Till a dart strike through his liver
The fountain of blood, and so of life; which, being pierced through and poured out, is certain death, ( Lamentations 2:11 ) ; the meaning is, till he is slain either by the hand of God, or by the civil magistrate, or by the jealous husband; and be thrust through by him, as Zimri and Cozbi were by Phinehas. The "liver" may be particularly mentioned, not only for the reason before given, but because it is the seat of lust F12; so he is stricken in the part where his lust begins, where he has been smitten by Cupid's darts: or this dart through the liver may denote some disease, infecting the blood through sinful lust. The Targum is,
``as an hart into whose liver an arrow flies;''or is wounded by an arrow in the liver, as the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions: and so the meaning is, that this young man went as swiftly after the harlot as a hart does when it is wounded; as a bird hasteth to the snare;
``he knows not that it tends to the death of his soul;''and to the same sense the Syriac and Arabic versions; the second death, which adulterers and idolaters shall have their part in, ( Revelation 21:8 ) . The souls of men, and the ruin of them, are what the whore of Rome deals in, ( Revelation 18:13 ) ; she goes into perdition, into the bottomless pit, herself, and carries all her worshippers with her, ( Revelation 17:8 ) ( 14:9-11 ) .