For the ways of man are before Yahweh’s eyes. He examines all his paths.
Parallel Translations
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For the ways of man are before Yahweh’s eyes. He examines all his paths.
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For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.
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For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and He maketh even all his paths.
Cross-references (16)
Passages linked to Proverbs 5:21 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Hebrews 4:13 There is no creature that is hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.
- Proverbs 15:3 Yahweh’s eyes are everywhere, keeping watch on the evil and the good.
- Job 34:21 “For his eyes are on the ways of a man. He sees all his goings.
- Jeremiah 32:19 great in counsel, and mighty in work; whose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of men, to give everyone according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings;
- Psalms 11:4 Yahweh is in his holy temple. Yahweh is on his throne in heaven. His eyes observe. His eyes examine the children of men.
- Jeremiah 16:17 For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from my face. Their iniquity isn’t concealed from my eyes.
- Jeremiah 23:24 Can anyone hide himself in secret places so that I can’t see him?” says Yahweh. “Don’t I fill heaven and earth?” says Yahweh.
- Hosea 7:2 They don’t consider in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness. Now their own deeds have engulfed them. They are before my face.
- Job 31:4 Doesn’t he see my ways, and count all my steps?
- Psalms 119:168 I have obeyed your precepts and your testimonies, for all my ways are before you.
- 2 Chronicles 16:9 For Yahweh’s eyes run back and forth throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. You have done foolishly in this; for from now on you will have wars.”
- Job 14:16 But now you count my steps. Don’t you watch over my sin?
- Psalms 139:1-12 Yahweh, you have searched me, and you know me. You know my sitting down and my rising up. You perceive my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but, behold, Yahweh, you know it altogether. You hem me in behind and before. You laid your hand on me. This knowledge is beyond me. It’s lofty. I can’t attain it. Where could I go from your Spirit? Or where could I flee from your presence? If I ascend up into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there! If I take the wings of the dawn, and settle in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand will lead me, and your right hand will hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me. The light around me will be night,” even the darkness doesn’t hide from you, but the night shines as the day. The darkness is like light to you.
- Jeremiah 17:10 “I, Yahweh, search the mind. I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”
- Psalms 17:3 You have proved my heart. You have visited me in the night. You have tried me, and found nothing. I have resolved that my mouth shall not disobey.
- Revelation 2:23 I will kill her children with Death, and all the assemblies will know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts. I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (14 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain He declareth that except man do join to his…
He declareth that except man do join to his wife both in heart and in outward conversation, that he shall not escape the judgments of God.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Pro 5:21 For the ways of man [are] before…
Pro 5:21 For the ways of man [are] before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.
Ver. 21. For the ways of man, &c.] Turpe quid acturus te sine teste time. {a} A man that is about any evil should stand in awe of himself; how much more of God, since he is πανοφθαλμος, all eye, and beholdeth the most secret of thine actions. The proverb is, Si non caste, saltem caute, Carry the matter, if not honestly, yet so closely and cleanly that the world may be never the wiser. How cunningly did David art it to hide his sip! But it would not be. "There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed." {Luk 12:2} "If I make my bed in hell," said he, {Psa 139:8} - as indeed the places where fornicators use to lodge are little better, - "behold thou art there." This God allegeth as a forcible reason against this sin. "I have seeu the lewdness of thy whoredoms"; {Jer 13:27} and, "Even I know, and am a witness, saith the Lord." {Jer 29:23}
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{a} Auson
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.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Before the eyes of the Lord; God sees all…
Before the eyes of the Lord; God sees all thy filthy actions, though done with all possible cunning and secrecy. He taketh an exact account of all their doings, that he may recompense them according to the kinds, degrees, numbers, and aggravations of all their unchaste actions.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain For the ways of a man are before the…
For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord,.... Both good and bad; the ways of a chaste and virtuous man, who cleaves to his own wife and shuns the harlot, which are approved of by the Lord; and the ways of a lewd man, all the impure thoughts, desires, and contrivances of his mind, and all the steps he takes to commit lewdness, and all the filthy actions he is guilty of, these are all open and naked to the omniscient God: the adulterer seeks the twilight, and flatters himself with secrecy, not considering that the eye of God is upon him; there are many, that, were their filthy actions known to men, they would be ashamed of them; and this consideration greatly deters from them, and puts them upon secret ways of committing them; much more should the consideration of the divine omniscience weigh with them to avoid them; which is the argument here made use of;
and he pondereth all his goings; he not only sees them, but takes notice of them, and observes them, and ponders them in his mind, and lays them up there, in order to bring to an account for them hereafter; yea, he weighs them in the balance of justice, and will proportion the punishment unto them, according to the rules of it; when it must go ill with those that follow such lewd practices, Heb 13:4.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 21. For the ways of a man] Whether…
Verse 21. For the ways of a man] Whether they are public or private, God sees all the steps thou takest in life.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain One more warning. The sin is not against man,…
One more warning. The sin is not against man, nor dependent on man’s detection only. The secret sin is open before the eyes of Yahweh. In the balance of His righteous judgment are weighed all human acts.
