10 My son, if sinners entice thee, consent not. 11 If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause; 12 let us swallow them up alive as Sheol, and whole, as those that go down into the pit; 13 we shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil: 14 cast in thy lot among us; we will all have one purse: 15 —my son, walk not in the way with them, keep back thy foot from their path; 16 for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood. 17 For in vain the net is spread in the sight of anything which hath wings. 18 And these lay wait for their own blood; they lurk secretly for their own lives. 19 So are the paths of every one that is greedy of gain: it taketh away the life of its possessors.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Proverbs 1:10-19
Commentary on Proverbs 1:10-19
(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?