Proverbs 2:17

17. Forsaketh the guide of her youth The word rendered guide here means familiar friend or partner, and the weight of criticism inclines to the meaning, her husband. For “guide” the Septuagint has instruction. The Hebrews generally married young. According to the rabbins men should marry at eighteen, and they may marry at thirteen. The virgins are often espoused or betrothed very early, but not married till after they are twelve. From this come such expressions as spouse, friend, or guide of one’s youth. Comp. Jeremiah 3:4; Joel 1:8; Proverbs 5:18; Isaiah 54:6; Malachi 2:14-15. Forgetteth the covenant of her God Supposed to be her marriage vows, and recognising some kind of religious ceremony in connexion therewith. It is certain that foreign women, Canaanites, on being tolerated in the land contrary to the command, set up tippling houses and brothels, tempting the Israelites to debauchery and idolatry. (See Proverbs 7:5-27.) Thus they became traps and snares to the Israelites; “scourges in their sides and thorns in their eyes.” Joshua 23:13; Numbers 33:55. Nevertheless, it is equally clear from the manner in which this woman is spoken of, (Proverbs 2:17,) that not a foreign woman by birth is intended, but a Hebrew who was unfaithful to her husband and her God. The seductions of the sacred prostitutions introduced from Tyre and Sidon won even the Hebrew females from both the worship of Jehovah and the paths of purity. This woman was an apostate Hebrew harlot, consecrated in a temple of a foreign licentious religion.