Pondereth - Note the recurrence of the word used of the harlot herself (see Pro 1:6 note): she ponders not, God does.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain The reason, God's eye is on you,
The reason, God's eye is on you,
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 21. The ways of man are before the eyes…
21. The ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord — Who marks all his movements; and he who has ordained marriage for the comfort and benefit of mankind and the preservation of society will not let the abuse of it go unpunished. This verse gives the strongest reason for the remonstrance of the preceding.
He pondereth — Though the harlot and her paramour do not. See Pro_5:6; Pro_5:22. Clarke’s note is unsurpassed: “Most people who follow unlawful pleasures think they can give them up whenever they please; but sin, repeated, becomes customary; custom soon engenders habit; and habit, in the end, assumes the form of necessity. The man becomes bound with his own cords, and so is led captive by the devil at his will.” Comp. Pro_1:31-32; Pro_11:5; Pro_18:7; Pro_29:6; Psa_7:15; Psa_40:12; Joh_8:34; 2Pe_2:19.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 21. For; as an additional reason for avoiding sin.
21. For; as an additional reason for avoiding sin.
pondereth] The primary sense of the Heb. word, which is the same as in Pro_5:6 of this chapter, is adhered to in R.V. text: he maketh level, i.e. however intricate and tortuous man makes them, before God’s all-seeing eye they lie spread out like a map (Heb_4:13). εἰς δὲ πάσας τὰς τροχιὰς αὐτοῦ σκοπεύει, LXX. It may mean, however, that God makes man’s ways level, in the sense of making them lead swiftly and surely to their appointed end (Pro_5:22-23). Others take it in contrast with the next verse: God makes a man’s ways level (right), but sin involves him in difficulties from which he cannot extricate himself. The derived sense pondereth (or, weigheth carefully, R.V. marg.) comes from holding the balances in weighing till the two scales are even, and so making level. Comp. Job_31:4.
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.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (21) For the ways of man . . .—Another…
(21) For the ways of man . . .—Another reason for avoiding sin is the certainty of detection by the Judge, whose “eyes run to and fro through the whole earth” (2Ch_16:9), comp. Psa_11:4.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain For the ways of man are before the eyes…
For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord. The obvious meaning here is that as "the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good", (Pro_15:3) there is no possibility of any act of immorality escaping God"s notice. The consciousness of this fact is to be the restraining motive, inasmuch as he who sees will also punish every transgression. The great truth acknowledged here is the omniscience of God, a truth which is borne witness to in almost identical language in Job: "For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings". (Job_34:21; cf. Job_24:23 and Job_31:4) So Hanani the seer says to Asa King of Judah, "For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth"; (2Ch_16:9) and Jehovah says, in Jeremiah, "For mine eyes are upon all their ways, they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes"; (Jer_16:17; cf. Jer_32:29) and again, in Hosea, "They are before my face", (Hos_7:2) and the same truth is re-echoed in the Epistle to the Hebrews, in all probability gathered from our passage, "All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. (Heb_4:13) The ways of man; i.e. the conduct of any individual man or woman; ish, "man," being used generically. Are before the eyes of the Lord; i.e. are an object on which Jehovah fixes his gaze and scrutiny. And he pondereth all his goings. The word "he pondereth" is in the original m"phalles, the piel participle of philles, piel of the unused kal, palas, and appears to be properly rendered in the Authorized Version. This verb, however, has various meanings:
(1) to make level, or prepare, as in Pro_4:26 and Pro_5:6;
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(2) to weigh, or consider accurately, in which sense it is used here.
So Gesenius, Lee, Buxtorf, and Davidson. Jehovah not only sees, but weighs all that a man does, wheresoever he be, and will apportion rewards and punishments according to a man"s actions (Patrick). The German commentators, Delitzsch and Zockler, however, look upon the word as indicating the overruling providence of God, just as the former part of the verse refers to his omniscience, and render, "he marketh out," in the sense that the Lord makes it possible for a man to walk in the way of uprightness and purity. There is nothing inherently objectionable in this view, since experience shows that the world is regulated by the Divine government, but it loses sight to some extent of the truth upon which the teacher appears to be insisting, which is that evil actions are visited with Divine retribution.
