CRITICAL NOTES.--+2. Discretion,+ Lit. "reflection," "prudent
consideration." +3. Drop as an honey-comb,+ "distil honey."
+4. Wormwood.+ In Eastern countries this herb, the _absinthum_ of
Greek and Latin botanists, was regarded as a poison. It has a bitter
and saline taste. +6.+ This verse is rendered in two ways. The forms
of the two verbs may be in the second person masculine, and so apply
to the tempted youth, or in the third person feminine, and so be
understood to refer to the harlot. Most modern commentators take the
latter reading. Delitzsch translates: "She is far removed from
entering the way of life: her steps wander without her observing it."
Stuart: "That she may not ponder the path of life, her ways are
become unsteady, while she regards it not." The rendering in _Lange's
Commentary_ is, "The path of life she never treadeth, her steps
stray, she knoweth not whither." The Authorised Version is, however,
supported by Rosenmuller and Michaelis. +9. Honour,+ or "power,"
"bloom," or "freshness." +11. Mourn,+ or "groan," "_at the last,_"
lit. "at thine end." +14.+ Readings here again vary. Miller
translates: "I soon became like any wicked man." _Lange's
Commentary:_ "A little more, and I had fallen into utter
destruction." The renderings of Stuart and Delitzsch are
substantially the same as the Authorised Version. +16.+ In order to
make the idea in this verse agree with those preceding and following
it, Stuart and other commentators insert a negative: "Let (not) thy
fountains," &c. _Lange's Commentary_ considers this needless, and
retains the same idea by conceiving the sentence to be an
interrogative indicated, not by its _form,_ but by its _tone:_ "Shall
thy fountains?" etc. So also Hitzig. Holden, Noyes, Wordsworth,
Miller, &c., read as in the Authorised Version. +19. Be ravished,+
lit. "err," used in the next verse in a bad sense, and in chap xx. 1,
and Isa. xxviii. 7, of the staggering gait of the intoxicated. It
seems to express a being transported with joy. +21. Pondereth,+ or
"marketh out." +22. Shall be holden,+ rather "is holden."
+23. Without,+ "for lack of."
_ILLUSTRATION OF VERSE_ 19.
Here we have started up, and sent leaping over the plain, another of
Solomon's favourites. What elegant creatures those gazelles are, and
how gracefully they bound. We shall meet them all through Syria and
Palestine, and the more you see of them the greater will be your
admiration. Solomon is not alone in his partiality. Persian and Arab
poets abound in reference to them. The fair ones of these fervid sons
of song are often compared to the coy gazelle that comes by night and
_pastures_ upon their hearts. They are amiable, affectionate, and
loving, by universal testimony, and accordingly no sweeter comparison
can be found than that of Prov. v. 19.--Thompson's _Land and the
Book._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1-20.
BITTER AND SWEET WATERS.
+I. A wrong relation.+ The relationship here forbidden is wrong.
1. _Because it is a sin against the tempter._ The tempter in Eden had
his load of iniquity increased by the yielding of the tempted one to
his persuasion. He increased his crime when he made another a
partaker of his disobedience. Satan, doubtless, becomes worse every
time that he persuades another to sin. The gambler's guilt and misery
is increased in proportion to his success in bringing others to ruin.
The young man in the text increases the guilt of the "strange woman"
by yielding to her enticements. He burdens her with new guilt and
intensifies her iniquity, and therefore helps to treasure up for her
a greater remorse when her conscience shall awake and arise from the
grave of sensuality. 2. _Because it is a sin against a man's own
body._ That which is our own is generally valued by us, and there is
nothing material which is ours in a more exclusive sense than our
bodily frame. It is nearer to us than any other material possession,
and to sin against _it_ is to sin against that which stands in the
nearest relation to our personal moral individuality. There are sins
done in the body by the mind which are purely mental, from which the
body does not suffer; but adultery forces the body into a relation
which brings misery and disease upon it, and in due season consumes
and destroys it like a devouring flame. "Every sin that a man doeth
is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth
against his own body" (1 Cor. vi. 18). 3. _Because it is a sin
against human nature in general, and national life in particular._
Human nature is like the human body, every man is linked to his
fellow-men as the several members of the body are parts of one whole.
