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Avoid Those Who Are Devious In Their Ways

Proverbs 2:15 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)
¹⁵men whose paths are crooked,
and who are devious in their ways.

Wisdom, knowledge, thinking ability, and discernment will prove to be your safeguard, protecting you from men whose paths are crooked and devious in their ways, says Solomon. If you ignore wisdom and choose to follow these devious ones down the crooked paths that lead to eventual destruction, you may very well lose your sense of direction and not be able to find your way back to the path of life before it is too late. The paths are crooked (עִקֵּשׁ iqqesh), which means their ways are morally crooked, perverse, distorted, dishonest, and evasive when it is compared alongside the just, right, and correct ways of the wise ones. (Deut. 32:5; Ps 101:4; Prov. 2:15; 8:8; 11:20; 17:20; 19:1; 28:6) Yes, if you cherish true wisdom, you will not be led off the path of life because you will avoid the cooked, perverse paths of those who are devious in their ways.

Men who walk down crooked paths instead of walking with God are unwavering in their wrongdoing. They offer winding turns in their pursuit of sin, offering devious and cunning excuses, some clever evasions in their deceitful hearts, so that there is no guilt on their part. They are bolstering their devious behavior in their wicked ways. And in the corrupt, shady mazes of that tangle life, they remove themselves far away from the guilt of God’s word and the remains of their own consciences. They are resolute in their paths; that is, they are determined to go on in them, regardless of what anyone tells them. Every wise servant of God will avoid, reject, ignore the company of these ones.