Proverbs 1:15

Pro 1:15 My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path:

Ver. 15. Walk not thou in the way with them.] "God will not take the wicked by the hand." {Job 8:20} Why then should we? "Gather not my soul with sinners," saith David. {Psa 26:9} "O Lord, let me not go to hell where the wicked are: for Lord, thou knowest I never loved their company here," said a good gentlewoman, when she was to die, being in much trouble of conscience.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Pro 1:15-16. Walk not thou in the way with them — Avoid their courses, their conversation, and company. Refrain thy foot from their path — If thou shouldst have any thought, inclination, or temptation to hearken to their counsels, or to follow their examples, suppress it, and restrain thyself, as it were, by force and violence, as the word מנע, implies. For their feet run to evil — Without considering what they are doing, and shutting their eyes against the consequences, they make haste, not only to do evil to others, but also to bring evil upon themselves; to make haste to shed blood — Innocent blood, which is an inhuman practice, and a practice always followed by dreadful punishment, if not from man, yet certainly from God.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

That is, have nothing at all to do with them.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

The society of the wicked (way or path) is dangerous. Avoid the beginnings of sin (Pro 4:14; Psa 1:1; Psa 119:101).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

My son, walk not thou in the way with them,.... In the same way as they do, which is the broad way that leads unto destruction; set not one foot in it; make no trial of it, whether it will be pleasant and profitable walking in it; the experiment will be dangerous;

refrain thy foot from their path; their manner and course of life; do not follow it, nor join them in it; when there is an inclination or a temptation to it, withstand it; stop in time, do not proceed, but draw back, and go on in the way thou hast been trained up in, and remember the instructions of thy parents.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Walk not thou in the way with them; avoid their courses and their conversation, and company.

Refrain thy foot from their path; when thou hast any thought, or inclination, or temptation to follow their counsels or examples, suppress it, and restrain thyself as it were by force and violence, as the word implies.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

15. Refrain — Have nothing to do with them; hold back thy foot from walking in their pathways.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

My son, walk not thou in the way with them. The admonitory strain of ver. 10 is again resumed, and in vers. 16-19 the teacher states the reasons which should dissuade youth from listening to the temptations of sinners. My son. The recurrence of these words for the third time in this address marks the affectionate interest, the loving solicitude, in which the admonition is addressed. Walk not thou. Immediate and entire abandonment is counselled. The warning is practically a repetition of ver. 10, and is given again in Pro_4:14, "Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men." Way; (derek) means, figuratively, the way of living and acting (Gesenius). "Mores et consuetudines" (Bayne); cf. Pro_12:15, "the fool"s way;" Pro_22:25; and Psa_1:1. The meaning is "associate not with them, have no dealings whatever with them." Refrain thy foot from their path; i.e. keep back thy foot, or make not one step in compliance, resist the very first solicitations to evil. Compare the legal maxim, Initiis obsta. Refrain; gm (m"na) is from nm (mana), "to keep back, restrain;" LXX, ekkinon Psa_119:101, "I have refrained my feet from every evil way;" Jer_14:10, "Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet"). Restraining the foot carries with it indirectly the natural inclination or propensity of the heart, even of the good, towards evil (Cartwright). Foot (lgr, regel) is, of course, used metaphorically, and means less the member of the body than the idea suggested by it; hence the use of the singular (Gejerus, Delitzsch). Bayne remarks that the Hebrews understood this passage as meaning "neither in public nor private life have any dealings with sinners." Path (bytin, nathiv) is a beaten path, a pathway, a byway; from the unused root btn (nathav), "to tread, trample;" and hence, while "way" may mean the great public high road, "path" may stand for the bypath, less frequented or public. The same distinction probably occurs in Psa_25:4, "Show me thy ways, O Lord; and teach me thy paths."

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

After the men are described against whose enticements a warning is given forth, the warning is emphatically repeated, and is confirmed by a threefold reason:

My son! go not in the way with them.

Keep back thy foot from their path.

If בּדרך (in the way), taken alone, cannot be equivalent to בדרך אחד (in one way), so is אתּם (with them) to be regarded as its determination.

(Note: The Arab. grammarians regard this as half determination, and call it takhsys; that אתּם has with them the force of a virtually coordinated attributive; while, according to the Arab. gram., it is also possible that בּדרך, "in one way," is equivalent to on the common way, for in the indetermination sometimes there lies the conception not merely of âhad, but of weahad.)

Foot (not feet), as eye, hand, etc., is used where the members come less under consideration than what they unitedly bring about (Pro 4:26.). נתיבה, from נתב, signifies properly that which is raised, especially the (raised) footstep.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

do not walk down that road with them; do not let your foot touch where they walk

To avoid behaving the same way as the sinners do is spoken of as if the son were to avoid walking on or even touching the roads that sinners walk on. AT: "do not go with the sinners or do what they do" (See: Metaphor)

their feet run to evil

The sinners having an eager interest in doing evil things is spoken of as if they were running to evil. AT: "they are eager to do wicked things" (See: Metaphor)

their feet run

Here "feet" represents the whole person. AT: "they run" (See: Synecdoche)

to shed blood

Here "blood" represents a person's life. To "shed blood" means to murder someone. (See: Metonymy)

For it is useless to spread the net in the sight of any bird

This metaphor compares the wisdom of birds who avoid traps that they see to the foolishness of sinners who get caught in traps they make for themselves.

translationWords

walk

run

evil

blood

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.