Under the eyes of God.
I WE ARE ALWAYS UNDER THE WATCHFUL EYES OF GOD. God is no epicurean Divinity, retreating far above mundane affairs in celestial seclusion. He is not indifferent to what goes on in this little world. He is watchful and observant. This fact may not affect us much while we think of it in the general. But we should observe that God"s watchfulness is directed to all particular, individual objects. He looks at each of us, at the smallest of our concerns. It is the property of an infinite mind thus to reach down to the infinitely small, as well as to rise to the infinitely great. Consider, then, that God searches us through and through. There is no dark cranny of the soul into which his keen penetrating light does not fall, no locked secret which does not open up freely to his magisterial warrant. We may hide the thought of God from our own minds, but we cannot hide ourselves from the sight of God. Now, what God notices chiefly in us is our conduct our "ways," "goings." Mere profession counts for nothing with the All-seeing. Opinions, feelings, resolutions, are of secondary moment. God takes inquisition chiefly of what we do, whither our life is tending, what are the actions of the inner as welt as of the outer man. But let us remember that God does all this in no mere prying curiosity, in no cruel desire to "find us out" and convict us of wrong. He does it of right, for he is our Judge; he does it with holy ends, for he is holy; he does it in love, for he is our Father.
II THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE DIVINE OVERSIGHT SHOULD POWERFULLY AFFECT ALL OUR CONDUCT.
1. It should make us true. What is the use of paltry devices for the deception of men when the only question of consequence concerning the treatment of our conduct is How will God regard it? What folly to wear a mask if he sees behind it! The gaze of God should shame and burn all lies out of the soul.
2. It should make us dread to do wrong. An Eastern legend tells how one stole a jewel called "the eye of God," but though he fled far with his treasure and hid in dark caverns, he was tortured by the piercing light that it threw out till, unable to endure the horror of it, he gave himself up to justice. We all have the eye of God on our ways. Let us beware that we never go where we should not wish him to see us.
3. It should lead to confession of sin. If God knows all, is it not best to make a clean breast of it, and humble ourselves before him? We cannot hide or cloke our sins from God. It is foolish to attempt to do so. But let us be thankful that we cannot. While we try to hide them they only scorch our own bosom. If we confess them, "he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.
4. It should induce confidence in God. It is sometimes a relief to know that the worst is out. God knows all. Yet he endures us, yet he loves us still. He who thus watches looks upon us as a mother regards her child, grieving for what is wrong, but tenderly seeking to save and protect us from all harm. Why should we fear the gaze of God? His sleepless eye is our great security. (see 2Ch_16:9)
5. It should incline us to faithful service. We should learn to be ashamed of the eye service of men pleasers, and seek to win the approval of our rightful Lord. He is no hard tyrant. When we try to please him, though ever so imperfectly, he is pleased, and will say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." May it be our aim to live, as Milton resolved to do when considering his life on his twenty-third birthday"As ever in my great Taskmaster"s eye.
God the all-seeing Judge.
"Before Jehovah"s eyes are man"s paths, and all his tracks he surveys.
I CYNICAL PROVERBS CONCERNING SECRECY ARE CONDEMNED. Such as "What the eye sees not, the heart does not grieve over;" "A slice from a cut cake is never missed;" "Never mind so long as you are not found out.
II NOTHING IS REALLY SECRET OR UNKNOWN. We are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do. The whisper, the inarticulate thought, will come back one day in thunder. J.
Man in God"s view.
This verse is added as a powerful reason why the worst sins should be avoided. A man under temptation may well address himself thus"Nor let my weaker passions dare Consent to sin; for God is there.
I THE VARIED ENERGIES AND ACTIONS OF MAN. Many are "the ways of man;" "all his goings" cannot easily be told. There is
(1) his innermost thought starring in his mind;
(2) then his feeling or desire in some direction;
(3) then his resolution, the decision of his will;
(4) then his planning and arranging;
(5) then his consultation and cooperation with others;
(6) then his execution.
Or we may consider the variety of his actions by regarding them as
(1) beginning and ending with himself;
(2) affecting his immediate circle, his own family;
(3) reaching and influencing his neighbours;
(4) acting upon those who will come after him.
The forms of human activity are indefinitely numerous so complex is his nature, so various are his relations to his kind and the world in which he lives.