This _solidarity_--this union of interest--is more obvious when
considered in relation to a particular community or nation; and, as
no member of the human body can be disfigured without bringing the
whole frame into a state of imperfection and loss of dignity, so no
man can degrade himself without bringing degradation upon the whole
race. The fornicator is a plague-spot upon the body of humanity; and
although other sinners bring disfigurement upon the body universal,
there is none who defiles it as he does. God has written His mark
upon the crust of the earth against this enormous sin (Gen. xix. 24,
25). 4. _Because it makes God, in a sense, to bear the iniquity with
the transgressor._ The youth who spends the money his father gives
him in furthering his own wicked purposes makes his father an
unwilling partaker of his crimes, because the money was supplied by
him. God made this complaint against sinners in the olden time. The
good gifts of the earth which God bestowed upon the Hebrew people
were used by them in their debasing idol-worship. God gave them the
means of honouring Him, and they used His gifts in dishonouring His
name. So God gives to every man power to glorify Him and to bless
himself and the world by the formation of right relations. When the
power thus given is used in an unlawful manner, God's own gift is
used against Himself. The sinner turns the Divine gift against the
Divine Giver; and while in God he lives, and moves, and has his
being, he lives and moves but to sin against his Maker. Thus in
Scripture language God "is made to serve" with the sinner, while He
is "wearied with his iniquities" (Isa. xliii. 22-24).
+II. The bitter waters which flow from this wrong relation.+ (Verse
4.) 1. _The loss of honour._ (Verse 7.) To some men this is dearer
than life. The captain would rather go to the bottom of the sea with
his ship than live with a shadow upon his good name and reputation.
The man who has lost his honour in the eyes of others has lost his
honour in his own eyes, and the loss of self-honour or self-respect
is a calamity that is very bitter to the soul. The man who will
indulge in unlawful intercourse, will find that he not only loses the
respect of others, but he will be unable to respect himself, and this
loss is the greatest that a man can sustain on this side of hell. It
is a draught which, although there might be pleasure in the
_drawing_, will be very bitter in the _drinking_. 2. _The loss of
manhood's vigour and opportunities._ He will "give his years to the
cruel, his strength to the stranger." The loss of youthful strength
and energy is the loss of years, the youth becomes old before he is a
man. The vessel or the mansion that is charred by fire before it is
completed presents a strange contrast. The newness and freshness of
the walls or the timbers that have escaped make the destruction of
the rest more lamentable. The building has been marred just upon the
verge of completion, the ship has been spoiled when she was all but
ready for the voyage. It is sad to see an old tree blasted by the
lightning, but it is a greater misfortune when the tree is in its
prime, when it is laden with fruit about to come to perfection. But
these are faint shadows of the sad spectacle which is presented by a
youth who has become prematurely old by unlawful indulgence before he
has reached his prime. He is unfit to battle with the sea of life at
the very time when he ought to be setting out on his voyage. He falls
short of fulfilling the demands of God and man at the moment when he
ought to be bringing forth abundant fruit. Surely such a
consciousness must be as bitter waters to the spirit. 3. _The action
of conscience and memory in a dying day._ "And thou mourn at the
last," etc. (Verse 11.) The lamp that hangs from the stern of the
vessel throws a light upon the wake of the ship and reveals the path
that she has travelled. Memory is such a lamp to the human soul. In
the parable of the rich man and Lazarus we find memory throwing such
a light upon the past, and enabling him to look back upon the path
which had brought him to his present abode. Conscience sat in
judgment upon it and united with memory to make his present cup a
bitter one. The bitterness that is always mingled with the life of
the profligate becomes doubly bitter at the end. Memory throws her
light upon his past, and shows him the strength, and honour, and
opportunities of life squandered in licentiousness, and conscience
anticipates future retribution and makes him feel the truth of the
word of warning. "Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge" (Heb.
xiii. 4). The bitterness is increased by the reflection that the sin
was committed in defiance of counsel to act differently. And thou
say, "How have I hated instruction and my heart despised reproof"
(verse 12). Those who sin against the light of nature _only,_ find a
recompense which is terrible, yet which an inspired Apostle declares
to be "meet" (Rom. i. 27). The sins here mentioned are sins against
nature, and nature asserts her right to punish her broken law and
leave her mark upon the fornicator. But when revelation, and
instruction, and good example are added to the light of nature, the
cup contains ingredients of tenfold bitterness. "Whoso breaketh one
hedge, a serpent shall bite him" (Eccles. x. 8). How much sharper
will be the sting if a double--a threefold--hedge is broken through.
