John Gill Commentary Proverbs 28:18

"Whoso walketh uprightly shall be delivered; But he that is perverse in [his] ways shall fall at once." — Proverbs 28:18 (ASV)

Whoever walks uprightly shall be saved ,
Or "be safe" ^F18 from those that seek his life, plot against him, shoot at him, as the wicked do at the upright in heart, but the Lord protects him; and it is even well with him in times of public calamities; the Lord has his chambers and hiding places for him;

and he is safe from falling, as may be gathered from the opposite clause; for he walks surely, and is in the hands of Christ, and is kept by him from a final and total falling away: and he shall be saved also with an everlasting salvation; from sin, and all the effects of it; from the curse of the law, from wrath to come, from hell and damnation.

Not that his upright walk is the cause of this; the moving cause of salvation is the grace of God; the procuring cause, our Lord Jesus Christ, the only Author of it: but this is a descriptive character of the persons that are and shall be saved; it is a clear case that such have the grace of God, and therefore shall have glory; (See Gill on Proverbs 10:9);

but [he that is] perverse [in his] ways ; "in his two ways", as in (Proverbs 27:6) ; or many ways, and all perverse and wicked: shall fall at once ; his destruction shall come suddenly upon him, when he is not aware of it, and when he cries, Peace, peace, to himself: or in one of them; in one or other of his perverse ways.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F18: (evwy) "erit salvus", Pagninus, Montanus, V. L. Mercerus, Cocceius, Gejerus.