Proverbs 22:5–8

PROVERBS CHAPTER 22.

V. 5. Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward, they are often placed in the way of those who are crooked in their thinking and dealing, or they are naturally found along the paths frequented by them; he that doth keep his soul, in conducting himself according to the precepts of true morality and piety, shall be far from them, he will have no such things to hinder him in his way.

V. 6. Train up a child in the way he should go, carefully imparting to him the instruction which he needs for the right formation of pious habits, the method of instruction following the age and the peculiarity of the child; and when he is old, he will not depart from it, his moral habits having been established by constant and proper training, he will naturally conduct himself always in a manner becoming a Christian.

V. 7. The rich ruleth over the poor, his wealth giving him a large measure of power, especially if the poor are dependent upon him for loans, and the borrower is servant to the lender, for indebtedness is bound to interfere with the feeling, if not with the fact, of freedom.

V. 8. He that soweth iniquity, unrighteousness and wickedness in any form, shall reap vanity, misfortune and calamity; and the rod of his anger shall fail, the staff of his haughty wrath with which he so often tried to intimidate men, is bound to vanish, his tyranny will come to an abrupt end.