+III. Sweet waters flowing from a right relationship.+ The waters are
sweet or living--1. _From a consciousness that a chaste wife belongs
to him alone_ (ver. 15). The profligate can lay no such claim for the
woman of his choice; she is, by her own consent, common to all. The
husbandman has a very different feeling concerning his own field,
which he alone has a right to till, and the common land which is open
to all comers. So the true husband has a feeling towards his wife to
which the licentious man is an entire stranger. 2. _Because such a
life is in harmony with the rights of society._ The brooks and rivers
of the land cannot be pure if the springs are defiled. The social
life of a nation can only be healthy while the purity of the marriage
relation is maintained. God has written his doom whenever and
wherever this sacred bond has been violated. The consciousness of
being a blessing to the world swells the stream of satisfaction which
arises from a faithful observance of this relationship. 3. _Because a
true marriage is man's completion._ The sinless man in Eden felt a
want until Eve was given to him, even though God had created him in
His own image. How much more does man now feel the need of a
"helpmeet for him," such as he finds only in a faithful wife. 4. _The
waters are further sweetened by the reflection that this relationship
is used to symbolise that existing between Christ and His Church._
Christ is the Head of His Church for her good. The true husband feels
that he is the head of the wife for the same end. The relationship
becomes doubly blessed when looked at from this point of view.
_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._
Verses 1 and 2. When the Word of God enters the heart, it will banish
all pollution from the tongue.--_Lawson._
Perhaps painful experience (1 Kings xi. 1-8, Eccles. vii. 26) had
given the wise man _wisdom_ and _understanding._ Therefore let us
attend to it with fear and trembling.--_Bridges._
God allows us to call that knowledge ours which originally is His.
1. Because God give it us, and that he gives a man land allows him to
call it his. 2. Because it is given for our good as well as other
men's. We are not like the builders of Noah's ark, that could not be
preserved in it.--_Francis Taylor._
Verse 3. The "strange woman" occurs so often in this book, that it is
not probably she is introduced simply to denounce licentiousness.
Indeed, she so stands twin picture to wisdom, that we come to a firm
belief that she is introduced as the picture of
impenitence.--_Miller._
To hear her one would suppose that she was possessed of the most
generous and disinterested spirit. Her tongue is taught by him who
betrayed Eve to paint the vilest sin with the most beautiful
colours.--_Lawson._
Verse 4. The wise counsel of the father puts those things together,
in his words which the folly of sinners putteth far asunder in their
thoughts, the beginning and end of lustful wantonness. He that by
foresight shall taste the bitter end will never lick the honeycomb.
He that by a wise consideration shall feel the sharp edges of the
issues of it, will never delight to smooth himself with the flat
sides of the sword.--_Jermin._
Verse 5. Possession of hell is taken by the wicked before they come
into it; the devil giveth them that when he by wickedness possesseth
their hearts. There is no more to be done than to set up their abode
in it.--_Jermin._
Verse 6. The words, if taken to refer to the woman, describe with a
terrible vividness the state of heart and soul which prostitution
brings upon its victims; the reckless blindness that will not think,
tottering on the abyss, yet loud in its defiant mirth, ignoring the
dreadful future.--_Plumptre._
Verse 7. Let no one think what he will do when he is in danger, and
how he will get from her, when once she hath got him to her, but hear
_now_ what ye are to do to keep out of danger.--_Jermin._
Verse 8. The devil will tempt you enough without your own help. To
tempt is his business. As you love your life and your own soul, give
him no assistance in the work of destruction.--_Lawson._
He that is the farthest from fire is safest from the burning of it;
he that is most remote from the way and course of the river is in
less danger from the overflowing of it. It argues too much mind to be
in the house, for anyone to come near the door of it. It is more safe
not to be in danger of perishing, than being in danger not to perish.
