Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Proverbs 2:12

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Proverbs 2:12. The man that speaketh froward things. — תהפכות tahpuchoth, things of subversion; from תפך taphach, to turn or change the course of a thing. Men who wish to subvert the state of things, whether civil or religious; who are seditious themselves, and wish to make others so. These speak much of liberty and oppression, deal greatly in broad assertions, and endeavour especially to corrupt the minds of youth.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

The rewards of seeking wisdom (2:1-22)

People must spare no effort in diligently searching for wisdom. At the same time they must remember that the true goal of their search is not academic achievement but spiritual growth through knowing God better (2:1-5). However, when they obtain this wisdom, they cannot claim to have achieved it by their own abilities; it is the gift of God. He rewards those who seek genuinely (6).
Not only does God give wisdom to those who earnestly seek it, but he also watches over them (7-8). He gives them inner satisfaction through their greater understanding of what is right (9-10). This enlightened understanding helps protect them from those who have scheming minds and find pleasure in wrongdoing (11-15). Also it will save them from falling to the temptations of immoral women. These women, in making prostitutes of themselves, have left their husbands, despised God and bought lasting damage to themselves and their lovers (16-19). By contrast, those who obtain wisdom have useful lives that bring lasting benefits to all (20-22).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

GOD'S MAN IS DELIVERED FROM EVIL

"To deliver thee from the way of evil, From the men who speak perverse things; Who forsake the paths of righteousness, To walk in the ways of darkness; Who rejoice to do evil, And delight in the perverseness of evil; Who are crooked in their ways, And wayward in their paths:"

This paragraph speaks of the seditious and subversive enemies that form the bottom layer of every society. "They wish to subvert the state of things, whether civil or religious; they are seditious themselves and wish to make others so; they speak much of liberty, oppression, injustice, etc., endeavoring especially to corrupt the youth."Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (London: T. Mason and G. Lane, 1837), op. cit., p. 706. Such men are totally destructive, rebellious and critical; and they are bankrupt of any worthwhile purpose.

"To walk in the ways of darkness" (Proverbs 2:13). Christians are specifically warned against the ways of darkness. Much of the world's evil is perpetrated in darkness, due to men's instinctive desire to hide their evil deeds. "The word darkness carries with it two ideas (1) ignorance, and (2) error."The Pulpit Commentary, op. cit., p. 39. To walk in darkness is therefore to reject the true light of wisdom and to practice iniquity. The apostle Paul has commanded us to, "Cast off the works of darkness" (Romans 13:12): and in the same breath he mentioned among those works such things as, "Reveling, drunkenness, debauchery, licentiousness, quarreling and jealousy" (Romans 13:13).

"Who rejoice to do evil" This fingers an amazing trait of wicked men; they rejoice in evil! "A malignant joy lights up the countenance of any abandoned sinner at the very prospect of some wicked deed. This is Satanic wickedness; and such men may exclaim with Milton's Satan, `Evil, be thou my good'!"W. F. Adeney, in The Pulpit Commentary, op. cit., p. 45.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

The evil-doers here include not robbers and murderers only Proverbs 1:10-16, but all who leave the straight path and the open day for crooked ways, perverse counsels, deeds of darkness. “To delight etc.” Proverbs 2:14 is the lowest depth of all.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 2

My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with you; So that you incline your ear unto wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding; Yes, if you cry after knowledge, and lift up your voice for understanding; If you seek after her as silver, and you search for her as for a hidden treasure; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to him that walks uprightly. He keeps the paths of judgment, and preserves the way of his saints. Then shall you understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yes, every good path. When wisdom entered this into your heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto your soul; Discretion will preserve you, understanding will keep you: And they will deliver you from the way of the evil man, and from the man that speaks froward things ( Proverbs 2:1-12 );

The word froward is a word that means perverse. The Hebrew word is perverse things.

