19 The way of the wicked is like darkness. They don't know what they stumble over.
Therefore is justice far from us, neither does righteousness overtake us: we look for light, but, behold, darkness; for brightness, but we walk in obscurity. We grope for the wall like the blind; yes, we grope as those who have no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the twilight; among those who are lusty we are as dead men.
Jesus therefore said to them, "Yet a little while the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, that darkness doesn't overtake you. He who walks in the darkness doesn't know where he is going.
He will keep the feet of his holy ones; But the wicked shall be put to silence in darkness; For by strength shall no man prevail.
"Yes, the light of the wicked shall be put out, The spark of his fire shall not shine. The light shall be dark in his tent, His lamp above him shall be put out.
They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a drunken man.
He shall be driven from light into darkness, And chased out of the world.
Give glory to Yahweh your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and, while you look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.
Then I will tell them, 'I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity.'
But if a man walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light isn't in him."
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Proverbs 4
Commentary on Proverbs 4 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 4
When the things of God are to be taught precept must be upon precept, and line upon line, not only because the things themselves are of great worth and weight, but because men's minds, at the best, are unapt to admit them and commonly prejudiced against them; and therefore Solomon, in this chapter, with a great variety of expression and a pleasant powerful flood of divine eloquence, inculcates the same things that he had pressed upon us in the foregoing chapters. Here is,
So plainly, so pressingly, is the case laid before us, that we shall be for ever inexcusable if we perish in our folly.
Pro 4:1-13
Here we have,
Pro 4:14-19
Some make David's instructions to Solomon, which began v. 4, to continue to the end of the chapter; nay, some continue them to the end of the ninth chapter; but it is more probable that Solomon begins here again, if not sooner. In these verses, having exhorted us to walk in the paths of wisdom, he cautions us against the path of the wicked.
Pro 4:20-27
Solomon, having warned us not to do evil, here teaches us how to do well. It is not enough for us to shun the occasions of sin, but we must study the methods of duty.