21 My son, if thou dost accept my sayings, And my commands dost lay up with thee, 2 To cause thine ear to attend to wisdom, Thou inclinest thy heart to understanding, 3 For, if for intelligence thou callest, For understanding givest forth thy voice, 4 If thou dost seek her as silver, And as hid treasures searchest for her, 5 Then understandest thou fear of Jehovah, And knowledge of God thou findest. 6 For Jehovah giveth wisdom, From His mouth knowledge and understanding. 7 Even to lay up for the upright substance, A shield for those walking uprightly. 8 To keep the paths of judgment, And the way of His saints He preserveth. 9 Then understandest thou righteousness, And judgment, and uprightness—every good path.
10 For wisdom cometh into thy heart, And knowledge to thy soul is pleasant, 11 Thoughtfulness doth watch over thee, Understanding doth keep thee,
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Proverbs 2:1-11
Commentary on Proverbs 2:1-9
(Read Proverbs 2:1-9)
Those who earnestly seek heavenly wisdom, will never complain that they have lost their labour; and the freeness of the gift does not do away the necessity of our diligence, John 6:27. Let them seek, and they shall find it; let them ask, and it shall be given them. Observe who are thus favoured. They are the righteous, on whom the image of God is renewed, which consists in righteousness. If we depend upon God, and seek to him for wisdom, he will enable us to keep the paths of judgment.
Commentary on Proverbs 2:10-22
(Read Proverbs 2:10-22)
If we are truly wise, we shall be careful to avoid all evil company and evil practices. When wisdom has dominion over us, then it not only fills the head, but enters into the heart, and will preserve, both against corruptions within and temptations without. The ways of sin are ways of darkness, uncomfortable and unsafe: what fools are those who leave the plain, pleasant, lightsome paths of uprightness, to walk in such ways! They take pleasure in sin; both in committing it, and in seeing others commit it. Every wise man will shun such company. True wisdom will also preserve from those who lead to fleshly lusts, which defile the body, that living temple, and war against the soul. These are evils which excite the sorrow of every serious mind, and cause every reflecting parent to look upon his children with anxiety, lest they should be entangled in such fatal snares. Let the sufferings of others be our warnings. Our Lord Jesus deters from sinful pleasures, by the everlasting torments which follow them. It is very rare that any who are caught in this snare of the devil, recover themselves; so much is the heart hardened, and the mind blinded, by the deceitfulness of this sin. Many think that this caution, besides the literal sense, is to be understood as a caution against idolatry, and subjecting the soul to the body, by seeking any forbidden object. The righteous must leave the earth as well as the wicked; but the earth is a very different thing to them. To the wicked it is all the heaven they ever shall have; to the righteous it is the place of preparation for heaven. And is it all one to us, whether we share with the wicked in the miseries of their latter end, or share those everlasting joys that shall crown believers?