Matthew Henry Commentary Proverbs 2:10-22

"For wisdom shall enter into thy heart, And knowledge shall be pleasant unto thy soul; Discretion shall watch over thee; Understanding shall keep thee: To deliver thee from the way of evil, From the men that speak perverse things; Who forsake the paths of uprightness, 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: To deliver thee from the strange woman, Even from the foreigner that flattereth with her words; That forsaketh the friend of her youth, And forgetteth the covenant of her God: For her house inclineth unto death, And her paths unto the dead; None that go unto her return again, Neither do they attain unto the paths of life: That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, And 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 land, And the treacherous shall be rooted out of it." — Proverbs 2:10-22 (ASV)

If we are truly wise, we will be careful to avoid all evil company and evil practices. When wisdom governs us, then it not only fills the head but also enters into the heart, and will preserve us from both corruptions within and temptations without. The ways of sin are ways of darkness, uncomfortable and unsafe: what fools are those who leave the plain, pleasant, light-filled paths of uprightness to walk in such ways! They take pleasure in sin, both in committing it and in seeing others commit it.

Every wise person will shun such company. True wisdom will also preserve us from those who lead to fleshly lusts, which defile the body, that living temple, and war against the soul. These are evils that arouse the sorrow of every serious mind and cause every thoughtful parent to look upon his children with anxiety, lest they be entangled in such fatal snares. Let the sufferings of others be our warnings.

Our Lord Jesus deters us from sinful pleasures by the everlasting torments that follow them. It is very rare that any who are caught in this snare of the devil recover; the heart is so hardened and the mind blinded by the deceitfulness of this sin. Many think that this caution, besides its literal sense, is also to be understood as a warning against idolatry and subjecting the soul to the body by seeking any forbidden object. The righteous must leave the earth just as the wicked must; but the earth is a very different thing to them.

To the wicked, it is all the heaven they will ever have; to the righteous, it is the place of preparation for heaven. And is it all the same to us whether we share with the wicked in the miseries of their end, or share those everlasting joys that will crown believers?