Who leaves the paths of the uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness; Who rejoices to do evil, and delights in the perverseness of the wicked; Whose ways are crooked, and they pervert their own paths: To deliver you from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flatters with her words; Who has forsaken the husband of her youth, and has forgotten the covenant that she made before God. For her house inclines unto death, her paths unto the dead. None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life. That thou mayest walk in the ways of good men, keep the paths of the righteous. For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it. But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it ( Proverbs 2:13-22 ).

So the instructions of a father to a son. I think that so many times as fathers we probably don't take enough time to just really sit down with our sons and talk to them about life and the issues of life. The importance of seeking after the knowledge of God and the wisdom of God. Seeking it diligently just like you would seek for prosperity from silver or anything else. Hidden treasures. For the treasures of the wisdom and the knowledge, the treasures that they bring to a man who possesses them.

And then the warning against the adulterous woman. How that wisdom will lead you from her, deliver you from her who flatters with her words. As most women know, men are real suckers for flattery. "Oh, you're so strong. Can you open this jar for me, you know? Oh, you're strong, you know." And men are just... they eat it up.

Now, unfortunately, our wives are many times more honest with us. And they, so many times, are just blunt. "Sometimes I think you're so dumb. How can you do such stupid things?" And here the stranger comes along and with her flattery says, "Oh, you're so smart! My, where did you learn all of that? I've never met a man as clever as you," and the flattery. How many men have been trapped by that? And so the warning is against the adulterous woman who flatters with her lips. Be careful of that.

The Bible says that she has forsaken the covenant that she made before God, the marriage vows, the husband of her youth. She has left him. And now she is looking for a prey. She's looking for security. And she comes along with her flattering words and like poor Samson, through her flattering lips the strongest man can be brought down to a crust of bread.

And so here is just a father warning his son, "Be careful for these gals, son, who come along with their flatteries and all. Who can turn and twist your judgment because their path is the path of death. You go into their houses, you don't come out again. There's destruction in their ways." And so the dad warning his son, and we need to be warned of the folly of forsaking the covenants that we have made in our own marriage vows in order to listen to the words of a flatterer. "None that go in unto her return again, neither do they take hold of the path of life." "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

3. Wisdom as a treasure ch. 2

Chapter 2 is a discourse that sets forth the blessings that wisdom confers.

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The fruit of moral integrity 2:10-22

Wisdom safeguards a person morally. The first part of this pericope shows how God protects the wise (Proverbs 2:10-11; cf. Proverbs 2:7-8). The last part presents the temptations one can overcome as he or she seeks wisdom (Proverbs 2:12-19). When a person submits himself or herself to God and gains wisdom, the ways of the wicked will lose some of their attractiveness. The wise person will see that the adventuress who promises thrills is offering something she cannot give, except in the most immediate sensual sense.

The "strange" woman (Proverbs 2:16) is one "outside the circle of his [a man’s] proper relations, that is, a harlot or an adulteress." [Note: Toy, p. 46.] The word does not necessarily mean that she is a foreigner. Probably she is a stranger to the conventions of Israel’s corporate life. [Note: William McKane, Proverbs: A New Approach, p. 285.]

"If the evil man uses perverse words to snare the unwary [Proverbs 2:12], the adulteress uses flattering words. Someone has said that flattery isn’t communication, it is manipulation; it’s people telling us things about ourselves that we enjoy hearing and wish were true." [Note: Wiersbe, p. 37.]

The "covenant" she has left (Proverbs 2:17) seems to refer to her own marriage covenant (Malachi 2:14), rather than to the covenant law that prohibited adultery (Exodus 20:14). [Note: Ross, p. 914.] The "land" (Proverbs 2:21-22) is the Promised Land of Canaan.

