A Pilgrim's Journal

This was written back in April, in my work-in-progress queue, but in re-reading it, it seems complete as-is. Time to post it.

Every now and then, I pick a month and try to read through the book of Proverbs at the pace of one chapter a day. This is very convenient, since there are 31 chapters in Proverbs, and often 31 days in a month.

This practice has, over the years, caused many Biblical Proverbs to pop into my mind at random times when the situation warranted it. Despite this amazing and beneficial result, there are many parts of Proverbs that have just not sunk in yet. The benefit of reading Proverbs regularly is that you remember what it says. The danger is that you start to gloss over the parts that are poetically familiar to you.

Chapter 5 is one of those parts for me. I can almost quote the chapter in the NIV translation, it is so familiar to me. Yet there are new things to find in it when I take the time to study it with an open mind, instead of speeding past the flowing lines.

So this blog post is primarily for myself, to remind my feeble brain of the things I've discovered, so I don't forget them later.

Word #1: Ponder

The first word to consider is found in verse 5:6.

	Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life,
	her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.
	   Proverbs 5:6

	She gives no thought to the way of life;
	her paths are crooked, but she knows it not.
	   Proverbs 5:6 (NIV)

It is unclear whether this verse is talking to the reader (i.e. the man that could potentially fall into adultery) or whether it is talking about the adulteress. I think both are useful (and both might be accurate), but I'll focus on the first translation.

The word "ponder," according to Strong's concordance, is from the Hebrew word "palac" which means: properly, to roll flat, i.e. prepare (a road); also to revolve, i.e. weigh (mentally):--make, ponder, weigh.

The same word is used in the two other verses close by. Here they are in different translations, as well as a cross reference:

	Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.
	   Proverbs 4:26

	Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm.
	   Proverbs 4:26 (NIV)

	And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame
	be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.
	   Hebrews 12:13

	For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord,
	and he pondereth all his goings.
	   Proverbs 5:21

So the wise man will:

1. ponder the path of his feet
2. remember that the Lord sees all his paths, whether good or evil
3. remember that the Lord also ponders the man's paths, whether the man does or not (in fact, other verses in Proverbs indicate that the alternate translation of "ponder" is also accurate, in the sense that the Lord directs, limits, or blesses men's paths as well: see Proverbs 16:9; 20:24 and Lamentations 3:37)
4. realize that one of the main dangers of the adulteress is how hard it is to ponder his own path, let alone finding the path of life, when the woman he is joined to is not firm, stable, nor established

Word #2: Captivate

Okay, on to the fun word. But there's a life and death choice in these passages as well.

The word, translated "captivated" in the NIV, or "ravished" in the KJV, is from the Hebrew word (again, from Strong's concordance) shagah. This word means:

	to stray (causatively, mislead), usually
	(figuratively) to mistake, especially (morally) to transgress;
	by extension (through the idea of intoxication) to reel,
	(figuratively) be enraptured:--(cause to) go astray, deceive,
	err, be ravished, sin through ignorance, (let, make to)
	wander.

Now, I'll quote Proverbs 5:15-23, and insert a marker every place that the word shagah is used, in verses 19, 20, and 23:

	15 Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters
	   out of thine own well.
	16 Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters
	   in the streets.
	17 Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee.
	18 Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
	19 Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts
	   satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished [shagah] always
	   with her love.
	20 And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished [shagah] with a strange
	   woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
	21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord,
	   and he pondereth all his goings.
	22 His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall
	   be holden with the cords of his sins.
	23 He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his
	   folly he shall go astray. [shagah]

Here, God is telling us that he knows perfectly well that a man can and will be captivated by a loving woman. This was the way He designed it.

But the choice put before us is this: do we allow ourselves to be captivated by the path of life, or by the path of death?

The path of life is to be captivated by your own wife: create your own home, your own family, and receive your own blessings from the Lord.

The path of death is to be captivated by sin, by the very same bond of marital love, but with the wrong woman. The wrong woman can be another man's wife, or an unbelieving woman. The word used for "adulteress" or "strange woman" is also translated "stranger" or "alien." If your potential wife is a stranger from God, by whom are you being captivated?

And just as the cords of marital bliss are a powerful force of captivity for good, the cords of sin will hold the sinner and the wicked man, with a powerful force for evil. His own folly will captivate him with the same kind of strength and power that is meant to hold a godly couple together in marriage.