Wisdom Warns

20Wisdom shouts in the street,
         She lifts her voice in the square;

21At the head of the noisy streets she cries out;
         At the entrance of the gates in the city she utters her sayings:

22“How long, O naive ones, will you love being simple-minded?
         And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing
         And fools hate knowledge?

23“Turn to my reproof,
         Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you;
         I will make my words known to you.

24“Because I called and you refused,
         I stretched out my hand and no one paid attention;

25And you neglected all my counsel
         And did not want my reproof;

26I will also laugh at your calamity;
         I will mock when your dread comes,

27When your dread comes like a storm
         And your calamity comes like a whirlwind,
         When distress and anguish come upon you.

28“Then they will call on me, but I will not answer;
         They will seek me diligently but they will not find me,

29Because they hated knowledge
         And did not choose the fear of the LORD.

30“They would not accept my counsel,
         They spurned all my reproof.

31“So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way
         And be satiated with their own devices.

32“For the waywardness of the naive will kill them,
         And the complacency of fools will destroy them.

33“But he who listens to me shall live securely
         And will be at ease from the dread of evil.”

Parallel Verses

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
So are the ways of everyone who gains by violence; It takes away the life of its possessors.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
This is what happens to everyone who is greedy for unjust gain. Greed takes away his life.

King James Bible
So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.

Douay-Rheims Bible
So the wage of every covetous man destroy the souls of the possessors.

Darby Bible Translation
So are the paths of every one that is greedy of gain: it taketh away the life of its possessors.

English Revised Version
So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; it taketh away the life of the owners thereof.

Webster's Bible Translation
So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; who taketh away the life of its owners.

World English Bible
So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain. It takes away the life of its owners.

Young's Literal Translation
So are the paths of every gainer of dishonest gain, The life of its owners it taketh.

Cross References

Proverbs 15:27 He who profits illicitly troubles his own house, But he who hates bribes will live.

Proverbs 1:20 Wisdom shouts in the street, She lifts her voice in the square;

Commentary

Matthew Henry's Whole Bible Commentary

Verses 10-19

Here Solomon gives another general rule to young people, in order to their finding out, and keeping in, the paths of wisdom, and that is to take heed of the snare of bad company. David's psalms begin with this caution, and so do Solomon's proverbs; for nothing is more destructive, both to a lively devotion and to a regular conversation (v. 10): "My son, whom I love, and have a tender concern for, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not." This is good advice for parents to give their children when they send them abroad into the world; it is the same that St. Peter gave to his new converts, (Acts 2:40), Save yourselves from this untoward generation. Observe, 1. How industrious wicked people are to seduce others into the paths of the destroyer: they will entice. Sinners love company in sin; the angels that fell were tempters almost as soon as they were sinners. They do not threaten or argue, but entice with flattery and fair speech; with a bait they draw the unwary young man to the hook. But they mistake if they think that by bringing others to partake with them in their guilt, and to be bound, as it were, in the bond with them, they shall have the less to pay themselves; for they will have so much the more to answer for. 2. How cautious young people should be that they be not seduced by them: "Consent thou not; and then, though they entice thee, they cannot force thee. Do not say as they say, nor do as they do or would have thee to do; have no fellowship with them." To enforce this caution,

