Proverbs 2:13

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.

Who leave the paths of uprightness,.... Or "righteousness", or the "right and plain ways" (u); which the light of nature and the law of God, and especially the Gospel of Christ, direct to; and in which they have been trained up, having had a religious education; for it supposes them to have been externally in these ways, since they are said to leave them; for though persons do not easily and ordinarily leave the ways they have been brought up in, yet sometimes they do; and there are instances of it, and such generally are the worst of men; to walk in the ways of darkness: sin, ignorance, and infidelity; in which they that walk know not where they are, nor whither they are a going, and which must be very uncomfortable as well as dangerous; in which only works of darkness are done, and which lead to blackness of darkness, the darkness of hell; a miserable choice, a sad change this! So Schultens renders it, "ways of horrid darkness". (u) "semitas rectas", Mercerus; "itinera recta", Piscator; "itinera planissima", Schultens.

Verse 13. - Who leave the paths of uprightness. Between vers. 13 and 15 the teacher proceeds to give a more detailed description of those who speak perversely. Who leave ( הַעֹזְבִים haoz'vim ); literally, forsaking , but the present participle has the force of the preterite, as appears from the context. The men alluded to have already forsaken or deserted the paths of uprightness (see previous note on the word "man." The paths of uprightness ( אָרְחות יֹשֶׁר ar'khoth yosher ); the same as the "right paths" of ch. 4:11. The strict meaning of the Hebrew word translated "uprightness" is "straightness," and hence it stands opposed to "perverseness" in the previous verse. Uprightness is integrity, rectitude, honest dealing. The LXX. translators represent the forsaking of the paths of uprightness as a consequence resulting from walking in the ways of darkness, "O ye who have left the right ways by departing [ τοῦ πορεύεσβαι , equivalent to abeundo ] into the ways of darkness." Again, the ways of darkness ( דַרְכֵי חשֶׁך , dar'chey kkoshek ) are opposed to the "paths of uprightness" which rejoice in the light. Darkness includes the two ideas of (1) ignorance and error ( Isaiah 9:2 ; Ephesians 5:8 ), and (2) evil deeds. To walk in the ways of darkness, then, is to persist in a course of wilful ignorance, to reject deliberately the light of knowledge, and to work wickedness, by performing "the works of darkness ( τὰ ἔργα τοῦ σκύτους )," which St.

Paul exhorted the Church at Rome to east away ( Romans 13:12 ), and by having fellowship with "the unfruitful works of darkness ( τὰ ἔργα τὰ ἀκάρπα τοῦ σκότους )," against which the same apostle warned the Ephesians ( Ephesians 5:11 ). They are ways of darkness, because they endeavour to hide themselves from God ( Isaiah 29:15 ) and from man ( Job 24:15 ; Job 38:13, 15 ). In their tendency and end they lead to the blackness of darkness forever. In Scripture darkness is associated with evil, just as light is with uprightness (see John 3:19, 20 ). The same association of ideas is discoverable in the dualism of the Persian system, as formulated by Zoroaster - Ormuzd, the good principle, presides over the kingdom of light, while Ahriman, the principle of evil, is the ruler of the kingdom of darkness. Proverbs 2:13

As in Proverbs 2:10 , Proverbs 2:11 , the אז תּבּין ("then shalt thou understand," Proverbs 2:5 ) is expanded, so now the watching, preserving, is separately placed in view: 12 To deliver thee from an evil way, From the man who speaks falsehood; 13 (From those) who forsake the ways of honesty To walk in ways of darkness, 14 Who rejoice to accomplish evil, Delight in malignant falsehood - 15 They are crooked in their paths, And perverse in their ways. That דּרך רע is not genitival, via mali, but adjectival, via mala, is evident from דרך לא־טוב, Proverbs 16:29. From the evil way, i.e., conduct, stands opposed to the false words represented in the person of the deceiver; from both kinds of contagium wisdom delivers. תּהפּכות (like the similarly formed תּחבּות, occurring only as plur.) means misrepresentations, viz., of the good and the true, and that for the purpose of deceiving (Proverbs 17:20), fallaciae, i.e., intrigues in conduct, and lies and deceit in words. Fl. compares Arab. ifk, a lie, and affak, a liar. להצּילך has Munach, the constant servant of Dech, instead of Metheg, according to rule (Accentssystem, vii. 2). העזבים (Proverbs 2:13) is connected with the collective אישׁ (cf. Judges 9:55); we have in the translation separated it into a relative clause with the abstract present.

The vocalization of the article fluctuates, yet the expression העזבים, like Proverbs 2:17 העזבת, is the better established (Michlol 53b); העזבים is one of the three words which retain their Metheg, and yet add to it a Munach in the tone-syllable (vid., the two others, Job 22:4; Job 39:26). To the "ways of honesty" (Geradheit) (cf. the adj. expression, Jeremiah 31:9), which does not shun to come to the light, stand opposed the "ways of darkness," the ἔργα τοῦ σκότους, Romans 13:12, which designedly conceal themselves from God (Isaiah 29:15) and men (Job 24:15; Job 38:13, Job 38:15).

[Bible] 2:9. Then shalt thou understand justice, and judgment, and equity, and every good path. 2:10. If wisdom shall enter into thy heart, and knowledge please thy soul: 2:11. Counsel shall keep thee, and prudence shall preserve thee, 2:12. That thou mayst be delivered from the evil way, and from the man that speaketh perverse things: 2:13. Who leave the right way, and walk by dark ways: 2:14. Who are glad when they have done evil, and rejoice in the most wicked things: 2:15. Whose ways are perverse, and their steps infamous. 2:16. That thou mayst be delivered from the strange woman, and from the stranger, who softeneth her words; 2:17. And forsaketh the guide of her youth, 2:18. And hath forgotten the covenant of her God: for her house inclineth unto death, and her paths to hell. 2:19. None that go in unto her, shall return again, neither shall they take hold of the paths of life. 2:20. That thou mayst walk in a good way: and mayst keep the paths of the just. 2:21. For they that are upright, shall dwell in the earth; and the simple shall continue in it. 2:22. But the wicked shall be destroyed from the earth: and they that do unjustly, shall be taken away from it. Proverbs Chapter 3 An exhortation to the practice of virtue. 3:1. My son, forget not my law, and let thy heart keep my commandments. 3:2. For they shall add to thee length of days, and years of life, and peace. 3:3. Let not mercy and truth leave thee, put them about thy neck, and write them in the tables of thy heart. 3:4. And thou shalt find grace, and good understanding before God and men. 3:5. Have confidence in the Lord with all thy heart, and lean not upon thy own prudence. 3:6. In all thy ways think on him, and he will direct thy steps. 3:7. Be not wise in thy own conceit: fear God, and depart from evil: 3:8. For it shall be health to thy navel, and moistening to thy bones. 3:9. Honour the Lord with thy substance, and give him of the first of all thy fruits;