Proverbs 2:17

Pro 2:17 Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.

Ver. 17. Which forsaketh the guide of her youth.] That is, Her husband; as Helena, Herodias, Bernice, {Act 25:13} and other odious harlots. Adulterium quasi ad alterum, vel ad alterius torum. {a} This wanton never wants one, though her husband be ever so near.

And forgetteth the covenant of her God.] Marriage is a mixed covenant, partly religious and partly civil: the parties tie themselves first to God, and then to one another. The bond is made to God, who also will be ready enough to take the forfeiture. For whores and adulteresses God will judge. {Heb 13:3}

{a} Becman.

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_2:17

Which forsaketh the guide of her youth.

The peril of taking life into our own control

We all shrink with horror from that lowest depth of human depravity here described; but we may not therefore lose the lessons of this solemn and masterly description. Forsaking and forgetting God is the one danger of life; forsaking that guidance which is from Him and leads to Him, and forgetting that covenant which binds us unto Him. The course of degradation and mischief of the unhappy person here portrayed is derived from the two facts of the text. Who remembers not, who regrets not, the fresh and balmy morning of youth? Then we were guided in the ways of righteousness. There is a season when youth becomes independent and intolerant, and chafes under the most gentle guidance. These are the days of second thoughts, days when the sweetness of forbidden waters is tasted, when the border of the debatable land is crossed. These are critical days in every mans life. Some have slipped and recovered the steps which had almost gone. With some the reason of self-guidance and independence has never passed away. They have forsaken the guide of their youth. The reason of this woful departure and falling away is thus given. She forgetteth the covenant of her God. And are not our young people bound in covenant? Baptism and confirmation are its seals. Alas! that so many tokens of the forgetfulness of the covenant of our God are evident on the very surface of society to-day, and met with in common associations. (Dean Alford.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17. Forsaketh the guide of her youth — The word rendered guide here means familiar friend or partner, and the weight of criticism inclines to the meaning, her husband. For “guide” the Septuagint has instruction. The Hebrews generally married young. According to the rabbins men should marry at eighteen, and they may marry at thirteen. The virgins are often espoused or betrothed very early, but not married till after they are twelve. From this come such expressions as spouse, friend, or guide of one’s youth. Comp. Jer_3:4; Joe_1:8; Pro_5:18; Isa_54:6; Mal_2:14-15. Forgetteth the covenant of her God — Supposed to be her marriage vows, and recognising some kind of religious ceremony in connexion therewith. It is certain that foreign women, Canaanites, on being tolerated in the land contrary to the command, set up tippling houses and brothels, tempting the Israelites to debauchery and idolatry. (See Pro_7:5-27.) Thus they became traps and snares to the Israelites; “scourges in their sides and thorns in their eyes.” Jos_23:13; Num_33:55. Nevertheless, it is equally clear from the manner in which this woman is spoken of, (Pro_2:17,) that not a foreign woman by birth is intended, but a Hebrew who was unfaithful to her husband and her God. The seductions of the sacred prostitutions introduced from Tyre and Sidon won even the Hebrew females from both the worship of Jehovah and the paths of purity. This woman was an apostate Hebrew harlot, consecrated in a temple of a foreign licentious religion.

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

17 Who forsakes the companion of her youth,

And forgets the covenant of her God;

