Proverbs 1:16

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?

For their feet run to evil,.... To the evil of sin, to commit robberies and murder, and all manner of iniquity; they are eager upon it, and in haste and swift to do it, Proverbs 6:18 (x); being carried away with their inordinate affections, which are as feet to the soul; and drawn aside with their lusts, and pushed on by Satan, and, encouraged by one another, and so rush on headlong to the evil of punishment also; and which is a reason why their ways and paths should be abstained from, because they bring upon them swift destruction; it is to their own hurt they run, as Jarchi interprets it; though the first sense seems best to agree with what follows; and make haste to shed blood; the blood of innocent persons, in order to get their substance, to cover their iniquity and shame, and that no information may be given of them; this is mentioned as having something very horrible in it, in order to deter from joining with them. (x) "Velox ad facinus", Claudian. in Rufin. l. 1. v. 240.

Their feet run; they make haste, as it follows, without considering what they are doing. To evil; to do evil to others, as was expressed Proverbs 1:11,12 , which also will bring evil upon themselves. To shed blood; to shed innocent blood; which is an inhuman and dangerous practice.

Verse 16. - For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood. This is the first dissuasive urged to enforce the warning against evil companionship, as showing the extremes to which entering upon the ways of the wicked lead ultimately. At once the youth who listens will be hurried along impetuously to the two crimes of robbery and murder, which God has expressly forbidden in the eighth and sixth commandments respectively of the moral code. Evil ( רַע , ra ) is "wickedness," τὸ κακόν , generally, but here more specifically highway robbery, latrocinism (Cornelius a Lapide), as appears from vers. 11-13, where also murder, the laying in wait for blood, is proposed. The Rabbis Salomon and Salazar understand the evil to refer to the evil or destruction which sinners bring upon themselves, and the shedding of blood to the fact that they lay themselves open to have their own blond shed by judicial process (see also Holden). The former explanation seems preferable to this, as putting a higher law than that of self-preservation before youth. The fear of judges who can condemn to death is notbing comparatively to the fear of him "who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell." This verse is wanting in the Vatican LXX., and Arabic, and hence Hitzig has concluded that it is an interpolation made from Isaiah 59:7 , but upon insufficient evidence, as it is found in the Alexandrian LXX., Chaldea Paraphrase, Vulgate, and Syriac Versions, all which follow the Hebrew text.

The first argument to enforce the warning: For their feet run to the evil, And hasten to shed blood. That this is their object they make no secret (Proverbs 1:11.); but why is it that such an object as this should furnish no ground of warning against them, especially as on this beginning the stamp of that which is morally blamable is here impressed with לרע? Besides, this circular movement of the thoughts is quite after the manner of this poet; and that Proverbs 1:16 is his style, Proverbs 6:18 shows. The want of this distich (Proverbs 1:16 equals Romans 3:15) in lxx B. א. weighs heavier certainly than the presence of it in lxx A. (Procop., Syro-Hezap.), since the translation is not independent, but is transferred from Isaiah 59:7; but if for the first time, at a later period, it is supplied in the lxx, yet it has the appearance of an addition made to the Hebr. text from Isaiah 59:7 (Hitzig, Lagarde); cf. Comm. on Isaiah, 40-66. לשׁפּך is always pointed thus; for, as a regular rule, after ל as well as מ sa llew s the aspiration disappears; but in Ezekiel 17:17 בּשׁפּך is also found, and in this case (cf. at Psalm 40:15) the punctuation is thus inconsequent.

. He who keeps his way preserves his soul. Verse 17 The highway of the upright - The upright man is ever departing from evil; this is his common road: and by keeping on in this way, his soul is preserved. PROVERBS 16: 18 Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Verse 18 Pride goeth before destruction - Here pride is personified: it walks along, and has destruction in its train. And a haughty spirit before a fall - Another personification. A haughty spirit marches on, and ruin comes after. In this verse we find the following Masoretic note in most Hebrew Bibles. ‫חצי‬ ‫הספר‬ chatsi hassepher: "the middle of the book." This verse is the middle verse; and the first clause makes the middle of the words of the book of Proverbs. PROVERBS 16: 19 It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor, than to divide the plunder with the proud. PROVERBS 16: 20 He who heeds the Word finds prosperity. Whoever trusts in the LORD is blessed. PROVERBS 16: 21 The wise in heart shall be called prudent. Pleasantness of the lips promotes instruction. PROVERBS 16: 22 Understanding is a fountain of life to one who has it, but the punishment of fools is their folly. Verse 22 Understanding is a well-spring of life - ‫מקור‬ ‫חיים‬ mekor chaiyim; another allusion to the artery that carries the blood from the heart to distribute it to all the extremities of the body. PROVERBS 16: 23 The heart of the wise instructs his mouth, and adds learning to his lips.