None that go to her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.
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Psalm 81:12 So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust: and they walked in their own counsels.
Ecclesiastes 7:26 And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her.
Jeremiah 13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
take
Proverbs 4:18 But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
Hebrews 6:18 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
or negotiate the paths of life.
This part of the verse highlights the inability to find one's way back to righteousness once entangled in sin. The "paths of life" symbolize a life lived in accordance with God's wisdom and commandments, as seen in Psalm 16:11, which speaks of the path of life leading to joy and eternal pleasures. The cultural context of ancient Israel placed a high value on wisdom and understanding as a means to navigate life's challenges, as seen in the teachings of Deuteronomy 30:19-20, where choosing life is equated with loving and obeying God. This phrase serves as a stark reminder of the importance of making wise choices and the difficulty of returning to the right path once one has strayed.
- Proverbs 2:19a warns, “None who go to her return.” In the immediate context (vv. 16-18), “her” is the adulterous or wayward woman whose seductive words lure men away from faithfulness.
- The statement is literal in its moral outcome: stepping into immorality is so spiritually crippling that, humanly speaking, men do not simply stroll back to innocence. Proverbs 5:22-23 echoes this: “The iniquities of a wicked man ensnare him… he will die for lack of discipline.”
- Scripture consistently pictures sin as a trap that is easy to enter and hard to exit (Jeremiah 13:23; John 8:34). Like Esau who “found no place for repentance, though he sought it with tears” (Hebrews 12:16-17), the adulterer discovers that the doorway he walked through locks behind him.
- This is not a denial of God’s power to forgive. Rather, it signals how seldom those caught in habitual sexual sin truly seek that forgiveness. Proverbs 7:26 drives it home: “Many are the victims she has brought down.”
- The verse continues, “or negotiate the paths of life,” stressing that even if a man physically survives the affair, he abandons the road that leads to blessing, wisdom, and eternal life (Proverbs 3:17-18).
- “Paths of life” in Proverbs describe God-given routes marked by obedience, peace, and flourishing (Proverbs 4:18; Psalm 16:11). When someone shackles himself to sexual folly, he forfeits that guidance.
• His marriage covenant erodes (Malachi 2:14-16).
• His conscience hardens (1 Timothy 4:2).
• His witness dims (Matthew 5:13-16).
- Proverbs 5:5-6 explains why he cannot “negotiate” (i.e., steer back onto) life’s paths: “Her feet go down to death… she does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, but she does not know it.” Delusion replaces discernment.
- Paul underscores the same outcome: “The sexually immoral… will not inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). Unrepentant immorality is incompatible with the narrow road that “leads to life” (Matthew 7:14).
Proverbs 2:19 paints a sober picture: yielding to sexual temptation leads down a dead-end street from which few return, severing one’s connection to the life-giving paths God designed. The verse is both a warning and a mercy—alerting us before we step across the threshold that sin’s doorway opens onto a one-way descent. Taking the wisdom road of purity keeps us in the light where true life is found.
Verse 19. - None that go unto her return again. The fate of the companions of the strange woman is described as irrevocable. All who visit her shall not return again. The Targum reads, "They shall not return in peace." The difficulty which they who give themselves up to the indulgence of lust and passion encounter in extricating themselves makes the statement of the teacher an almost universal truth. Hence St. Chrysostom says, "It is as difficult to bring back a libidinous person to chastity as a dead man to life." This passage led some of the Fathers to declare that the sin of adultery was unpardonable. Fornication was classed by the scholastic divines among the seven deadly sins, and it has this character given to it in the Litany: "From fornication, and all other deadly sin." St. Paul says, "No whoremonger nor unclean person...hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God" (Ephesians 5:5; cf. 1 Corinthians 6:9; Revelation 22:15). The sin which they commit who have dealings with the strange woman is deadly and leads on to death, and from death there is no return, nor laying hold of or regaining the paths of life (see Job 7:9, 10). Compare the words with which Deiphobe, the Cumaean sibyl, addresses AEneas -"Tros Anchysiade, facilis descensus Averno
Sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras,
Hoc opus, hic labor est."
(Virgil, 'AEneid,' 6:126-129.) O Trojan, son of Anchyses, easy is the path that leads to hell. But to retrace one's steps, and escape to the upper regions, this is a work, this is a task.
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