Chrysostom, speaking of Joseph, saith, "It doth not seem so wonderful
to me, that the three children in the furnace overcame the fire, as
that Joseph, being indeed in a more grievous furnace than that of
Babylon, came forth untouched."--_Jermin._
1. Because of thy proneness to evil. Straw will quickly take fire.
Gunpowder is no more pat to take fire than our corrupt nature to be
provoked to this sin. 2. Because flight is the best fight here. No
struggle comparable to a safe retreat.--_F. Taylor._
Verse 10. It is said that Demosthenes gave this answer to a harlot
who desired to seduce him from the path of virtue, and demanded a
hundred talents for her hire: "I will not buy repentance so
dear."--_Jermin._
One keenest torment of the damned will be to find that they are
working hard in the very pit of the universe; submitting to the
sentence (Matt. xxv. 28), "Take, therefore, the talent from him and
give it to him that hath ten talents." The adulterer might make
himself a bankrupt, and get himself sold for his transgression; but
that is a trifle compared with the sweeping surrender that must be
made of all by the finally impenitent.--_Miller._
Verse 12. The climax goes on. Bitterer than slavery (ver. 9); poverty
(ver. 10); disease (ver. 11) will be the bitterness of self-reproach,
the remorse without hope, that worketh death.--_Plumptre._
Though in respect of God's infinite mercy, it be never too late in
this life, yet take heed how we stay too long. It is true that the
thief on the cross found mercy at the last hour; but it hath been
well remarked, "It was not the last hour, but the first, of the
thief's knowing God; as soon as he knew Christ he was converted." If,
therefore, thou hast long known Christ, and hast not repented, do not
presume too rashly of mercy at last.--_Jermin._
There are no infidels in eternity, and but few on a
death-bed.--_Bridges._
Verses 11, 12. _Dying regrets._ +I. The subject of these regrets.+ It
is a man who has disregarded through life the means employed to
preserve or reclaim him. What instructors has a man living in a
country like this? _First,_ Your connections in life. You may have
been a member of a pious family, or had an instructor or a reprover
in a brother, friend, or religious neighbour. _Second,_ The
Scriptures. _Third,_ Ministers. _Fourth,_ Conscience. _Fifth,_
Irrational creatures. Can you hear the melody of the birds and not be
ashamed of your sinful silence? Can you see the heavenly bodies
perform unerringly their appointed course and not reflect on your own
numberless departures from duty? _Sixth,_ The dispensations of
Providence. God has chastened you with sickness. You have stood by
dying beds. +II. The period of these regrets.+ It is a dying hour. It
is "at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed." Such a
period is _unavoidable._ The last breath _will_ expire, and the last
Sabbath _will_ elapse, and the last sermon _will_ be heard. Such a
period cannot be _far off._ "For what is our life? It is a vapour
that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away." It is a
flood. It is a flower. It is a tale that is told. It is a dream. Such
a period _may be very near._ Such a period is sometimes _prematurely
brought on by sin._ +III. The nature of these regrets.+ This mourning
is (1) _dreadful._ A dying hour has been called an honest hour. The
world then recedes from view. The delusions of imagination give way.
Criminal excuses vanish. Memory goes back and recalls the guilt of
the former life, and conscience sets the most secret sins in the
light of God's countenance. (2) _It is useless._ Not as to others,
but as regards the individuals themselves. We are to describe things
according to their natural and common course, and not according to
occasional exceptions. And in this case exceptions are unusual. And
we are borne out in this assertion (1) _By Scripture._ There we find
_only one_ called at this hour. (2) _By observation._ We have often
attended persons on what seemed their dying bed: we have heard their
prayers and their professions; we have seen their distress and their
relief, and, had they died, we should have presumed on their
salvation. But we have never known one of these, who, on recovery,
lived so as to prove the reality of his conversion! We have often
asked ministers concerning the same case, and they have been
compelled to make the same awful declaration.--_Jay._
Verse 14. In a spiritual sense this may be applied to those who "hold
the truth in unrighteousness" (Rom. i. 18), and who, although they
dwell in the midst of holy men in the Church of God, set their
example at defiance by evil lives.--_Bede._
Verse 15. Desire after forbidden enjoyments naturally springs from
dissatisfaction with the blessings already in possession. Where
contentment is not found at home it will be sought for, however
vainly, abroad. Conjugal love is chief among the earthly gifts in
mercy granted by God to His fallen creatures. . . . Whatsoever
interrupts the strictest harmony in this delicate relationship, opens
the door to temptation. Tender domestic affection is the best defence
against the vagrant desires of unlawful passion.--_Bridges._
Do not steal water from others. Although the strange woman saith,
"Stolen waters are sweet," yet remember that the dead are there (ch.
ix. 17, 18). The wife is called a vessel in 1 Pet. iii. 7. These
words also have been expounded by ancient interpreters in a spiritual
sense, which may well be present to the reader's mind; and they have
been applied to the pure waters of Divine wisdom, a sense which is
suggested by Jer. ii. 13.--_Wordsworth._
If God had laid all common, certainly
Man would have been th' incloser: but since now
God hath impaled us, on the contrary,
Man breaks the fence, and every ground will plough.
