Proverbs 16:25
There is a way that seemeth to a man right: and the ends thereof lead to death.
Open Proverbs 16:25 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Est via quæ videtur homini recta, et novissima ejus ducunt ad mortem.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- εἰσὶν ὁδοὶ δοκοῦσαι εἶναι ὀρθαὶ ἀνδρί, τὰ μέντοι τελευταῖα αὐτῶν βλέπει εἰς πυθμένα ᾅδου.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- יֵ֤שׁ דֶּ֣רֶךְ יָ֭שָׁר לִפְנֵי אִ֑ישׁ וְ֝אַחֲרִיתָ֗הּ דַּרְכֵי מָֽוֶת
The Fathers on this verse
St John Cassian The Conferences of John Cassian. Part I. Containing Conferences I-X, Chapter XX. About discerning the thoughts, with an illustration from a good money-changer
We ought then carefully to notice this threefold order, and with a wise discretion to analyse the thoughts which arise in our hearts, tracking out their origin and cause and author in the first instance, that we may be able to consider how we ought to yield ourselves to them in accordance with the desert of those who suggest them so that we may, as the Lord’s command bids us, become good money-changers, whose highest skill and whose training is to test what is perfectly pure gold and what is commonly termed tested , or what is not sufficiently purified in the fire; and also with unerring skill not to be taken in by a common brass denarius, if by being coloured with bright gold it is made like some coin of great value; and not only shrewdly to recognize coins stamped with the heads of usurpers, but with a still shrewder skill to detect those which have the image of the right king, but are …
St John Cassian The Conferences of John Cassian. Part III. Containing Conferences XVIII.-XXIV, Chapter IX. How valuable to the perfect is the forgetfulness of sin
But with regard to this that you said a little way back; viz., that you of set purpose go over the recollections of past sins, this ought certainly not to be done, nay, if it forcibly surprises you, it must be at once expelled. For it greatly hinders the soul from the contemplation of purity, and especially in the case of one who is living in solitude, as it entangles him in the stains of this world and swamps him in foul sins. For while you are recalling those things which you did through ignorance or wantonness in accordance with the prince of this world, though I grant you that while you are engaged in these thoughts no delight in them steals in, yet at least the mere taint of the ancient filthiness is sure to corrupt your soul with its foul stink, and to shut out the spiritual fragrance of goodness, i.e., the odour of a sweet savour. …