Proverbs 2:19
in Proverbs 2None who go to her return or negotiate the paths of life.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
None that go unto her return again, Neither do they attain unto the paths of life:
KJV
None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.
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This verse in Proverbs 2
Commentary
7 notes on this verseAll who go to her do not return, etc. To her, to death he says, not to the woman. For it is possible for him who is mixed with an adulteress, with the help of the Lord, to return and earn life again by repenting; …
This site's exposition
It will rescue you from the forbidden woman
on Proverbs 2:16-19
“It will rescue you from the forbidden woman” opens the second deliverance. She “forgets the covenant of her God,” so her danger lies in broken covenant as well as broken marriage. Her house “sinks down to death,” and the warning is absolute: “None who go to her return”.
This site's exposition
None who go to her return
Those who go to her lose the paths of life. Bede reads her as death, and holds that a man joined to an adulteress may still return by repenting, with the help of the Lord.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
None that go unto her return again,....
Take heed of the sin of whoredom; for, First, The ruin of those who are guilty of it is certain and unavoidable, if they do not repent. It is a sin that has a direct tendency to the killing of the soul, the extinguishing of all good affections and dispositions in it, and the exposing of it to the wrath and curse of God and the sword of his justice.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
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.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
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.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
for her house sinks to death This refers back to “to save you, etc.” for whoever comes to her house will sink and slip as if down an incline that leads to death, and the Torah will guard you from this fall. Hence, it is a great thing for you.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כָּל־ | kol- | all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| בָּ֭אֶיהָ | baeiha | [those who] go to her | H935 → | 2568 times |
| לֹ֣א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| יְשׁוּב֑וּן | yeshuvun | they return ! | H7725 → | 1056 times |
| וְלֹֽא־ | velo'- | and not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| יַ֝שִּׂ֗יגוּ | yasigu | they reach | H5381 → | |
| אָרְח֥וֹת | ʾarechot | [the] paths of | H734 → | 58 times |
| חַיִּֽים׃ | chaiyim | life | H2416 → | 498 times |
כָּל־all
kol-H3605 →5413 times
בָּ֭אֶיהָ[those who] go to her
baeihaH935 →2568 times
לֹ֣אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
יְשׁוּב֑וּןthey return !
yeshuvunH7725 →1056 times
וְלֹֽא־and not
velo'-H3808 →5168 times
יַ֝שִּׂ֗יגוּthey reach
yasiguH5381 →
אָרְח֥וֹת[the] paths of
ʾarechotH734 →58 times
חַיִּֽים׃life
chaiyimH2416 →498 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 81:12So I gave them up to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 7:24
Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but they followed the stubborn inclinations of their own evil hearts. They went backward and not forward.
- Romans 1:24
Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity for the dishonoring of their bodies with one another.
- Isaiah 30:1
“Woe to the rebellious children,” declares the LORD, “to those who carry out a plan that is not Mine, who form an alliance, but against My will, heaping up sin upon sin.
- Acts 7:42
But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘Did you bring Me sacrifices and…
- Jeremiah 7:24
Through
Ecclesiastes 7:26And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a net, and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is…
it leads to
- Proverbs 22:14
The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit; he who is under the wrath of the LORD will fall into it.
- Proverbs 22:14
Through
Jeremiah 13:23Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Neither are you able to do good—you who are accustomed to doing evil.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 2:22
Although you wash with lye and use an abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before Me,” declares the Lord GOD.
- Jeremiah 9:5
Each one betrays his friend; no one tells the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they wear themselves out committing iniquity.
- Matthew 19:24–28
Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
- Jeremiah 2:22
About Proverbs
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bede, Commentary on Proverbs; Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.