The guide of her youth ( נְעוּרֶיהָ אַלּוּף, alluph n'ureyah); properly, the associate or companion of her youth. The Hebrew, אָלּוּף (alluph), being derived from the root אָלַף, (alaph), "to accustom one's self to," or "to be accustomed to" or "familiar with" anyone.
The word is rendered as "friend" in Proverbs 17:9; Proverbs 16:28; Micah 7:5. The idea of guidance, which is adopted in the Authorized Version, and appears also in the Vulgate dux. and Targum ducatus, is a secondary idea, and is derived probably from the relation in which the husband stands to his wife.
Various interpretations have been given to the expression. It occurs again in Jeremiah 3:4, where Jehovah applies it to himself, and says, through his prophet, to the religiously adulterous Judah, "Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My Father, thou art the Guide of my youth ( אַלּוּף נְעֻרי, alluph n'ura)?"
It has also been understood as referring to the woman's parents, her father and mother, who were her natural guardians. But the context seems to require that it should be taken as designating her husband.
It will then be the correlative of "the wife of thy youth" of Malachi 2:14. The covenant of her God; i.e. the marriage covenant, called "the covenant of her God," because entered into in his presence.
The forsaking of the guide of her youth is essentially bound up with a forgetfulness of the solemn covenant which she had entered into in the presence of God. No specific mention is made in the Pentateuch of any religious ceremony at marriage; yet we may infer, from Malachi 2:14, Malachi 2:15, where God is spoken of as "a Witness" between the husband and "the wife of his youth," "the wife of thy covenant," that the marriage contract was solemnized with sacred rites.
The Proverbs thus give a high and sacred character to marriage, and so carry on the original idea of the institution which, under the gospel dispensation, developed late the principle of the indissolubility of the marriage tie.
It is no objection to this view that the monogamic principle was infringed, and polygamy countenanced. The reason of this latter departure is given in Deuteronomy 22:28 and Exodus 22:16. The morality of the Proverbs always represents monogamy as the rule, it deprecates illicit intercourse, and discountenances divorce.
It is in entire accordance with the seventh commandment. The woman who commits adultery offends, not only against her husband, but against her God.