This chapter, like the previous one, ends by contrasting the ends of the wicked and the righteous (Proverbs 2:21-22; cf. Proverbs 1:32-33). It is a long poem that appeals to the reader to pursue wisdom, and then identifies the benefits of following wisdom. Chapter 2 emphasizes moral stability as a fruit of wisdom.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

To deliver thee from the way of the evil [man],.... Who is so by nature and practice, who is hardened in sin and abandoned to it, whose course of life is evil, and who endeavours to draw others into the same evil practices; now the Gospel, and a spiritual knowledge of it, are a means of preserving men from following the examples of such persons, and from walking with them in the ways of sin: or from "the evil way" t, from every evil way, from a vicious course of life; not from idolatry only, as some interpret it, though this may be included, and chiefly designed; but from all manner of sin, from everything that is contrary to the law of God and sound doctrine;

from the man that speaketh froward things; perverse things, things contrary to the light of nature, to divine revelation, to the word of God, both law and Gospel; if a single man is meant, he might be thought to be the man of sin, antichrist, who has a mouth speaking blasphemies against God, his name, his tabernacle, and them that dwell therein,

Revelation 13:5; and the Gospel delivers men from following him, and falling in with his perverse doctrines and practices; but the word seems to be a collective one, and to be understood of all wicked men, to whom the description agrees, as it is explained in the following verses in the plural number; who out of their evil hearts, and the abundance of wickedness there, speak evil things, tending to debauch the minds and manners of others; to be delivered from whom is a singular mercy. Jarchi restrains this to heretics, and such as caused Israel to apostatize to idolatry, and turned the law into evil. The Gospel is undoubtedly a means of preserving from error and heresy.

t מדרך רע "a via mala", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Mercerus, Cocceius, Gejerus, Michaelis.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      10 When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;   11 Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:   12 To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things;   13 Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;   14 Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked;   15 Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths:   16 To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words;   17 Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.   18 For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead.   19 None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.   20 That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.   21 For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it.   22 But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.

      The scope of these verses is to show, 1. What great advantage true wisdom will be of to us; it will keep us from the paths of sin, which lead to ruin, and will therein do us a greater kindness than if it enriched us with all the wealth of the world. 2. What good use we should make of the wisdom God gives us; we must use it for our own guidance in the paths of virtue, and for the arming of us against temptations of every kind. 3. By what rules we may try ourselves whether we have this wisdom or no. This tree will be known by its fruits; if we be truly wise, it will appear by our care to avoid all evil company and evil practices.

      This wisdom will be of use to us,

      I. For our preservation from evil, from the evil of sin, and, consequently, from the evil of trouble that attends it.

      1. In general (Proverbs 2:10; Proverbs 2:11), "When wisdom has entire possession of thee, it will keep thee." And when has it an entire possession of us? (1.) When it has dominion over us. When it not only fills the head with notions, but enters into the heart and has a commanding power and influence upon that,--when it is upon the throne there, and gives law to the affections and passions,--when it enters into the heart as the leaven into the dough, to diffuse its relish there, and to change it into its own image--then it is likely to do us good. (2.) When we have delight in it, when knowledge becomes pleasant to the soul: "When thou beginnest to relish it as the most agreeable entertainment, and art subject to its rules, of choice, and with satisfaction,--when thou callest the practice of virtue, not a slavery and a task, but liberty and pleasure, and a life of serious godliness the most comfortable life a man can live in this world,--then thou wilt find the benefit of it." Though its restraints should be in some respects unpleasant to the body, yet even those must be pleasant to the soul. When it has come to this, with us, discretion shall preserve us and keep us. God keeps the way of his saints (Proverbs 2:8; Proverbs 2:8), by giving them discretion to keep out of harm's way, to keep themselves that the wicked one touch them not. Note, A principle of grace reigning in the heart will be a powerful preservative both against corruptions within and temptations without, Ecclesiastes 9:16; Ecclesiastes 9:18.

