What Does Proverbs 5:4 Mean?
But what comes behind her is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.THE KEY
The verse measures her by what comes after: the pull ends in bitterness and a blade.
THE MEANING
Her end names what lies beyond the attraction: bitterness like wormwood and the sharp wound of a sword with two edges. The verse keeps the aftermath in view, where the harm cuts from either side.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A pleasing approach does not guarantee a nourishing end; the outcome can expose what the opening conceals.
THE ROOT
וְאַחֲרִיתָהּ
veʾaḥărîtāh
GROWS FROM
אחר
ʾaḥar
to be behind; to come after
“what comes behind her” in this verse is veʾaḥărîtāh. The Hebrew word for “end” grows from the idea of what comes after. The aftermath reveals what the alluring moment can hide: bitterness and a blade.
ALSO GROWS
ʾaḥar: after, behind
אַחַר
This branch makes the verse’s focus an aftermath: what follows the attraction shows its true cost.
ʾaḥaron: last, later
אַחֲרוֹן
The same root names what comes later, keeping the final outcome in view.
מָרָה
marah
GROWS FROM
מרר
marar
to be bitter
The word belongs to a root family of bitterness that can be tasted. Here, the end is not an abstract disappointment: it lands as a bitter experience.
ALSO GROWS
mar: bitter
מַר
This related form keeps the verse’s outcome close to the taste of bitterness.
merorim: bitter herbs
מְרֹרִים
The same root describes bitter herbs, giving the verse’s image a tangible, tasted quality.
THE PATTERN
A path that attracts by sweetness can reveal itself through the bitter harm it produces.
The words of his mouth are smoother than butter, but war is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, yet they are opened swords.There is a way straight before a man, but its latter end is the ways of death.Then craving, when it has conceived, gives birth to falling short; and falling short, when it is full-grown, bears death.THE THREAD
There is a way straight before a man, but its latter end is the ways of death.Both verses use אַחֲרִית (ʾaḥarît, what comes after) for “end.” Proverbs 14:12 widens the image: a way can seem right at the start, while its aftermath reveals where it leads.
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