Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.
Her house is the road that goes down to the grave and to the inner rooms of death, closing the warning against the immoral woman with her final end. The word for hell is sheol, meaning the grave or state of the dead beneath, the same as hades, so that to go down to it is not to go up to God in heaven. The way of sexual folly gives only brief pleasure and ends in ruin of soul and body, in spiritual disease and bitter remorse. Even entering those chambers for amusement can begin a downward course from which there is no recovery, especially for youth drawn from home by smooth words and enticing display in the crowded city. Yet the hidden traps are known to Christ, and remembrance of God, of a godly mother, and of coming judgment can turn the tempted away.
Words and Setting
Her house is declared to be the road to hell and death, and with that declaration the warning against the strange woman is closed. Sexual vice gives only momentary pleasure and ends in ruin fatal to the health of soul and body, followed by long bitter remorse. The plain speech is given to make this sin appear exceeding sinful and to warn young men in time to escape the snares thick about their feet, painting vice and its dreadful consequences in their true colors without coarseness and without making evil attractive.
The chapter describes the character of a class of women, not one particular woman, and the woman in Ecclesiastes 7 is to be understood as representing that class. The word rendered hell in the verse is the Hebrew word sheol. Sheol is the grave, pit, or state of the dead rather than a place, and it means the same as the New Testament Greek word hades, the place of all the dead. Its way goes down to the chambers of death, for sheol lies down beneath and not up. Going to sheol is going down, not going upward to God in heaven, so the dead cannot both go down to sheol and go upward to God at death.
The verse holds deep philosophy that calls for slow reading and careful thought. Its instruction should take hold upon the heart of both men and women to warn them against the sin it condemns, yet it is not well suited to be read aloud in a mixed assembly of men and women.
Sin Leading to Death
The path of sexual immorality and folly leads downward to death, hell and destruction, giving only momentary pleasure and ending in ruin fatal to the health of soul and body, followed by long bitter remorse. Its plain speech is given to make this sin appear exceeding sinful and to warn young men in time to escape the snares thick about their feet, painting vice and its dreadful consequences in true colors without coarseness and without making evil attractive. Rejecting instruction and choosing that destructive path brings spiritual disease and death and can ruin a life, and a young man starting down the way of drunkenness and sexual sin is given a clear warning about where that path ends and urged to turn back.
Entering its chambers for brief pleasure or merely for amusement and just for fun can begin a downward course of ruin from which a person may not recover and may never escape, even when stepped onto carelessly and despite warnings. The haunts of vice in the crowded city are that way to hell and take hold on death, their mad pleasures set forth in smooth words by evil companions. A young man who leaves his country home and the love and restraint of parents and sisters to enter them once begins a downward career of ruin despite a pious mother's entreaties and warnings, while angels mourn over him.
The danger may be alluring through enticing words and attractive display that draw the careless away from holiness toward destruction. The thoughts and impressions planted by public vanities can grow into character and lead toward destruction, while alluring appearances conceal a path that leads down to death. The enchantress's house and bed are a deadly snare toward death and the gates of death, alluring especially to a young man away from home in the city along with charms like the theater, yet Christ knows its hidden traps and can show how to escape them. Its power is broken by faith that brings distant things to mind, the memory of a godly mother and responsibility to God, which restrains passion and turns the tempted person away from sin.
This is the awful fate of the prostitute who sells herself and not her time or labor. Girls sent to great cities in ignorance of moral danger walk perilous paths where a single false step commits them to a life of shame, and the silence of mothers from false modesty leaves daughters to go down that way to death. A way marked by sexual corruption leads to death and hell, as shown when publicly displayed obscene sculptures and images evidence extreme corruption and volcanic fires destroying the city show God's consuming judgment, as in Pompeii.
Wider Moral Applications
The house stands lighted and open at midnight, with light streaming through half-opened blinds and doors open, giving a direct and short path down to hell and the chambers of death. It belongs to late-night work in the crowded city carried on through open dram-shops, crowded theaters, concert-cellars, dance-houses, billiard halls and gambling hells that keep watch-night seven nights a week. That night work draws in young men and women, boys and girls, including sons of ministers and deacons and other good people, while pious people pray and sleep.
The theater is that house, a place associated with vice, sexual immorality, and worldly influence that can draw Christians away from godly ways. Going there risks destroying piety and losing taste for godly ways. The same warning that the house of the woman who entices a young man away from virtue leads to hell and death falls also on a landlord who, for the sake of higher rent, knowingly lets his premises be used to lure him into sexual vice.
The chambers of death and hell are the end of a path of ruin for women who plunge into shame and infamy, losing hope and joy for time and eternity as a consequence of idleness, extravagance, and pride. Applied to morality enforced by political power, the harlot image is a corrupt system disguised as morality, whose secret chambers contain war, plunder, and murder and whose followers spread revenge, hatred, envy, and division. The verse applies to prostitution and to a government that licenses and regulates it, warning that such moral corruption defies God's standard and brings ruin.
Her house is the road that goes down to the grave and to the inner rooms of death, closing the warning against the immoral woman with her final end. The word for hell is sheol, meaning the grave or state of the dead beneath, the same as hades, so that to go down to it is not to go up to God in heaven. The way of sexual folly gives only brief pleasure and ends in ruin of soul and body, in spiritual disease and bitter remorse. Even entering those chambers for amusement can begin a downward course from which there is no recovery, especially for youth drawn from home by smooth words and enticing display in the crowded city. Yet the hidden traps are known to Christ, and remembrance of God, of a godly mother, and of coming judgment can turn the tempted away.
Words and Setting
Her house is declared to be the road to hell and death, and with that declaration the warning against the strange woman is closed. Sexual vice gives only momentary pleasure and ends in ruin fatal to the health of soul and body, followed by long bitter remorse. The plain speech is given to make this sin appear exceeding sinful and to warn young men in time to escape the snares thick about their feet, painting vice and its dreadful consequences in their true colors without coarseness and without making evil attractive.
The chapter describes the character of a class of women, not one particular woman, and the woman in Ecclesiastes 7 is to be understood as representing that class. The word rendered hell in the verse is the Hebrew word sheol. Sheol is the grave, pit, or state of the dead rather than a place, and it means the same as the New Testament Greek word hades, the place of all the dead. Its way goes down to the chambers of death, for sheol lies down beneath and not up. Going to sheol is going down, not going upward to God in heaven, so the dead cannot both go down to sheol and go upward to God at death.
The verse holds deep philosophy that calls for slow reading and careful thought. Its instruction should take hold upon the heart of both men and women to warn them against the sin it condemns, yet it is not well suited to be read aloud in a mixed assembly of men and women.
Sin Leading to Death
The path of sexual immorality and folly leads downward to death, hell and destruction, giving only momentary pleasure and ending in ruin fatal to the health of soul and body, followed by long bitter remorse. Its plain speech is given to make this sin appear exceeding sinful and to warn young men in time to escape the snares thick about their feet, painting vice and its dreadful consequences in true colors without coarseness and without making evil attractive. Rejecting instruction and choosing that destructive path brings spiritual disease and death and can ruin a life, and a young man starting down the way of drunkenness and sexual sin is given a clear warning about where that path ends and urged to turn back.
Entering its chambers for brief pleasure or merely for amusement and just for fun can begin a downward course of ruin from which a person may not recover and may never escape, even when stepped onto carelessly and despite warnings. The haunts of vice in the crowded city are that way to hell and take hold on death, their mad pleasures set forth in smooth words by evil companions. A young man who leaves his country home and the love and restraint of parents and sisters to enter them once begins a downward career of ruin despite a pious mother's entreaties and warnings, while angels mourn over him.
The danger may be alluring through enticing words and attractive display that draw the careless away from holiness toward destruction. The thoughts and impressions planted by public vanities can grow into character and lead toward destruction, while alluring appearances conceal a path that leads down to death. The enchantress's house and bed are a deadly snare toward death and the gates of death, alluring especially to a young man away from home in the city along with charms like the theater, yet Christ knows its hidden traps and can show how to escape them. Its power is broken by faith that brings distant things to mind, the memory of a godly mother and responsibility to God, which restrains passion and turns the tempted person away from sin.
This is the awful fate of the prostitute who sells herself and not her time or labor. Girls sent to great cities in ignorance of moral danger walk perilous paths where a single false step commits them to a life of shame, and the silence of mothers from false modesty leaves daughters to go down that way to death. A way marked by sexual corruption leads to death and hell, as shown when publicly displayed obscene sculptures and images evidence extreme corruption and volcanic fires destroying the city show God's consuming judgment, as in Pompeii.
Wider Moral Applications
The house stands lighted and open at midnight, with light streaming through half-opened blinds and doors open, giving a direct and short path down to hell and the chambers of death. It belongs to late-night work in the crowded city carried on through open dram-shops, crowded theaters, concert-cellars, dance-houses, billiard halls and gambling hells that keep watch-night seven nights a week. That night work draws in young men and women, boys and girls, including sons of ministers and deacons and other good people, while pious people pray and sleep.
The theater is that house, a place associated with vice, sexual immorality, and worldly influence that can draw Christians away from godly ways. Going there risks destroying piety and losing taste for godly ways. The same warning that the house of the woman who entices a young man away from virtue leads to hell and death falls also on a landlord who, for the sake of higher rent, knowingly lets his premises be used to lure him into sexual vice.
The chambers of death and hell are the end of a path of ruin for women who plunge into shame and infamy, losing hope and joy for time and eternity as a consequence of idleness, extravagance, and pride. Applied to morality enforced by political power, the harlot image is a corrupt system disguised as morality, whose secret chambers contain war, plunder, and murder and whose followers spread revenge, hatred, envy, and division. The verse applies to prostitution and to a government that licenses and regulates it, warning that such moral corruption defies God's standard and brings ruin.