O what were man, might he himself misplace!
Sure to be cross he would shift feet and face.--_George Herbert._
+Spiritual Self-helpfulness.--I. Man has independent spiritual
resources.+ He has a "cistern," a "well" of his own. First: He has
independent resources of thought. Every sane man can and does think
for himself. Thoughts well up in every soul, voluntarily and
involuntarily. Secondly: He has independent resources of experience.
No two have exactly the same experience. Thirdly: He has independent
powers of usefulness. Every man has a power to do a something which
no other can--to touch some soul with an effectiveness which no other
can. Wonderful is this well within--inexhaustible and ever active.
+II. Man is bound to use these resources.+ "Drink waters out of thine
own cistern;" do not live on others. Self-drawing--First: Honours our
own nature. Secondly: Increases our own resources. Self-helpfulness
strengthens. The more you draw from this cistern the more comes.
Thirdly: Contributes to the good of the universe. The man who gives
only what he has borrowed from others adds nothing to the common
stock. The subject--First: Indicates the kind of service one man can
spiritually render another. To priest, rabbi, sectary, I would
say--Man does not require your well; he has a cistern within. What he
wants is the warm gospel of love to thaw his frozen nature, and to
unseal the exhaustless fountain within, to remove all obstructions
from its out-flow, and to make it as pure as the crystal. The
subject--Secondly: Suggests an effective method to sap the foundation
of all priestly assumptions. Let every man become self-helpful, and
the influence of those who arrogate a lordship over the faith of
others will soon die out. The subject--Thirdly: Presents a motive for
thankfully adoring the Great Creator for the spiritual constitution
He has given us. We have resources not, of course, independent of Him
the primal fount of all life and power, but independent of all other
creatures. We are not like the parched traveller in the Oriental
desert, who, because he cannot discover water, dies of thirst.
Spiritually, we can walk through sandy deserts bearing an exhaustless
spring within.--_Dr. David Thomas._
Verse 18. It is not only to feed and clothe her, and refrain from
injuring her by word or deed. All this will not discharge a man's
duty nor satisfy a woman's heart. All the allusions to this relation
in Scripture imply an ardent, joyful love. To it, though it lie far
beneath heaven, yet to it, as the highest earthly thing, is compared
the union of Christ and His redeemed Church. Beware where you go for
comfort in distress, and sympathy in happiness. The Lord Himself is
the source of all consolation to a soul that seeks Him; yet nature is
His, as well as redemption. He has constructed nether springs on
earth and supplied them from His own high treasures; and to these He
bids a broken or a joyful spirit go for sympathy. To "rejoice in the
wife of thy youth"--this is not to put a creature in the place of
God. He will take care of His own honour. He has hewn the cistern,
and given it to you, and filed it, and when you draw out of it what
He has put in, you get from Himself and give Him the glory.--_Arnot._
Verse 19. In a spiritual sense, this imagery, derived from the limpid
fountains and beautiful animals of the natural world, is regarded by
the ancient expositors as descriptive of the delicious refreshment
and perfect loveliness of Divine truth, and the infinite blessings
which it bestows on those faithful souls which are united to it in
pure and unsullied love.--_Wordsworth._
Verse 20. A rare instance in which a canto does not begin with "My
son," but with "Why." The question is intended to be pressed. The
commerce with "the strange woman" is so plainly mad that the rightly
educated impenitent cannot possibly answer the wise man's
question.--_Miller._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 21-23.
THREE REASONS FOR AVOIDING THE WAY OF SIN.
These verses contain three reasons why the way of sin should be
avoided, and the way which God has appointed should be followed.
+I. Because there is no place secret enough to commit sin.+ The
sinner often comforts himself with the thought that what he has done,
or is in the habit of doing, is not known--that the actors of the
deed were the only persons privy to it. The text declares that there
is no such thing as a secret place, because there is no place where
the eyes of the Eternal do not penetrate. God is a witness of every
crime committed in secret. He is not only a witness _after_ the
_deed_, but _of_ the deed. Therefore there is no place secret enough
to be a place of sin. The thought of the ever-present God should
deter the sinner. 1. _Because the Divine presence is a_ pure
_presence._ People who are in the habit of committing the sin against
which the whole of this chapter is directed, would possibly shrink
from being guilty of it in the presence of a pure man or woman. How
much more should they be deterred by the fact that the eye of the
pure and holy God is upon them. 2. _Because the presence of God is
the presence of One_ who has authority to punish. The presence of the
chief magistrate of a nation would be sufficient to prevent the most
hardened criminal from committing crime. A thief would not steal
before the face of the man whom he knew could punish him. The
presence of God is the presence of the highest authority in the
universe, of One who is irresponsible to any other for His acts (Job.
ix. 12), of One who hast power most terrible, of One who has always
visited this sin with penalty. The presence of such an Authority
ought surely to make the adulterer quake at the very thought of his
sin.
