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Proverbs 5 · a question people ask

5:21 says the LORD examines every path, and 5:22 says the wicked man's own sins catch him. Which is it?

In the text

The chapter says both, one after the other. "For the ways of man are before the LORD’s eyes. He examines all his paths" (5:21). "The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly" (5:22). "He will die for lack of instruction. In the greatness of his folly, he will go astray" (5:23). For the form of hold in 5:22, Brown-Driver-Briggs gives "in the cords of his sin is he seized" (tap hold). The chapter doesn't say how the LORD's examining and the sin's snaring fit together. Chapter 1 has Wisdom say of those who refused her, "Therefore they will eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own schemes" (Proverbs 1:31). These notes set the verses side by side and don't say more than they say.

The verses

“For the ways of man are before the LORD’s eyes. He examines all his paths. The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly. He will die for lack of instruction. In the greatness of his folly, he will go astray.”
Proverbs 5:21-23 · World English Bible
“Therefore they will eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own schemes.”
Proverbs 1:31 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Proverbs 5

Proverbs 5: Drink from your own well

One Hebrew verb, shagah, runs through the chapter's close: "Be captivated always with her love" (5:19), "why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress?" (5:20), and "he will go astray" (5:23). And she "gives no thought to" the way of life (5:6), while the LORD "examines" every path (5:21): in Hebrew, one verb.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions