Proverbs 5:4
New International Version
but in the end she is bitter as gall, sharp as a double-edged sword.

New Living Translation
But in the end she is as bitter as poison, as dangerous as a double-edged sword.

English Standard Version
but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.

Berean Standard Bible
in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.

King James Bible
But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.

New King James Version
But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword.

New American Standard Bible
But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword.

NASB 1995
But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword.

NASB 1977
But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword.

Legacy Standard Bible
But her end is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword.

Amplified Bible
But in the end she is bitter like [the extract of] wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword.

Christian Standard Bible
in the end she’s as bitter as wormwood and as sharp as a double-edged sword.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
in the end she’s as bitter as wormwood and as sharp as a double-edged sword.

American Standard Version
But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
But their end is of bitter wormwood, for they are sharper than a doubleedged sword

Brenton Septuagint Translation
but afterwards thou wilt find her more bitter than gall, and sharper than a two-edged sword.

Contemporary English Version
But all that you really get from being with her is bitter poison and pain.

Douay-Rheims Bible
But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword.

English Revised Version
But her latter end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, as sharp as a two-edged sword.

Good News Translation
but when it is all over, she leaves you nothing but bitterness and pain.

International Standard Version
But in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a double-edged sword.

JPS Tanakh 1917
But her end is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword.

Literal Standard Version
And her latter end [is] bitter as wormwood, | Sharp as a sword [with] mouths.

Majority Standard Bible
in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.

New American Bible
But in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, as sharp as a two-edged sword.

NET Bible
but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.

New Revised Standard Version
but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.

New Heart English Bible
But in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword.

Webster's Bible Translation
But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.

World English Bible
but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword.

Young's Literal Translation
And her latter end is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a sword with mouths.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Avoiding Immorality
3Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil, 4in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword. 5Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to Sheol.…

Cross References
Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Psalm 55:21
His speech is smooth as butter, but war is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, yet they are swords unsheathed.

Psalm 57:4
My soul is among the lions; I lie down with ravenous beasts--with men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.

Ecclesiastes 7:26
And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a net, and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is ensnared.


Treasury of Scripture

But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.

her

Proverbs 6:24-35
To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman…

Proverbs 7:22,23
He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks; …

Proverbs 9:18
But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell.

sharp

Judges 16:4-6,15-21
And it came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah…

Psalm 55:21
The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords.

Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

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Bitter Double-Edged End Gall Latter Mouths Sharp Sword Two-Edged Wormwood
Proverbs 5
1. Solomon exhorts to wisdom
3. He shows the mischief of unfaithfulness and riot
15. He exhorts to contentedness, generosity, and chastity
22. The wicked are overtaken with their own sins














(4) Bitter as wormwood.--The absinthium of Revelation 8:11, where, apparently, it is considered as a poison. So God's message to St. John (Revelation 10:10) was in his mouth sweet as honey (comp. Psalm 19:10), but made his belly bitter: that is, he met with much sorrow and trouble in making it known to men, but through this "much tribulation" (Acts 14:22) he "entered into the kingdom of heaven."

Verse 4. - The contrast is drawn with great vividness between the professions of the "strange woman" and the disastrous consequences which overtake those who listen to her enticements. She promises enjoyment, pleasure, freedom from danger, but her end is bitter as wormwood. "Her end," not merely with reference to herself, which may be and is undoubtedly true, but the last of her as experienced by those who have intercourse with her - her character as it stands revealed at the last. So it is said of wine, "At the last," i.e. its final effects, if indulged in to excess, "it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder" (Proverbs 23:22). Bitter as wormwood. The Hebrew, laanah, "wormwood," Gesenius derives from the unused root laan, "to curse." It is the equivalent to the absinthium of the Vulgate. So Aquila, who has ἀψίνθιον. The LXX. improperly renders χολή, "gall." In other places the word laanah is used as the emblem of bitterness, with the superadded idea of its being poisonous, also according to the Hebrew notion, shared in also by the Greeks, that the plant combined these two qualities. Thus in Deuteronomy 29:18 it is associated with rosh, "a poisonful herb" (margin), and the Targum terms it, agreeably with this notion, "deadly wormwood." The same belief is reproduced in Revelation 8:11, "And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and many men died of the waters because they were made bitter" (cf. Jeremiah 9:15; Amos 5:7: 6:12). The apostle, no doubt, has it in mind when he speaks of any "root of bitterness," in Hebrews 12:15. The herb is thus described by Umbreit: "It is a plant toward two feet high, belonging to the genus Artemisia (species Artemisia absinthium), which produces a very firm stalk with many branches, grayish leaves, and small, almost round, pendent blossoms. It has a bitter and saline taste, and seems to have been regarded in the East as also a poison, of which the frequent combination with rosh gives an intimation." Terence has a strikingly similar passage to the one before us -

In melle sunt linguae sitae vestrae atque orations
Lacteque; corda felle sunt lita atque acerbo aceto."
Your tongues are placed in honey and your speech is milk; your hearts are besmeared with gall and sharp vinegar ('Trucul.,' 1:11. 75). Sharp as a two-edged sword; literally, as a sword of edges (kherev piphiyyoth), which may mean a sword of extreme sharpness. Her end is as sharp as the sharpest sword. But it seems better to take the term as it is understood in the Authorized Version, which has the support both of the Vulgate, gladius biceps, and the LXX., μαχαίρα διστόμος, i.e. "a two-edged sword." Compare "a two-edged sword" (kherev piphiyyoth) of Psalm 149:6. The meaning is, the last of her is poignancy of remorse, anguish of heart, and death. In these she involves her victims.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
her end
וְֽ֭אַחֲרִיתָהּ (wə·’a·ḥă·rî·ṯāh)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - feminine singular construct | third person feminine singular
Strong's 319: The last, end, the future, posterity

is bitter
מָרָ֣ה (mā·rāh)
Adjective - feminine singular
Strong's 4751: Bitter, bitterness, bitterly

as wormwood,
כַֽלַּעֲנָ֑ה (ḵal·la·‘ă·nāh)
Preposition-k, Article | Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 3939: Wormwood

sharp
חַ֝דָּ֗ה (ḥad·dāh)
Adjective - feminine singular
Strong's 2299: Sharp

as a double-edged
פִּיּֽוֹת׃ (pî·yō·wṯ)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 6310: The mouth, edge, portion, side, according to

sword.
כְּחֶ֣רֶב (kə·ḥe·reḇ)
Preposition-k | Noun - feminine singular construct
Strong's 2719: Drought, a cutting instrument, as a, knife, sword


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