18 For she sinks down to death together with her house,

And to the shadow of Hades her paths -

19 All they who go to her return not again,

And reach not the paths of life

אלּוּף, as here used, has nothing to do with the phylarch-name, similar in sound, which is a denom. of אלף; but it comes immediately from אלף, to accustom oneself to a person or cause, to be familiar therewith (while the Aram. אלף, ילף, to learn, Pa. to teach), and thus means, as the synon. of רע, the companion or familiar associate (vid., Schultens). Parallels such as Jer 3:4 suggested to the old interpreters the allegorical explanation of the adulteress as the personification of the apostasy or of heresy. Pro 2:18 the lxx translate: ἔθετο γὰρ παρὰ τῷ θανάτῳ τὸν οἶκον αὐτῆς: she (the dissolute wife) has placed her house beside death (the abyss of death). This שׁחה [ἔθετο] is perhaps the original, for the text as it lies before us is doubtful, though, rightly understood, admissible. The accentuation marks בּיתהּ as the subject, but בּית is elsewhere always masc., and does not, like the rarer ארח, Pro 2:15, admit in usage a double gender; also, if the fem. usage were here introduced (Bertheau, Hitzig), then the predicate, even though ביתה were regarded as fem., might be, in conformity with rule, שׁח, as e.g., Isa 2:17. שׁחה is, as in Psa 44:26, 3rd pr. of שׁוּח, Arab. sâkh, to go down, to sink; the emendation שׁחה (Joseph Kimchi) does not recommend itself on this account, that שׁחה and שׁחח mean, according to usage, to stoop or to bend down; and to interpret (Ralbag, השׁפילה) שׁחה transitively is inadmissible. For that reason Aben Ezra interprets ביתה as in apposition: to death, to its house; but then the poet in that case should say אל־שׁאול, for death is not a house. On the other hand, we cannot perceive in ביתה an accus. of the nearer definition (J. H. Michaelis, Fl.); the expression would here, as 15a, be refined without purpose. Bttcher has recognised ביתה as permutative, the personal subject: for she sinks down to death, her house, i.e., she herself, together with all that belongs to her; cf. the permutative of the subject, Job 29:3; Isa 29:23 (vid., comm. l.c.), and the more particularly statement of the object, Exo 2:6, etc. Regarding רפאים, shadows of the under-world (from רפה, synon. חלה, weakened, or to become powerless), a word common to the Solomonic writings, vid., Comment. on Isaiah, p. 206. What Pro 2:18 says of the person of the adulteress, Pro 2:19 says of those who live with her ביתה, her house-companions. בּאיה, "those entering in to her," is equivalent to בּאים אליה; the participle of verbs eundi et veniendi takes the accusative object of the finite as gen. in st. constr., as e.g., Pro 1:12; Pro 2:7; Gen 23:18; Gen 9:10 (cf. Jer 10:20). The ישׁוּבוּן, with the tone on the ult., is a protestation: there is no return for those who practise fornication,

(Note: One is here reminded of the expression in the Aeneid, vi. 127-129:

Revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras,

Hoc opes, hoc labor est.

See also an impure but dreadful Talmudic story about a dissolute Rabbi, b. Aboda zara, 17a.)

and they do not reach the paths of life from which they have so widely strayed.

(Note: In correct texts ולא־ישיגו has the Makkeph. Vid., Torath Emeth, p. 41; Accentuationssystem, xx. 2.)

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.)

2:17 By pursuing another man, an immoral woman has abandoned her husband. Her marriage covenant . . . before God included vows of faithfulness (cp. Mal 2:14-16).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

That is, her husband, which is her head and guide to govern her, from whom she ought not to depart, but remain in his subjection.

Which is the promise made in marriage.

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

guide . . . youth--lawful husband (Jer 3:4).

covenant . . . God--of marriage made in God's name.

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

Verse 17. Which forsaketh the guide of her youth] Leaves her father's house and instructions, and abandons herself to the public.

The covenant of her God.] Renounces the true religion, and mixes with idolaters; for among them prostitution was enormous. Or by the covenant may be meant the matrimonial contract, which is a covenant made in the presence of God between the contracting parties, in which they bind themselves to be faithful to each other.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(17) The guide of her youth.—Or rather, friend with whom she has lived in intimacy: that is, the husband of her youth; in other words, her first love. Jeremiah uses the same phrase (Pro_3:4). (Comp. “wife of thy youth,” Pro_5:18; Mal_2:14.)

Forgetteth the covenant of her God—i.e., the marriage covenant, made in the presence of God. (Comp. “wife of thy covenant,” Mal. l.c.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17. the guide of her youth] or, friend, R.V. or, associate, i.e. her husband to whom she was married in her youth. See Jer_3:4, where the same phrase occurs in the same sense. Comp. “wife of thy youth,” Pro_5:18; Mal_2:14.

covenant of her God] The marriage contract, which is of Divine origin and sanction (Gen_2:24; Mat_19:4-6). Comp. “the wife of thy covenant,” Mal_2:14, and note there in this Series. To the tender memories of “the kindness of youth and the love of espousals” (Jer_2:2) is added the binding force of “the vow and covenant betwixt them made.”

