proverbs 2:16-19

Proverbs 2:16–19 is wisdom saving a son from the adulterous woman. “Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman, from the wayward woman with her seductive words, who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God. Surely her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead. None who go to her return or attain the paths of life.” The chapter has been saying that if you accept wisdom and store up the commands, the Lord gives wisdom and protects you. Verse 16 says wisdom will also save you from the adulterous woman. The wayward woman with seductive words. She has left the partner of her youth. She has ignored the covenant she made before God. The marriage vow is treated as a covenant God witnessed. She walked out on it. Then the end of her path. Her house leads down to death. Her paths lead to the spirits of the dead. None who go to her return. None attain the paths of life. The teaching is that this road does not have a harmless section. It goes down. The seductive words are the bait. The house is the trap. Death is the destination. Wisdom’s job is to keep the son off that path before he is on it, because the proverb says the ones who go do not come back. It is father-to-son instruction, blunt on purpose. The adulterous path is not an adventure with a cost. It is a descent. Wisdom saves by keeping you from the door.