trespasses and sins. Terrors attend these pleasures like the terrors of death itself. The giants are there--Rephaim. It was this that ruined the sinners of the old world, the giants that were in the earth in those days. Her guests, that are treated with those stolen waters, are not only in the highway to hell and at the brink of it, but they are already in the depths of hell, under the power of sin, led captive by Satan at his will, and ever and anon lashed by the terrors of their own consciences, which are a hell upon earth The depths of Satan are the depths of hell. Remorseless sin is remediless ruin; it is the bottomless pit already. Thus does Solomon show the hook; those that believe him will not meddle with the bait.