+II. Because, though the sinner may not be apprehended by human law,
he shall be laid hold of and bound by his own deeds+ (verse 22). Many
sinners of this kind go at large in the world, and are never reached
by human law. No officer of justice will ever lay his hand upon them,
and no material chains will ever bind them. But they are already
taken and imprisoned by their own evil habits, which have bound them
in chains of increasing thickness as the acts of sin have been
repeated. This is a thraldom from which escape can come in only two
ways. A man must either _cease to be,_ or he must _repent,_ before he
can be free. Annihilation would set him free, because in ceasing to
be he would cease to sin. But the repentance demanded by God is the
only thing which will break his chains and permit him to retain his
existence. We have no proof that there will ever be any way of escape
by the first means, but we have abundant proof that the second is
open to all men on this side of death.
+III. Because the unrepentant adulterer will die as he has lived--a
fool+ (ver. 23). A fool is a man without knowledge, one who acts from
impulse rather than from reason. The sinner here pourtrayed is not a
fool because he had not had instruction, but because he has not
heeded it. Nature, History, Revelation and Conscience were his
instructors, but he has disregarded them all. If he had listened to
them he would have gained an experimental knowledge of the
blessedness of godliness and purity, of which he must now go out of
the world as ignorant as he entered it.
_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._
Verse 21. Practical atheism is the root of human depravity. The eye,
even of a child, is a check upon a man, but the thought of an
all-seeing God inspires no alarm.--_Bridges._
The sin is not against man, nor dependent on man's detection only.
The secret sin is open before the eyes of Jehovah. In the balance of
His righteous judgement are weighed all human acts, this not
excepted. There is a significant emphasis in the recurrence of the
word used of the harlot herself in verse 6: "She ponders not, but God
does."--_Plumptre._
Because the ways of a sinful man are not before his own eyes,
therefore are they before the eyes of God: because sinful man doth
not ponder his goings, therefore the Lord pondereth them; because man
doth not look on his ways with the eye of care, therefore the Lord
looketh on them with the eye of wrath; because man doth not weigh his
goings in the balance of due consideration, therefore God doth weigh
them in the balance of severe justice. The opening of our eyes over
our sins is the shutting of God's eye towards them; the shutting of
our eyes upon them is the opening of God's eyes against them. For
though we hide our ways from ourselves, we cannot hide them from God.
We hide Him from ourselves; we do not hide ourselves from
Him.--_Jermin._
The meaning is, that directly in God's eyes are the ways of every
man, as though there were no other creature in the universe; as
though the wise man were saying, "Why, because the way seems smooth,
and you seem helped in your folly, do you go on in your impenitency,
and embrace the bosom of this wanton?" "For" the way of every man is
directly in the sight of God. He takes the most emphatic interest in
our schemes, whether we are doing well or ill. He helps us either in
sinning or doing right, for "He levels all (one's) paths" (see
Critical Notes). Not that we are to involve Him in the folly of any
sin, but if a man desires to drink, He levels the way for Him. If he
wishes liquor, He gives it; if he desires to steal, He gives the eye
and the nerve. . . . The Divinity seems to help the struggling,
whether saint or sinner, but the impenitent must not therefore
imagine that it is righteous to go on.--_Miller._
Verse 22. The licentious flatter themselves that in old age, when the
passions are less fiery, they will easily extricate themselves from
the dominion of their lusts, and repent and seek salvation. But Job
xx. 11 declares that the old sinner's "bones are full of the sins of
his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust." Augustine,
after experience, says: "While lust is being served the habit is
formed, and whilst the habit is not being resisted necessity is
formed."--_Fausset._
Verse 23. Surely it is most just that he who lived without following
instruction should die without having instruction; he that in his
life would not do as he was instructed, deserveth that at death he
should not be instructed what to do.--_Jermin._
* * * * * *