Fathers

Proverbs 5

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My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding: That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge. For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell. Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them. Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth. Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house: Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel: Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger; And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me! I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly. Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well. Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets. Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee. Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love. And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger? For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings. His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins. He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.

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What the Fathers say

Proverbs 5:3

Eastern Fathers

John Chrysostom

Therefore one gives this admonition; "Observe not the beauty of a strange woman, and meet not a woman addicted to fornication. For honey distils from the lips of an harlot, which at the time may seem smooth to thy throat, but afterward thou wilt find it more bitter than gall, and sharper than a two-edged sword." For the harlot knows not how to love, but only to ensnare; her kiss hath poison, and her mouth a pernicious drug. …

Homilies Concerning The Statues 14:10 ↗

Cyril of Jerusalem

What does it profit a man to be an expert theologian if he is a shameless fornicator; or to be nobly temperate but an impious blasphemer? The knowledge of doctrines is a precious possession. There is need of a vigilant soul, since many there are who would deceive you by philosophy and vain deceit. The Greeks, indeed, by their smooth tongue lead men astray, for honey drops from the lips of a harlot.

Catechetical Lecture 4:2 ↗

Western Saints

Bede

And her throat is smoother than oil. The Catholic faith is consecrated by the oil of the Holy Spirit, by which they who prefer their own sense to the faith of the Fathers show their throat smoother. It is evident concerning the harlot, because she seeks both the sweetness of speech and the beauty of body to capture the wretched.

Commentary on Proverbs ↗