II GOD"S NOTICE OF ALL OUR DOINGS. "The ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord." Every thought is thought, every feeling felt, every resolve made, every plan formed, every word spoken, every deed done, under his all-observing eye. "Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do". (Heb_4:13; see 2Ch_16:9 Job_31:4 Psa_139:2-12; and Pro_15:3) The eyes of the Lord not only cover the earth and the heavens, but they look everywhere within; through the thick curtains of the night his own hand has spread, and through the thickest folds our hand can draw, and through the walls of our human frame into the inner chambers and darkest recesses of our souls.
III GOD"S MEASURE OF OUR DOINGS. "He pondereth all his goings." God weighs all that he sees in the scales of his Divine wisdom and righteousness. He marks every thought, word, deed; and he estimates their worth, their excellency or their guilt. Never any way taken, any course entered upon, but all the motives which led to its choice and execution are before the mind of God, and are accepted or are blamed by him. And this being so, there must be
IV GOD"S REMEMBRANCE OF OUR PAST AS WELL AS HIS OBSERVATION OF OUR PRESENT LIFE. For the Omniscient One cannot forget; and it may be that, in some way unknown to us, but quite in accordance with some ascertained facts, all our past actions are spread out before his sight in some part of his universe. Certainly the effects of all we have done abide, either in our own character and life or in those of other men. Our ways, past and present, are before him; he is estimating the moral character, for good or ill, of all our goings.
Therefore:
1. In view of all our guilt, let us seek his mercy in Christ Jesus. For it is a truth consistent with the foregoing, that, if there be repentance and faith, all our sins shall "be cast into the depths of the sea". (Mic_7:19) God will "hide his face from our sins. and blot out our iniquities". (Psa_51:9)
2. In view of God"s observation and judgment, let us strive to please him. If we yield our hearts to himself and our lives to his service, if we accept eternal life at his hands through Jesus Christ, and then seek to be and to do what is right in his sight, we shall do that which he will look upon with Divine approval, with fatherly delight. C. (Gal_4:1 Heb_11:5 Heb_13:16 1Pe_2:20, etc.)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain For the ways of man are before the eyes…
Pro_5:21
For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord.
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The method of Providence for restraining evil
God announces Himself the witness and judge of man. The evil-doer can neither elude the all-seeing eye, nor escape from the almighty hand. Secrecy is the study and the hope of the wicked. A sinners chief labour is to hide his sin, and his labour is all lost. Darkness hideth not from God. He who knows evil in its secret source is able to limit the range of its operation. There is a special method by which this is done. It is a principle of the Divine government that sin becomes the instrument for punishing sinners. His own sin is the snare that takes the transgressor, and the scourge that lashes him. The Maker and Ruler of all things has set in the system of the universe a self-acting apparatus, which is constantly going for the encouragement of good and the repression of evil The providential laws are directed against the current of mans sinful propensities, and tell in force thereon. They do not, however, overcome and neutralise, and reverse those propensities. Retribution in the system of nature, set in motion by the act of sin, is like the Virgins kiss in the Roman Inquisition. The step of him who goes forward to kiss the image touches a secret spring, and the statues marble arms enclose him in a deadly embrace, piercing his body through with a hundred knives. Verily a man under law to God needs to ponder his feet. (W. Arnot, D. D.)
Mans ways before God
Everybody can see the cedar of Lebanon, the pine of the forest, or the hedge with its convolvulus and wild rose. They can even see the daisy, the flower in the grass. But who sees the grass? He who made the grass to grow upon the mountain, He knows every blade of it, and for every blade has recognition, sunshine, and dew. So is it with the lowliest and humblest man in this world to-day. Gods eye loves goodness; He delights in it; and there is no goodness which He fails to recognise and bless. (W. L. Watkinson.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Pro_5:21. Pondereth, or “marketh out.”
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Pro_5:21. Pondereth, or “marketh out.”
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Pro_5:22. Shall be holden, rather “is holden.”
Pro_5:23. Without, “for lack of.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Pro_5:21-23
These verses contain three reasons why the way of sin should be avoided, and the way which God has appointed should be followed.
I. Because there is no place secret enough to commit sin. The sinner often comforts himself with the thought that what he has done, or is in the habit of doing, is not known—that the actors of the deed were the only persons privy to it. The text declares that there is no such thing as a secret place, because there is no place where the eyes of the Eternal do not penetrate. God is a witness of every crime committed in secret. He is not only a witness after the deed, but of the deed. Therefore there is no place secret enough to be a place of sin. The thought of the ever-present God should deter the sinnner.
