Proverbs 7:25

Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

7:6-27 Here is an affecting example of the danger of youthful lusts. It is a history or a parable of the most instructive kind. Will any one dare to venture on temptations that lead to impurity, after Solomon has set before his eyes in so lively and plain a manner, the danger of even going near them? Then is he as the man who would dance on the edge of a lofty rock, when he has just seen another fall headlong from the same place. The misery of self-ruined sinners began in disregard to God's blessed commands. We ought daily to pray that we may be kept from running into temptation, else we invite the enemies of our souls to spread snares for us. Ever avoid the neighbourhood of vice. Beware of sins which are said to be pleasant sins. They are the more dangerous, because they most easily gain the heart, and close it against repentance. Do nothing till thou hast well considered the end of it. Were a man to live as long as Methuselah, and to spend all his days in the highest delights sin can offer, one hour of the anguish and tribulation that must follow, would far outweigh them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The first clause does not connect itself very clearly with the foregoing, and is probably affected by the corrupt text which makes it perplexing.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

24. The inferential admonition is followed (Pr 7:26, 27), by a more general allegation of the evils of this vice.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Decline to her ways; either to the paths which lead to her house, or to her manner of living.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Let not thine heart decline to her ways,.... Or turn not aside from the right way, the path of truth and holiness, to those of the whorish woman, that lead to ruin and destruction; do not so much as think of going out of the one into the other; let there not be the least wandering thought, affection, or disposition of the mind thereunto; stop and check the first motion of the heart, which leads to a compliance with her, and seems to be directed to her ways, or to betray any love and liking of them;

go not astray in her paths; for whoever walks in her paths goes astray from God and his law; from Christ and his Gospel; and from the true church of God; and from the right paths of faith, duty and worship.

Geneva Study Bible

Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 25. - Let not thine heart decline to her ways. The verb satah is used in Proverbs 4:15 (where see note) of turning aside from evil; but here, as Delitzsch notes, it is especially appropriate to the case of a faithless wife whose transgression, or declension from virtue, is described by this term (Numbers 5:12). Go not astray in her paths. The LXX. (in most manuscripts) has only one rendering for the two clauses: "Let not thine heart incline unto her ways." Proverbs 7:25

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

With ועתּה, as at Proverbs 5:7, the author now brings his narrative to a close, adding the exhortation deduced from it:

24 And now, ye children, give ear unto me,

     And observe the words of my mouth!

25 Let not thine heart incline to her ways,

     And stray not in her paths.

The verb שׂטה (whence jēst, like jēt, Proverbs 4:15, with long ē from i) the author uses also of departure from a wicked way (Proverbs 4:15); but here, where the portraiture of a faithless wife (a סוטה) is presented, the word used in the law of jealousy, Numbers 5, for the trespass of an אשׁת אישׁ is specially appropriate. שׂטה is interchanged with תּעה (cf. Genesis 21:14): wander not on her paths, which would be the consequence of straying on them. Theodotion: καὶ μὴ πλανηθῇς ἐν ἀτραποῖς αὐτῆς, with καί, as also Syr., Targ., and Jerome. The Masora reckons this verse to the 25 which have אל at the beginning and ואל at the middle of each clause (vid., Baer in the Luth. Zeitschrift, 1865, p. 587); the text of Norzi has therefore correctly ואל, which is found also in good MSS (e.g., the Erfurt, 2 and 3).