Proverbs 2:19

Pro 2:19 None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.

Ver. 19. None that go unto her return again.] Some of the ancients have herehence concluded that adultery is an unpardonable sin; but "all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men," saith our Saviour, "save only the sin against the Holy Ghost." {Mat 12:31} True it is, that "a whore is a deep ditch, and a strange woman is a narrow pit"; - that {Pro 23:27} "whoredom, and wine, and new wine take away the heart"; - that {Hos 4:11} such are said to be "destitute of understanding," and to have lost even the light of nature; {Pro 6:32 Rom 1:28} to be "past feeling, and given up to a dead and dedolent disposition"; {Eph 4:18-19} to be "impudent," {Jer 2:3} - wherefore also they are compared to dogs {a} {Deu 23:18 2Sa 3:8} - and for the most part impenitent. {Ecc 7:28} Grace, as one well observeth, is seated in the powers of nature. Now carnal sins disable nature, and so set us in a greater distance from grace, as taking away the heart, &c. Howbeit "all things are possible with God"; {Mar 9:23; Mar 9:27} and though few have awakened out of this snare of the devil, yet some have, as David, and that woman in Luk 7:37; Luk 7:50, lest any humbled sinners should despair.

{a} κυνος ομματ εχων. - Hom.

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.

that is, such as remain impenitent (compare Ecc 7:26).

paths of life-- (Psa 16:11), opposed to paths unto the dead.

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 19. None that go unto her return again] There are very few instances of prostitutes ever returning to the paths of sobriety and truth; perhaps not one of such as become prostitutes through a natural propensity to debauchery. Among those who have been deceived, debauched, and abandoned, many have been reclaimed; and to such alone penitentiaries may be useful; to the others they may only be incentives to farther sinning. Rakes and debauchees are sometimes converted: but most of them never lay hold on the path of life; they have had their health destroyed, and never recover it. The original, חיים chaiyim, means lives; not only the health of the body is destroyed, but the soul is ruined. Thus the unhappy man may be said to be doubly slain.

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

19. take they hold of] Rather, reach, or (R.V.) attain unto.

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.

None that go unto her return again,.... That is, those that commit whoredom with her return not again by repentance, and to a sober and chaste way of living, at least but very few; hence some of the ancients thought adultery was the unpardonable sin; but it is certain that some have been recovered by the power of divine grace, and have been brought to repentance for their impure manner of life, and have truly believed in Christ, and lived sober and godly lives afterwards; but, as the Targum adds, they do not return "in peace", but with great distress of mind, remorse of conscience, and bitterness of soul; and these instances are rare; generally speaking, such as are ensnared by an adulterous woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are as bands, are held so fast by her that they seldom get out again, though some few may escape, Ecc 7:26. The words may be rendered, "all that go into her (z) shall not return again"; no, very few of them. And it is a very rare thing, when men are fallen into idolatry, superstition, will worship, and heresy, that they are recovered out of this snare of the devil; there is a peradventure they may, but it is not often that they be loosed from it, Ti2 2:25;

neither take they hold of the paths of life; Christ, and the ways of Christ, which lead to eternal life; few there be that find these paths and walk in them, Mat 7:14; and especially such as are drawn aside by an impure woman, they are held so fast by her alluring charms, and so bewildered by her art of deceiving, that they are like persons that are led out of their way, and cannot find it again.

(z) "omnes ingredientes eam", Pagninus, Montanus.

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

The words describe more than the fatal persistency of the sinful habit when once formed. A resurrection from that world of the dead to “the paths of life” is all but impossible.

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

Life. A sincere conversion is so rare among people once addicted to impurity, (Haydock) which resembles a deep pit. (Calmet) --- This illness is hardly removed. (Menochius)

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).

None; few or none; an hyperbolical expression, used Isa 64:7.

That go unto her; that go to her house, or that lie with her, as this phrase is used, Gen 16:4; 30:4; Jos 2:13.

Return again, from her and from this wickedness, unto God. Adulterers and whoremongers are very rarely brought to repentance, but are generally hardened by the power and deceitfulness of that lust, and by God’s just judgment, peculiarly inflicted upon such persons, Heb 13:4. He alludes to the nature of corporal death, from which no man can without a miracle return to this life.

Of the paths of life; of those courses which lead to true and eternal life.

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

None that go unto her return again. The fate of the companions of the strange woman is described as irrevocable. All who visit her shall not return again. The Targum reads, "They shall not return in peace." The difficulty which they who give themselves up to the indulgence of lust and passion encounter in extricating themselves makes the statement of the teacher an almost universal truth. Hence St. Chrysostom says, "It is as difficult to bring back a libidinous person to chastity as a dead man to life." This passage led some of the Fathers to declare that the sin of adultery was unpardonable. Fornication was classed by the scholastic divines among the seven deadly sins, and it has this character given to it in the Litany: "From fornication, and all other deadly sin." St. Paul says, "No whoremonger nor unclean person...hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God". (Eph_5:5; cf. 1Co_6:9 Rev_22:15) The sin which they commit who have dealings with the strange woman is deadly and leads on to death, and from death there is no return, nor laying hold of or regaining the paths of life. (see Job_7:9, Job_7:10) Compare the words with which Deiphobe, the Cumaean sibyl, addresses Aeneas"Tros Anchysiade, facilis descensus Averno Sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras, Hoc opus, hic labor est. (Virgil, "AEneid," 6:126-129)

"O Trojan, son of Anchyses, easy is the path that leads to hell. But to retrace one"s steps, and escape to the upper regions, this is a work, this is a task."

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

none...return It is hard for them to part with it and to repent.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.