But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
Parallel translations
- WEB but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword.
- BSB in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.
- NKJV But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword.
- NASB But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword.
- NLT But in the end she is as bitter as poison, as dangerous as a double-edged sword.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
In the end she is bitter as wormwood and sharp as a sword. The sweetness of illicit sin gives way to bitterness and ruin.
Overview
Against the honey and oil of v. 3, the outcome is wormwood and a double-edged sword, bitter, cutting, and deadly. Sin's pleasure is fleeting; its end is destruction. This unmasking of sin's true cost echoes the warning that the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23) and calls for sober vigilance.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Eccl 7:26And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her.
- Ps 57:4My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.
- Ps 55:21The 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.
- Heb 4:12For 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.
- Prov 9:18But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell.
- Judg 16:15–21And she said unto him, How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart is not with me? thou hast mocked me these three times, and hast not told me wherein thy great strength lieth.
- Heb 12:15–16Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
- Judg 16:4–6And it came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.
- Prov 7:22–23He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks;
- Prov 23:27–28For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.
- Prov 6:24–35To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.
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Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
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