8 My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
8 Listen, my son, to your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching.
8 Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching,
8 Pay close attention, friend, to what your father tells you; never forget what you learned at your mother's knee.
8 My son, hear the instruction of your father, And do not forsake the law of your mother;
8 My child, listen when your father corrects you. Don't neglect your mother's instruction.
10 My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.
10 My son, if sinful men entice you, do not give in to them.
10 My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.
10 Dear friend, if bad companions tempt you, don't go along with them.
10 My son, if sinners entice you, Do not consent.
10 My child, if sinners entice you, turn your back on them!
(Read Proverbs 1:10-19)
Wicked people are zealous in seducing others into the paths of the destroyer: sinners love company in sin. But they have so much the more to answer for. How cautious young people should be! "Consent thou not." Do not say as they say, nor do as they do, or would have thee to do; have no fellowship with them. Who could think that it should be a pleasure to one man to destroy another! See their idea of worldly wealth; but it is neither substance, nor precious. It is the ruinous mistake of thousands, that they overvalue the wealth of this world. Men promise themselves in vain that sin will turn to their advantage. The way of sin is down-hill; men cannot stop themselves. Would young people shun temporal and eternal ruin, let them refuse to take one step in these destructive paths. Men's greediness of gain hurries them upon practices which will not suffer them or others to live out half their days. What is a man profited, though he gain the world, if he lose his life? much less if he lose his soul?
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Proverbs 1:8
Commentary on Proverbs 1:7-9
(Read Proverbs 1:7-9)
Fools are persons who have no true wisdom, who follow their own devices, without regard to reason, or reverence for God. Children are reasonable creatures, and when we tell them what they must do, we must tell them why. But they are corrupt and wilful, therefore with the instruction there is need of a law. Let Divine truths and commands be to us most honourable; let us value them, and then they shall be so to us.