My son, walk not thou in the way with them. The admonitory strain of Proverbs 1:10 is again resumed, and in Proverbs 1:16-19 the teacher states the reasons which should dissuade youth from listening to the temptations of sinners.
My son. The recurrence of these words for the third time in this address marks the affectionate interest, the loving solicitude, in which the admonition is addressed. Walk not thou. Immediate and entire abandonment is counselled.
The warning is practically a repetition of Proverbs 1:10, and is given again in Proverbs 4:14, "Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men." Way; דֶרֶךְ (derek) means, figuratively, the way of living and acting (Gesenius).
"Mores et consuetudines" (Bayne); cf. Proverbs 12:15, "the fool's way;" Proverbs 22:25; and Psalms 1:1. The meaning is "associate not with them, have no dealings whatever with them." Refrain thy foot from their path; i.
e. keep back thy foot, or make not one step in compliance, resist the very first solicitations to evil. Compare the legal maxim, Initiis obsta. Refrain; מְגַע (mana) is from מָנַע (mana), "to keep back, restrain;' LXX; ἔκκινον (cf.
Psalms 119:101, "I have refrained my feet from every evil way;" Jeremiah 14:10, "Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet"). Restraining the foot carries with it indirectly the natural inclination or propensity of the heart, even of the good, towards evil (Cartwright).
Foot ( רֶגֶל, regel) is, of course, used metaphorically, and means less the member of the body than the idea suggested by it; hence the use of the singular (Gejerus, Delitzsch). Bayne remarks that the Hebrews understood this passage as meaning "neither in public nor private life have any dealings with sinners."
Path ( נָתִיב, nathiv) is a beaten path, a pathway, a byway; from the unused root נָתַב (nathav), "to tread, trample;" and hence, while "way" may mean the great public high road, "path" may stand for the bypath, less frequented or public.
The same distinction probably occurs in Psalms 25:4, "Show me thy ways, O Lord; and teach me thy paths."