CRITICAL NOTES.--+2. Discretion,+ Lit. "reflection," "prudent consideration." +3. Drop as an honey-comb,+ "distil honey." +4. Wormwood.+ In Eastern countries this herb, the _absinthum_ of Greek and Latin botanists, was regarded as a poison. It has a bitter and saline taste. +6.+ This verse is rendered in two ways. The forms of the two verbs may be in the second person masculine, and so apply to the tempted youth, or in the third person feminine, and so be understood to refer to the harlot. Most modern commentators take the latter reading. Delitzsch translates: "She is far removed from entering the way of life: her steps wander without her observing it." Stuart: "That she may not ponder the path of life, her ways are become unsteady, while she regards it not." The rendering in _Lange's Commentary_ is, "The path of life she never treadeth, her steps stray, she knoweth not whither." The Authorised Version is, however, supported by Rosenmuller and Michaelis. +9. Honour,+ or "power," "bloom," or "freshness." +11. Mourn,+ or "groan," "_at the last,_" lit. "at thine end." +14.+ Readings here again vary. Miller translates: "I soon became like any wicked man." _Lange's Commentary:_ "A little more, and I had fallen into utter destruction." The renderings of Stuart and Delitzsch are substantially the same as the Authorised Version. +16.+ In order to make the idea in this verse agree with those preceding and following it, Stuart and other commentators insert a negative: "Let (not) thy fountains," &c. _Lange's Commentary_ considers this needless, and retains the same idea by conceiving the sentence to be an interrogative indicated, not by its _form,_ but by its _tone:_ "Shall thy fountains?" etc. So also Hitzig. Holden, Noyes, Wordsworth, Miller, &c., read as in the Authorised Version. +19. Be ravished,+ lit. "err," used in the next verse in a bad sense, and in chap xx. 1, and Isa. xxviii. 7, of the staggering gait of the intoxicated. It seems to express a being transported with joy. +21. Pondereth,+ or "marketh out." +22. Shall be holden,+ rather "is holden." +23. Without,+ "for lack of." _ILLUSTRATION OF VERSE_ 19. Here we have started up, and sent leaping over the plain, another of Solomon's favourites. What elegant creatures those gazelles are, and how gracefully they bound. We shall meet them all through Syria and Palestine, and the more you see of them the greater will be your admiration. Solomon is not alone in his partiality. Persian and Arab poets abound in reference to them. The fair ones of these fervid sons of song are often compared to the coy gazelle that comes by night and _pastures_ upon their hearts. They are amiable, affectionate, and loving, by universal testimony, and accordingly no sweeter comparison can be found than that of Prov. v. 19.--Thompson's _Land and the Book._ _MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1-20. BITTER AND SWEET WATERS.