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Proverbs 5:6

Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.

Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life,.... Consider and meditate which is the way to get out of her hands and ways, and escape death, and obtain eternal life; lest those she has drawn into her wicked course of life should be religiously inclined, and think of quitting such a course, and inquire after the way of life and salvation; and be weighing in their minds which is most eligible, to continue with her whose feet lead to death, or to take the path of life: to prevent all this, if possible,

her ways are movable: she appears in different shapes; changes her dress and habitation; makes use of a thousand arts to ensnare men, to entangle their affections, and retain them in her nets; she first puts them upon one thing, and then on another; she leads them into various mazes and labyrinths of sin, till they have lost all sense of religion, and sight of the path of life;

that thou canst not know them; her ways, arts, and devices. Or, "thou canst not know" {k}; that is, the way of life, or how to get out of her ways into that. Or, "thou knowest not"; where she goes, whither she leads thee, and what will be the end and issue of such a course of life. The Targum understands it, and so some other interpreters, of the harlot herself, paraphrasing the whole thus;

"in the way of life she walks not; her ways are unstable, and she knows not''

the way of life, nor where her ways will end; or, "cares not" {l} what becomes of her. And so, in like manner, the former part of the verse is understood and interpreted, "lest she ponder the path of life" {m}; or as others, "she does not ponder the path of life" {n}; The ways of the antichristian harlot are with all deceivableness of unrighteousness; and her chief care is to keep persons in ignorance, and from pondering the path of life or true religion, and to retain them in her idolatry, 2 Thessalonians 2:9.


{k} edt al "non scires", Cocceius; "non cognosces", Baynus.
{l} "Haud curat", Schultens.
{m} olpt Np Myyx xra "iter vitae ne forte libraverit", Schultens.
{n} "Viam vitae non appendit, vel ponderat", Gejerus; so Luther; "iter vitae non expandit", Noldius, p. 249. No. 2008.

 

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