      2. More particularly, wisdom will preserve us,

      (1.) From men of corrupt principles, atheistical profane men, who make it their business to debauch young men's judgments, and instil into their minds prejudices against religion and arguments for vice: "It will deliver thee from the way of the evil man (Proverbs 2:12; Proverbs 2:12), and a blessed deliverance it will be, as from the very jaws of death, from the way in which he walks, and in which he would persuade thee to walk." The enemy is spoken of as one (Proverbs 2:12; Proverbs 2:12), an evil man, but afterwards as many (Proverbs 2:13; Proverbs 2:13); there is a club, a gang of them, that are in confederacy against religion, and join hand in hand for the support of the devil's kingdom and the interests of it. [1.] They have a spirit of contradiction to that which is good: They speak froward things; they say all they can against religion, both to show their own enmity to it and to dissuade others from it. They are advocates for Satan; they plead for Baal, and pervert the right ways of the Lord. How peevishly will profane wits argue for sin, and with what frowardness will they carp at the word of God! Wisdom will keep us either from conversing with such men or at least from being ensnared by them. [2.] They are themselves apostates from that which is good, and such are commonly the most malicious and dangerous enemies religion has, witness Julian (Proverbs 2:13; Proverbs 2:13): They leave the paths of uprightness, which they were trained up in and had set out in, shake off the influences of their education, and break off the thread of their hopeful beginnings, to walk in the ways of darkness, in those wicked ways which hate the light, in which men are led blindfold by ignorance and error, and which lead men into utter darkness. The ways of sin are ways of darkness, uncomfortable and unsafe; what fools are those that leave the plain, pleasant, lightsome paths of uprightness, to walk in those ways! Psalms 82:5; 1 John 2:11. [3.] They take a pleasure in sin, both in committing it themselves and in seeing others commit it (Proverbs 2:14; Proverbs 2:14): They rejoice in an opportunity to do evil, and in the accomplishment and success of any wicked project. It is sport to fools to do mischief; nor is any sight more grateful to them than to see the frowardness of the wicked, to see those that are hopeful drawn into the ways of sin, and then to see them hardened and confirmed in those ways. They are pleased if they can discern that the devil's kingdom gets ground (see Romans 1:32), such a height of impiety have they arrived at. [4.] They are resolute in sin (Proverbs 2:15; Proverbs 2:15): Their ways are crooked, a great many windings and turnings to escape the pursuit of their convictions and break the force of them; some sly excuse, some subtle evasion or other, their deceitful hearts furnish them with, for the strengthening of their hands in their wickedness; and in the crooked mazes of that labyrinth they secure themselves from the arrests of God's word and their own consciences; for they are froward in their paths, that is, they are resolved to go on in them, whatever is said against it. Every wise man will shun the company of such as these.

