Matthew Henry on Proverbs 7:24–end
We have here the application of the foregoing story: "Hearken to me therefore, and not to such seducers (Pro 7:24); give ear to a father, and not to an enemy." 1. "Take good counsel when it is given you. Let not thy heart decline to her ways (Pro 7:25); never leave the paths of virtue, though strait and narrow, solitary and up-hill, for the way of the adulteress, though green, and broad, and crowded with company. Do not only keep thy feet from those ways, but let not so much as thy heart incline to them; never harbour a disposition this way, nor think otherwise than with abhorrence of such wicked practices as these. Let reason, and conscience, and the fear of God ruling in the heart, check t…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 7:24
The inferential admonition is followed (Pro 7:26-27), by a more general allegation of the evils of this vice.
John Gill on Proverbs 7:25
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 a…
Read the whole note in the consoleKeil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 7:24-25
With ועתּה, as at Pro 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, Pro 4:15, with long ē from i) the author uses also of departure from a wicked way (Pro 4:15); but here, where the portraiture of a faithless wife (a סוטה) is presented, the word used in the law of jealousy, Num 5, for the trespass of an אשׁת אישׁ is specially appropriate. שׂטה is interchanged with תּעה (cf. Gen 21:14): wander not on her paths, which would be the consequence of straying on th…