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Which forsaketh the guide of her youth,.... Not God, the God of her life, and who had provided for her from her youth up; nor her parent that had taken care of her in her infancy, and had been the guardian of her virgin state; but her husband, to whom she was married in her youth, and to whom she gave up herself to be guided and directed, ruled and governed, by: and as it is an aggravation of evil in a man to deal treacherously against the wife of his youth, and the wife of his covenant, Mal 2:14; so it is in a woman to forsake "the friend" or "companion of her youth" (w), as the phrase may be rendered; who loved her and espoused her in his youthful age, and with whom he had lived long in love and friendship, and in great happiness, but now forsakes him; her affections being alienated from him, leaves his company and bed, and associates with others. Gersom interprets this of the human understanding, appointed to govern the other powers and faculties of the soul;

and forgetteth the covenant of her God: not the covenant made with Noah, in which adultery, as well as other things, were forbidden; nor the law of Moses, or covenant at Sinai, in which it was condemned; but the marriage covenant, which she entered into with her husband when espoused to him, and when they mutually obliged themselves to be faithful to one another: and this is called "the covenant of God"; not only because God is the author and institutor of marriage, and has directed and enjoined persons to enter into such a contract with one another; but because he is present at it, and is a witness of such an engagement, mid is appealed unto in it; which, as it adds to the solemnity of it, makes the violation of it the more criminal. So the church of Rome has forsook Christ, who was her guide in her first settlement, and her husband she professed to be espoused to, as a chaste virgin; and has followed other lovers, and become the mother of harlots; so false teachers leave their guide, the Scriptures, and bring in damnable heresies, and deny the Lord that bought them, Pe2 2:1.

(w) "amieum adolescentiae suae", De Dieu, Michaelis; "socium juventutis suae", Schultens.

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

The guide of her youth - Better, the familiar friend (compare Pro 16:28; Pro 17:9). The “friend” is, of course, the husband, or the man to whom the strange woman first belonged as a recognized concubine. Compare Jer 3:4

The covenant of her God - The sin of the adulteress is not against man only but against the Law of God, against His covenant. The words point to some religious formula of espousals. Compare Mal 2:14.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Youth. Her husband, whom she married young when love is more lasting. This increases her guilt. It may also signify her father, or preceptor.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The guide of her youth, to wit, her husband, whom she took to be her guide and governor, and that in her youth: which circumstance is added to aggravate her sin and shame, because love is commonly most sincere and fervent between a husband and wife of youth, as they are for that reason emphatically called, Pro 5:18; Isa 54:6; Joe 1:8; Mal 2:14,15.

Forgetteth, i.e. violateth or breaketh, as that word is commonly used in a practical sense.

The covenant of her God; the marriage covenant; so called, partly because God is the author and institutor of that society and mutual obligation; and partly because God is called to be the witness and judge of that solemn promise and covenant, and the avenger of the transgression of it.

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

The guide of her youth (pWLa hyrWn, alluph n"ureyah); properly, the associate or companion of her youth. The Hebrew, pWLa (alluph), being derived from the root pla, (alaph), "to accustom one"s self to," or "to be accustomed to" or "familiar with" anyone. The word is rendered as "friend" in Pro_17:9 Pro_16:28 Mic_7:5. The idea of guidance, which is adopted in the Authorized Version, and appears also in the Vulgate dux. and Targum ducatus, is a secondary idea, and is derived probably from the relation in which the husband stands to his wife. Various interpretations have been given to the expression. It occurs again Jer_3:4, where Jehovah applies it to himself, and says, through his prophet, to the religiously adulterous Judah, "Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My Father, thou art the Guide of my youth (yrun pWLa, alluph n"ura)?" It has also been understood as referring to the woman"s parents, her father and mother, who were her natural guardians. But the context seems to require that it should be taken as designating her husband. It will then be the correlative of "the wife of thy youth" of Mal_2:14. The covenant of her God; i.e. the marriage covenant, called "the covenant of her God," because entered into in his presence. The forsaking of the guide of her youth is essentially bound up with a forgetfulness of the solemn covenant which she had entered into in the presence of God. No specific mention is made in the Pentateuch of any religious ceremony at marriage; yet we may infer, from Mal_2:14, Mal_2:15, where God is spoken of as "a Witness" between the husband and "the wife of his youth," "the wife of thy covenant," that the marriage contract was solemnized with sacred rites. The Proverbs thus give a high and sacred character to marriage, and so carry on the original idea of the institution which, under the gospel dispensation, developed late the principle of the indissolubility of the marriage tie. It is no objection to this view that the monogamic principle was infringed, and polygamy countenanced. The reason of this latter departure is given in Deu_22:28 and Exo_22:16. The morality of the Proverbs always represents monogamy as the rule, it deprecates illicit intercourse, and discountenances divorce. It is in entire accordance with the seventh commandment. The woman who commits adultery offends, not only against her husband, but against her God.

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

Forsaketh - Her husband whom she took to be her guide and governor, in her youth. The covenant - The marriage covenant: so called because God is the author of that mutual obligation: and because God is called to be the witness and judge of that solemn promise and covenant.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.