Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
Proverbs Ch.7 / 31 Ch.s
PR:7
* Invitations to learn wisdom. (1-5) The arts of seducers, with
warnings against them. (6-27)
#1-5 We must lay up God's commandments safely. Not only, Keep
them, and you shall live; but, Keep them as those that cannot
live without them. Those that blame strict and careful walking
as needless and too precise, consider not that the law is to be
kept as the apple of the eye; indeed the law in the heart is the
eye of the soul. Let the word of God dwell in us, and so be
written where it will be always at hand to be read. Thus we
shall be kept from the fatal effects of our own passions, and
the snares of Satan. Let God's word confirm our dread of sin,
and resolutions against it.
#6-27 Here is an affecting example of the danger of youthful
lusts. It is a history or a parable of the most instructive
kind. Will any one dare to venture on temptations that lead to
impurity, after Solomon has set before his eyes in so lively and
plain a manner, the danger of even going near them? Then is he
as the man who would dance on the edge of a lofty rock, when he
has just seen another fall headlong from the same place. The
misery of self-ruined sinners began in disregard to God's
blessed commands. We ought daily to pray that we may be kept
from running into temptation, else we invite the enemies of our
souls to spread snares for us. Ever avoid the neighbourhood of
vice. Beware of sins which are said to be pleasant sins. They
are the more dangerous, because they most easily gain the heart,
and close it against repentance. Do nothing till thou hast well
considered the end of it. Were a man to live as long as
Methuselah, and to spend all his days in the highest delights
sin can offer, one hour of the anguish and tribulation that must
follow, would far outweigh them.