10 When wisdom entereth into thy heart and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul, 11 discretion shall keep thee, understanding shall preserve thee: 12 To deliver thee from the way of evil, from the man that speaketh froward things; 13 [from those] who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness; 14 who rejoice to do evil, [and] delight in the frowardness of evil; 15 whose paths are crooked, and who are perverted in their course: 16 To deliver thee from the strange woman, from the stranger who flattereth with her words; 17 who forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God; 18 —for her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead; 19 none that go unto her return again, neither do they attain to the paths of life: 20 —that thou mayest walk in the way of the good, and keep the paths of the righteous. 21 For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it; 22 but the wicked shall be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful shall be plucked up out of it.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Proverbs 2:10-22
Commentary on Proverbs 2:10-22
(Read Proverbs 2:10-22)
If we are truly wise, we shall be careful to avoid all evil company and evil practices. When wisdom has dominion over us, then it not only fills the head, but enters into the heart, and will preserve, both against corruptions within and temptations without. The ways of sin are ways of darkness, uncomfortable and unsafe: what fools are those who leave the plain, pleasant, lightsome paths of uprightness, to walk in such ways! They take pleasure in sin; both in committing it, and in seeing others commit it. Every wise man will shun such company. True wisdom will also preserve from those who lead to fleshly lusts, which defile the body, that living temple, and war against the soul. These are evils which excite the sorrow of every serious mind, and cause every reflecting parent to look upon his children with anxiety, lest they should be entangled in such fatal snares. Let the sufferings of others be our warnings. Our Lord Jesus deters from sinful pleasures, by the everlasting torments which follow them. It is very rare that any who are caught in this snare of the devil, recover themselves; so much is the heart hardened, and the mind blinded, by the deceitfulness of this sin. Many think that this caution, besides the literal sense, is to be understood as a caution against idolatry, and subjecting the soul to the body, by seeking any forbidden object. The righteous must leave the earth as well as the wicked; but the earth is a very different thing to them. To the wicked it is all the heaven they ever shall have; to the righteous it is the place of preparation for heaven. And is it all one to us, whether we share with the wicked in the miseries of their latter end, or share those everlasting joys that shall crown believers?