Proverbs 5:13

And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

5:1-14 Solomon cautions all young men, as his children, to abstain from fleshly lusts. Some, by the adulterous woman, here understand idolatry, false doctrine, which tends to lead astray men's minds and manners; but the direct view is to warn against seventh-commandment sins. Often these have been, and still are, Satan's method of drawing men from the worship of God into false religion. Consider how fatal the consequences; how bitter the fruit! Take it any way, it wounds. It leads to the torments of hell. The direct tendency of this sin is to the destruction of body and soul. We must carefully avoid every thing which may be a step towards it. Those who would be kept from harm, must keep out of harm's way. If we thrust ourselves into temptation we mock God when we pray, Lead us not into temptation. How many mischiefs attend this sin! It blasts the reputation; it wastes time; it ruins the estate; it is destructive to health; it will fill the mind with horror. Though thou art merry now, yet sooner or later it will bring sorrow. The convinced sinner reproaches himself, and makes no excuse for his folly. By the frequent acts of sin, the habits of it become rooted and confirmed. By a miracle of mercy true repentance may prevent the dreadful consequences of such sins; but this is not often; far more die as they have lived. What can express the case of the self-ruined sinner in the eternal world, enduring the remorse of his conscience!

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

More bitter than slavery, poverty, disease, will be the bitterness of self-reproach, the hopeless remorse that worketh death.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

12-14. The ruined sinner vainly laments his neglect of warning and his sad fate in being brought to public disgrace.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Of my teachers; of my parents, and friends, and ministers, who faithfully and seasonably informed me of those mischiefs and miseries which now I feel.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers,.... Parents, tutors, masters, and ministers of the word; neither regarded the advice of parents, nor the instructions of tutors, nor the commands of masters, nor the sermons of ministers: these are all lost on some persons; they are proof against them all; these make no impressions upon them, and are of no use to them;

nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me! or to my masters, as the Targum and Vulgate Latin version; turned away the ear from them, stopped it to them, and would not hear what they had to say; at least would not receive it, and act according to it.

Geneva Study Bible

And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 13. - And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me. The ruined profligate admits he was not without teachers and advisers, but that he gave no heed to their warnings and reproofs. Have not obeyed the voice (lo-shama'ti b'kol). The same phrase occurs in Genesis 27:13; Exodus 18:19; Deuteronomy 26:14; 2 Samuel 12:18. The verb shama is primarily "to hear," and then "to obey," "to give heed to," like the Greek ἀκούω. Proverbs 5:13

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

שׁמע בּ signifies to cleave to anything in hearing, as ראה ב is to do so in seeing; שׁמע ל yet more closely corresponds with the classic ἐπακούειν, obedire, e.g., Psalm 81:9; שׁמע בּקול is the usual phrase for "hearken!"