10 For wisdom cometh into thy heart, And knowledge to thy soul is pleasant, 11 Thoughtfulness doth watch over thee, Understanding doth keep thee, 12 To deliver thee from an evil way, From any speaking froward things, 13 Who are forsaking paths of uprightness, To walk in ways of darkness, 14 Who are rejoicing to do evil, They delight in frowardness of the wicked, 15 Whose paths 'are' crooked, Yea, they are perverted in their ways. 16 To deliver thee from the strange woman, From the stranger who hath made smooth her sayings, 17 Who is forsaking the guide of her youth, And the covenant of her God hath forgotten. 18 For her house hath inclined unto death, And unto Rephaim her paths. 19 None going in unto her turn back, Nor do they reach the paths of life. 20 That thou dost go in the way of the good, And the paths of the righteous dost keep. 21 For the upright do inhabit the earth, And the perfect are left in it, 22 And the wicked from the earth are cut off, And treacherous dealers plucked 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?