Verse 1

My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;

Hide — Lay them up in thy heart with care, as men do their choicest treasures.

Verse 3

Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;

Criest — To God, the only giver of it.

Verse 4

If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;

Seek her — With unwearied diligence and earnest desire and patient expectation.

Verse 8

He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints.

Path of judgment — Righteous paths, judgment being here put for righteousness. And keeping of paths may be put for keeping them in their paths.

Verse 9

Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.

Then — When God in answer to thy desires hath given thee wisdom.

Equity — All the parts of thy duty to man, as well as the fear of God.

Verse 10

When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;

When — Thou dost truly love wisdom.

Verse 13

Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;

Darkness — Of sin.

Verse 15

Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths:

Crooked — Who swerve from the straight way of God's law, and have windings and turnings, to escape conviction.

Verse 16

To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words;

Strange woman — From the adulteress or whore.

Verse 17

Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.

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.

Verse 18

For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead.

For — Conversation with her (which was most usual in her own house) is the certain way to death, which it brings many ways, and undoubtedly, without repentance, to God's wrath and the second death.

Verse 20

That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.

That — This depends upon verse11, and is mentioned as another happy fruit of wisdom.