Proverbs 2:13 - Exposition

Who leave the paths of uprightness. Between Proverbs 2:13 and Proverbs 2:15 the teacher proceeds to give a more detailed description of those who speak perversely. Who leave ( הַעֹזְבִים , haoz'vim ); literally, forsaking, but the present participle has the force of the preterite, as appears from the context. The men alluded to have already forsaken or deserted the paths of uprightness (see previous note on the word "man." The paths of uprightness ( אֱרְחוֹת ישֶׁת , ar'khoth yosher ); the same as the "right paths" of Proverbs 4:11 . The strict meaning of the Hebrew word translated "uprightness" is "straightness," and hence it stands opposed to "perverseness" in the previous verse. Uprightness is integrity, rectitude, honest dealing. The LXX . translators represent the forsaking of the paths of uprightness as a consequence resulting from walking in the ways of darkness, "O ye who have left the right ways by departing [ τοῦ πορεύεσβαι , equivalent to abeundo ] into the ways of darkness." Again, the ways of darkness ( דַרְכֵי חשֶׁךְ , dar'chey kkoshek ) are opposed to the "paths of uprightness" which rejoice in the light. Darkness includes the two ideas of

To walk in the ways of darkness, then, is to persist in a course of wilful ignorance, to reject deliberately the light of knowledge, and to work wickedness, by performing "the works of darkness ( τὰ ἔργα τοῦ σκύτους )," which St. Paul exhorted the Church at Rome to east away ( Romans 13:12 ), and by having fellowship with "the unfruitful works of darkness ( τὰ ἔργα τὰ ἀκάρπα τοῦ σκότους )," against which the same apostle warned the Ephesians ( Ephesians 5:11 ). They are ways of darkness, because they endeavour to hide themselves from God ( Isaiah 29:15 ) and from man ( Job 24:15 ; Job 38:13 , Job 38:15 ). In their tendency and end they lead to the blackness of darkness forever. In Scripture darkness is associated with evil, just as light is with uprightness (see John 3:19 , John 3:20 ). The same association of ideas is discoverable in the dualism of the Persian system, as formulated by Zoroaster—Ormuzd, the good principle, presides over the kingdom of light, while Ahriman, the principle of evil, is the ruler of the kingdom of darkness.