      (2.) From women of corrupt practices. The former lead to spiritual wickednesses, the lusts of the unsanctified mind; these lead to fleshly lusts, which defile the body, that living temple, but withal war against the soul. The adulteress is here called the strange woman, because no man that has any wisdom or goodness in him will have any acquaintance with her; she is to be shunned by every Israelite as if she were a heathen, and a stranger to that sacred commonwealth. A strange woman indeed! utterly estranged from all principles of reason, virtue, and honour. It is a great mercy to be delivered from the allurements of the adulteress, considering, [1.] How false she is. Who will have any dealings with those that are made up of treachery? She is a strange woman; for, First, She is false to him whom she entices. She speaks fair, tells him how much she admires him above any man, and what a kindness she has for him; but she flatters with her words; she has no true affection for him, nor any desire of his welfare, any more than Delilah had of Samson's. All she designs is to pick his pocket and gratify a base lust of her own. Secondly, She is false to her husband, and violates the sacred obligation she lies under to him. He was the guide of her youth; by marrying him she chose him to be so, and submitted herself to his guidance, with a promise to attend him only, and forsake all others. But she has forsaken him, and therefore it cannot be thought that she should be faithful to any one else; and whoever entertains her is partaker with her in her falsehood. Thirdly, She is false to God himself: She forgets the covenant of her God, the marriage-covenant (Proverbs 2:17; Proverbs 2:17), to which God is not only a witness, but a party, for, he having instituted the ordinance, both sides vow to him to be true to each other. It is not her husband only that she sins against, but her God, who will judge whoremongers and adulterers because they despise the oath and break the covenant, Ezekiel 17:18; Malachi 2:14. [2.] How fatal it will prove to those that fall in league with her, Proverbs 2:18; Proverbs 2:19. Let the sufferings of others be our warnings. Take heed of the sin of whoredom; for, First, The ruin of those who are guilty of it is certain and unavoidable, if they do not repent. It is a sin that has a direct tendency to the killing of the soul, the extinguishing of all good affections and dispositions in it, and the exposing of it to the wrath and curse of God and the sword of his justice. Those that live in forbidden pleasures are dead while they live. Let discretion preserve every man, not only from the evil woman, but from the evil house, for the house inclines to death; it is in the road that leads directly to eternal death; and her paths unto Rephaim, to the giants (so some read it), the sinners of the old world, who, living in luxury and excess of riot, were cut down out of time, and their foundation was overthrown with a flood. Our Lord Jesus deters us from sinful pleasures with the consideration of everlasting torments which follow them. Where the worm dies not, nor is the fire quenched. See Matthew 5:28; Matthew 5:29. Secondly, Their repentance and recovery are extremely hazardous: None, or next to none, that go unto her, return again. It is very rare that any who are caught in this snare of the devil recover themselves, so much is the heart hardened, and the mind blinded, by the deceitfulness of this sin. Having once lost their hold of the paths of life, they know not how to take hold of them again, but are perfectly besotted and bewitched with those base lusts. Many learned interpreters think that this caution against the strange woman, besides the literal sense, is to be understood figuratively, as a caution, 1. Against idolatry, which is spiritual whoredom. Wisdom will keep thee from all familiarity with the worshippers of images, and all inclination to join with them, which had for many ages been of such pernicious consequence to Israel and proved so to Solomon himself. 2. Against the debauching of the intellectual powers and faculties of the soul by the lusts and appetites of the body. Wisdom will keep thee from being captivated by the carnal mind, and from subjecting the spirit to the dominion of the flesh, that notorious adulteress which forsakes its guide, violates the covenant of our God, which inclines to death, and which, when it has got an undisturbed dominion, makes the case of the soul desperate.

      II. This wisdom will be of use to guide and direct us in that which is good (Proverbs 2:20; Proverbs 2:20): That thou mayest walk in the way of good men. We must avoid the way of the evil man, and the strange woman, in order that we may walk in good ways; we must cease to do evil, in order that we may learn to do well. Note, 1. There is a way which is peculiarly the way of good men, the way in which good men, as such, and as far as they have really been such, have always walked. 2. It will be our wisdom to walk in that way, to ask for the good old way and walk therein, Jeremiah 6:16; Hebrews 6:12; Hebrews 12:1. And we must not only walk in that way awhile, but we must keep it, keep in it, and never turn aside out of it: The paths of the righteous are the paths of life, which all that are wise, having taken hold of, will keep their hold of. "That thou mayest imitate those excellent persons, the patriarchs and prophets (so bishop Patrick paraphrases it), and be preserved in the paths of those righteous men who followed after them." We must not only choose our way in general by the good examples of the saints, but must also take directions from them in the choice of our particular paths; observe the track, and go forth by the footsteps of the flock. Two reasons are here given why we should thus choose:-- (1.) Because men's integrity will be their establishment, Proverbs 2:21; Proverbs 2:21. It will be the establishment, [1.] Of their persons: The upright shall dwell in the land, peaceably and quietly, as long as they live; and their uprightness will contribute to it, as it settles their minds, guides their counsels, gains them the good-will of their neighbours, and entitles them to God's special favour. [2.] Of their families: The perfect, in their posterity, shall remain in it. They shall dwell and remain for ever in the heavenly Canaan, of which the earthly one was but a type. (2.) Because men's iniquity will be their destruction, Proverbs 2:22; Proverbs 2:22. See what becomes of the wicked, who choose the way of the evil man; they shall be cut off, not only from heaven hereafter and all hopes of that, but from the earth now, on which they set their affections, and in which they lay up their treasure. They think to take root in it, but they and their families shall be rooted out of it, in judgment to them, but in mercy to the earth. There is a day coming which shall leave them neither root nor branch,Malachi 4:1. Let that wisdom then enter into our hearts, and be pleasant to our souls, which will keep us out of a way that will end thus.