I. He represents the fallacious reasonings which sinners use in their enticements, and the arts of wheedling which they have for the beguiling of unstable souls. He specifies highwaymen, who do what they can to draw others into their gang, v. 11-14. See here what they would have the young man to do: "Come with us (v. 11); let us have thy company." At first they pretend to ask no more; but the courtship rises higher (v. 14): "Cast in thy lot among us; come in partner with us, join thy force to ours, and let us resolve to live and die together: thou shalt fare as we fare; and let us all have one purse, that what we get together we may spend merrily together," for that is it they aim it [at?]. Two unreasonable insatiable lusts they propose to themselves the gratification of, and therewith entice their pray into the snare:-1. Their cruelty. They thirst after blood, and hate those that are innocent and never gave them any provocation, because by their honesty and industry they shame and condemn them: "Let us therefore lay wait for their blood, and lurk privily for them; they are conscious to themselves of no crime and consequently apprehensive of no danger, but travel unarmed; therefore we shall make the more easy prey of them. And, O how sweet it will be to swallow them up alive!" v. 12. These bloody men would do this as greedily as the hungry lion devours the lamb. If it be objected, "The remains of the murdered will betray the murderers;" they answer, "No danger of that; we will swallow them whole as those that are buried." Who could imagine that human nature should degenerate so far that it should ever be a pleasure to one man to destroy another! 2. Their covetousness. They hope to get a good booty by it (v. 13): "We shall find all precious substance by following this trade. What though we venture our necks by it? we shall fill our houses with spoil." See here, (1.) The idea they have of worldly wealth. They call it precious substance; whereas it is neither substance nor precious; it is a shadow; it is vanity, especially that which is got by robbery, Ps. 62:10. It is as that which is not, which will give a man no solid satisfaction. It is cheap, it is common, yet, in their account, it is precious, and therefore they will hazard their lives, and perhaps their souls, in pursuit of it. It is the ruining mistake of thousands that they over-value the wealth of this world and look on it as precious substance. (2.) The abundance of it which they promise themselves: We shall fill our houses with it. Those who trade with sin promise themselves mighty bargains, and that it will turn to a vast account (All this will I give thee, says the tempter); but they only dream that they eat; the housefuls dwindle into scarcely a handful, like the grass on the house-tops.

II. He shows the perniciousness of these ways, as a reason why we should dread them (v. 15): "My son, walk not thou in the way with them; do not associate with them; get, and keep, as far off from them as thou canst; refrain thy foot from their path; do not take example by them, not do as they do." Such is the corruption of our nature that our foot is very prone to step into the path of sin, so that we must use necessary violence upon ourselves to refrain our foot from it, and check ourselves if at any time we take the least step towards it. Consider, 1. How pernicious their way is in its own nature (v. 16): Their feet run to evil, to that which is displeasing to God and hurtful to mankind, for they make haste to shed blood. Note, The way of sin is down-hill; men not only cannot stop themselves, but, the longer they continue in it, the faster they run, and make haste in it, as if they were afraid they should not do mischief enough and were resolved to lose no time. They said they would proceed leisurely (Let us lay wait for blood, v. 11), but thou wilt find they are all in haste, so much has Satan filled their hearts. 2. How pernicious the consequences of it will be. They are plainly told that this wicked way will certainly end in their own destruction, and yet they persist in it. Herein, (1.) They are like the silly bird, that sees the net spread to take her, and yet it is in vain; she is decoyed into it by the bait, and will not take the warning which her own eyes gave her, v. 17. But we think ourselves of more value than many sparrows, and therefore should have more wit, and act with more caution. God has made us wiser than the fowls of heaven (Job 35:11), and shall we then be as stupid as they? (2.) They are worse than the birds, and have not the sense which we sometimes perceive them to have; for the fowler knows it is in vain to lay his snare in the sight of the bird, and therefore he has arts to conceal it. But the sinner sees ruin at the end of his way; the murderer, the thief, see the jail and the gallows before them, nay, they may see hell before them; their watchmen tell them they shall surely die, but it is to no purpose; they rush into sin, and rush on in it, like the horse into the battle. For really the stone they roll will turn upon themselves, v. 18, 19. They lay wait, and lurk privily, for the blood and lives of others, but it will prove, contrary to their intention, to be for their own blood, their own lives; they will come, at length, to a shameful end; and, if they escape the sword of the magistrate, yet there is a divine Nemesis that pursues them. Vengeance suffers them not to live. Their greediness of gain hurries them upon those practices which will not suffer them to live out half their days, but will cut off the number of their months in the midst. They have little reason to be proud of their property in that which takes away the life of the owners and then passes to other masters; and what is a man profited, though he gain the world, if he lose his life? For then he can enjoy the world no longer; much less if he lose his soul, and that be drowned in destruction and perdition, as multitudes are by the love of money.

Now, though Solomon specifies only the temptation to rob on the highway, yet he intends hereby to warn us against all other evils which sinners entice men to. Such are the ways of the drunkards and unclean; they are indulging themselves in those pleasures which tend to their ruin both here and for ever; and therefore consent not to them.

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New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org.

GOD'S WORD® is a copyrighted work of God's Word to the Nations. Quotations are used by permission. Copyright 1995 by God's Word to the Nations. All rights reserved.

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