1. Because the Divine presence is a pure presence. People who are in the habit of committing the sin against which the whole of this chapter is directed, would possibly shrink from being guilty of it in the presence of a pure man or woman. How much more should they be deterred by the fact that the eye of the pure and holy God is upon them.
2. Because the presence of God is the presence of One who has authority to punish. The presence of the chief magistrate of a nation would be sufficient to prevent the most hardened criminal from committing crime. A thief would not steal before the face of the man whom he knew could punish him. The presence of God is the presence of the highest authority in the universe, of One who is irresponsible to any other for His acts (Job_9:12), of One who hast power most terrible, of One who has always visited this sin with penalty. The presence of such an Authority ought surely to make the adulterer quake at the very thought of his sin.
II. Because, though the sinner may not be apprehended by human law, he shall be laid hold of and bound by his own deeds (Pro_5:22). Many sinners of this kind go at large in the world, and are never reached by human law. No officer of justice will ever lay his hand upon them, and no material chains will ever bind them. But they are already taken and imprisoned by their own evil habits, which have bound them in chains of increasing thickness as the acts of sin have been repeated. This is a thraldom from which escape can come in only two ways. A man must either cease to be, or he must repent, before he can be free. Annihilation would set him free, because in ceasing to be he would cease to sin. But the repentance demanded by God is the only thing which will break his chains and permit him to retain his existence. We have no proof that there will ever be any way of escape by the first means, but we have abundant proof that the second is open to all men on this side of death.
III. Because the unrepentant adulterer will die as he has lived—a fool (Pro_5:23). A fool is a man without knowledge, one who acts from impulse rather than from reason. The sinner here pourtrayed is not a fool because he has not had instruction, but because he has not heeded it. Nature, History, Revelation and Conscience were his instructors, but he has disregarded them all. If he had listened to them he would have gained an experimental knowledge of the blessedness of godliness and purity, of which he must now go out of the world as ignorant as he entered it.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro_5:21. Practical atheism is the root of human depravity. The eye, even of a child, is a check upon a man, but the thought of an all-seeing God inspires no alarm.—Bridges.
The sin is not against man, nor dependent on man’s detection only. The secret sin is open before the eyes of Jehovah. In the balance of His righteous judgment are weighed all human acts, this not excepted. There is a significant emphasis in the recurrence of the word used of the harlot herself in Pro_5:6 : “She ponders not, but God does.”—Plumptre.
Because the ways of a sinful man are not before his own eyes, therefore are they before the eyes of God; because sinful man doth not ponder his goings, therefore the Lord pondereth them; because man doth not look on his ways with the eye of care, therefore the Lord looketh on them with the eye of wrath; because man doth not weigh his goings in the balance of due consideration, therefore God doth weigh them in the balance of severe justice. The opening of our eyes over our sins is the shutting of God’s eye towards them; the shutting of our eyes upon them is the opening of God’s eyes against them. For though we hide our ways from ourselves, we cannot hide them from God. We hide Him from ourselves; we do not hide ourselves from Him.—Jermin.
The meaning is, that directly in God’s eyes are the ways of every man, as though there were no other creature in the universe; as though the wise man were saying, “Why, because the way seems smooth, and you seem helped in your folly, do you go on in your impenitency, and embrace the bosom of this wanton?” “For” the way of every man is directly in the sight of God. He takes the most emphatic interest in our schemes, whether we are doing well or ill. He helps us either in sinning or doing right, for “He levels all (one’s) paths” (see Critical Notes). Not that we are to involve Him in the folly of any sin, but if a man desires to drink, He levels the way for Him. If he wishes liquor, He gives it; if he desires to steal, He gives the eye and the nerve.… The Divinity seems to help the struggling, whether saint or sinner, but the impenitent must not therefore imagine that it is righteous to go on.—Miller.
Pro_5:22. The licentious flatter themselves that in old age, when the passions are less fiery, they will easily extricate themselves from the dominion of their lusts, and repent and seek salvation. But Job_20:11 declares that the old sinner’s “bones are full of the sins of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.” Augustine, after experience, says: “While lust is being served the habit is formed, and whilst the habit is not being resisted necessity is formed.”—Fausset.
Pro_5:23. Surely it is most just that he who lived without following instruction should die without having instruction; he that in his life would not do as he was instructed, deserveth that at death he should not be instructed what to do.—Jermin.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 5:21-23 Even if a man keeps an illicit relationship…
5:21-23 Even if a man keeps an illicit relationship secret from his family and society, nothing is hidden from the Lord. Adultery is a sin against God (Gen 39:8-9).
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