Proverbs 28:18

Whoso walketh uprightly shall be saved: but he that is perverse in his ways shall fall at once.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(18) He that is perverse in his ways.—Literally, two ways. (Comp. note on Proverbs 28:6.)

At once—i.e., all of a sudden, without warning.

Benson Commentary

Proverbs 28:18. Whoso walketh uprightly shall be saved — Namely, from destruction, because God hath undertaken and promised to protect him; but he that is perverse in his ways — Hebrew, in two ways, of which see on Proverbs 28:6; shall fall at once — Once for all, so as he shall never rise more.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

28:18. Uprightness will give men holy security in the worst times; but the false and dishonest are never safe. 19. Those who are diligent, take the way to live comfortably. 20. The true way to be happy, is to be holy and honest; not to raise an estate suddenly, without regard to right or wrong. 21. Judgment is perverted, when any thing but pure right is considered. 22. He that hastens to be rich, never seriously thinks how quickly God may take his wealth from him, and leave him in poverty. 23. Upon reflection, most will have a better opinion of a faithful reprover than of a soothing flatterer.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

In his ways - Rather "in his double ways" (as in Proverbs 28:6). The evil of vacillation rather than that of craft, the want of the one guiding principle of right, is contrasted with the straightforwardness of the man that "walketh uprightly."

Shall fall at once - Better, shall fall in one of them (his ways). The attempt to combine incompatibilities is sure to fail. Men cannot serve God and Mammon.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

18. (Compare Pr 10:9; 17:20). Double dealing is eventually fatal.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Shall be saved, to wit, from destruction, because God hath undertaken and promised to protect him.

In his ways, Heb. in two ways, of which phrase see above on Proverbs 28:6.

Shall fall at once; once for all, so as he shall not need a second thrust, 1 Samuel 26:8, and so as he shall never rise more. Or, in one, to wit, of his ways. Though he hath various ways and arts to secure himself, yet none of them shall save him, but he shall perish in one or other of them, and shall be given up by God to the mistake of his way, that he shall choose that course which will be most pernicious to him.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Whoso walketh uprightly shall be saved, Or "be safe" (r) from those that seek his life, plot against him, shoot at him, as the wicked do at the upright in heart, but the Lord protects him; and it is even well with him in times of public calamities; the Lord has his chambers and hiding places for him; and he is safe from falling, as may be gathered from the opposite clause; for he walks surely, and is in the hands of Christ, and is kept by him from a final and total falling away: and he shall be saved also with an everlasting salvation; from sin, and all the effects of it; from the curse of the law, from wrath to come, from hell and damnation. Not that his upright walk is the cause of this; the moving cause of salvation is the grace of God; the procuring cause, our Lord Jesus Christ, the only Author of it: but this is a descriptive character of the persons that are and shall be saved; it is a clear case that such have the grace of God, and therefore shall have glory; See Gill on Proverbs 10:9;

but he that is perverse in his ways; "in his two ways", as in Proverbs 27:6; or many ways, and all perverse and wicked:

shall fall at once; his destruction shall come suddenly upon him, when he is not aware of it, and when he cries, Peace, peace, to himself: or in one of them; in one or other of his perverse ways.

(r) "erit salvus", Pagninus, Montanus, V. L. Mercerus, Cocceius, Gejerus.

Geneva Study Bible

Whoso walketh uprightly shall be saved: but he that is perverse in his ways shall fall at once.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

18. that is perverse in his ways] Or, walketh (understood from the first clause of the verse) perversely in two ways. “Heb. perverse of two ways.” R.V. marg. See Proverbs 28:6, note.

at once] Some commentators render, not very happily, in one of them, i.e. of the two ways mentioned in the first clause of the verse.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 18. - Whoso walketh uprightly shall be saved. "Uprightly" (tamim); innocently, blamelessly (Psalm 15:2). Vulgate, simpliciter; Septuagint, δικαίως; Aquila, Symmachus, τέλειος. "He is helped (βεβοήθηται)," Septuagint. Things shall prosper with him; God will work with him, and save him in dangers temporal and spiritual. But he that is perverse in his ways shall fall at once. "He that is perverse of two ways," or "in a double way," as ver. 6. The man who is not straightforward, but vacillates between right and wrong, or pretends to be pursuing one path while he is really taking another, shall fall suddenly and without warning. בְּאֶחָת means "all at once," or "once for all," and so that nothing else is possible, equivalent to penitus. Schultens quotes Virgil, 'AEneid,' 11:418 -

"Procubuit moriens et humum semel ore momordit." Septuagint, "He that walketh in crooked ways will be entangled." Proverbs 28:18

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

18 He who walketh blamelessly is helped,

     And he who is perverse in a double way suddenly perisheth.

The lxx translate תמים by δικαίως (as the accusative of manner), Aquila and Theodotion by τέλειος; but it may also be translated τέλειον or τελειότητα, as the object accus. of Proverbs 2:7. Instead of עקּשׁ דּרכים, Proverbs 28:6, there is here נעקּשׁ דּרכים, obliquely directed in a double way, or reflex bending himself. At Proverbs 28:6 we have interpreted the dual דּרכים rightly, thus בּאחת cannot refer back to one of these two ways; besides, דּרך as fem. is an anomaly, if not a solecism. בּאחת signifies, like the Aram. כּחרא, either all at once (for which the Mish. כּאחת, Aram. כּחרא), or once ( equals בּפּעם אחת), and it signifies in the passage before us, not: once, aliquando, as Nolde, with Flacius, explains, but: all at once, i.e., as Geier explains: penitus, sic ut pluribus casibus porro non sit opus. Schultens compares:

"Procubuit moriens et humum semel ore momordit."

(Note: Aeneid, xi. 418.)

Rightly Fleischer: repente totus concidet.