Matthew Henry Commentary Proverbs 1:10-19

"My son, if sinners entice thee, Consent thou not. If they say, Come with us, Let us lay wait for blood; Let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause; Let us swallow them up alive as Sheol, And whole, as those that go down into the pit; We shall find all precious substance; We shall fill our houses with spoil; Thou shalt cast thy lot among us; We will all have one purse: My son, walk not thou in the way with them; Refrain thy foot from their path: For their feet run to evil, And they make haste to shed blood. For in vain is the net spread In the sight of any bird: And these lay wait for their own blood; They lurk privily for their own lives. So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; It taketh away the life of the owners thereof." — Proverbs 1:10-19 (ASV)

Wicked people are zealous in seducing others into the paths of the destroyer: sinners love company in sin. But they have so much the more to answer for. How cautious young people should be! Consent thou not. Do not say as they say, nor do as they do, or would have you do; have no fellowship with them.

Who could think that it should be a pleasure for one person to destroy another! See their idea of worldly wealth; but it is neither substance nor precious. It is the ruinous mistake of thousands that they overvalue the wealth of this world. People promise themselves in vain that sin will turn to their advantage.

The way of sin is downhill; people cannot stop themselves. If young people would shun temporal and eternal ruin, let them refuse to take one step in these destructive paths. People's greediness for gain hurries them into practices that prevent them or others from living out half their days. What does a person profit, though they gain the world, if they lose their life? Much less if they lose their soul?