The Pulpit Commentary on Proverbs 2:18

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

For her house inclineth unto death; rather, she sinks down to death together with her house (Bottcher, Delitzsch). The objection to the Authorized Version is that it does not tbllow the construction of the original, the verb "sinks down" ( שָׁחָה, shakhah) being feminine, while "house" ( בָיִת, bayith) is invariably masculine.

Aben Ezra translates, "She sinks down to death, (which is to be) her house;" but it seems better to regard "her house" as an adjunct of the strange woman. Her house includes all who belong to her. She and they are involved in the same fate.

The Authorized Version is evidently influenced by the Vulgate, Inclinata est enim ad mortem domus ejus, "For her house is inclined to death." The LXX. gives a different rendering, ἕθετο γὰρ παρὰ τῷ θανάτῳ τὸν οἶκον αὐτῆς, "For she hath placed her house beside death."

So the Arabic. The "for" ( כִּי, ki) refers back to verse 16, and indicates how great is the deliverance effected by wisdom. The meaning of the passage is aptly illustrated by Proverbs 7:27, "Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death."

And her paths unto the dead. The dead ( רְפָאִים, r'phaim) are properly the quiet, or the feeble. They are the shadowy inhabitants or shades of Hades, the inferi of the Vulgate, and are here put for Sheol itself.

Compare the ἔδωλα καμνόντων of Homer, and the umbrae, "shades," of Virgil. The word occurs again in Proverbs 9:18; Proverbs 21:16; and in Psalms 88:11; Isaiah 26:14, Isaiah 26:19; Job 26:5.

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