Proverbs
Nine One Five
#45
Proverbs 2:12 To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things;
Here we are introduced to two people we must look out for if we are to walk in wisdom. They are given in direct contrast to wisdom being personified as a woman at the end of the last chapter. While you can read these as being a literal evil man and a literal strange woman; there is certainly some figurative language here.
The passage is presenting them as a picture of those who would try to lead us astray. They are being personified here in order to show why it is so important to hear wisdom’s call and to walk with her; not with those that lead men off of the pathways of righteousness and to their destruction. Whether read literally or figuratively, it will not change how to apply these verses; but it will affect how to view lust and deceit, and more importantly, their effects on you.
This personification allows us to understand them in a similar way to how we were allowed to see wisdom from a new perspective in the previous chapter. The one introduced in this verse is the evil man who speaks forward things. This evil man means to harm you, by deceiving you. Frowardness is a good Bible word, but it is not one most are familiar with outside the Bible. It refers to someone who is perverse or deceitful, someone who intentionally twists the truth to deceive people. It is one of the few things worse than foolishness in Proverbs, as it goes beyond not knowing how to apply knowledge to the point of misusing and weaponizing it to deceive others.
The passage is presenting them as a picture of those who would try to lead us astray. They are being personified here in order to show why it is so important to hear wisdom’s call and to walk with her; not with those that lead men off of the pathways of righteousness and to their destruction. Whether read literally or figuratively, it will not change how to apply these verses; but it will affect how to view lust and deceit, and more importantly, their effects on you.
This personification allows us to understand them in a similar way to how we were allowed to see wisdom from a new perspective in the previous chapter. The one introduced in this verse is the evil man who speaks forward things. This evil man means to harm you, by deceiving you. Frowardness is a good Bible word, but it is not one most are familiar with outside the Bible. It refers to someone who is perverse or deceitful, someone who intentionally twists the truth to deceive people. It is one of the few things worse than foolishness in Proverbs, as it goes beyond not knowing how to apply knowledge to the point of misusing and weaponizing it to deceive others.