Proverbs 5:21

For; as an additional reason for avoiding sin.

pondereth The primary sense of the Heb. word, which is the same as in Proverbs 5:6 of this chapter, is adhered to in R.V. text: he maketh level, i.e. however intricate and tortuous man makes them, before God's all-seeing eye they lie spread out like a map (Hebrews 4:13). εἰς δὲ πάσας τὰς τροχιὰς αὐτοῦ σκοπεύει, LXX. It may mean, however, that God makes man's ways level, in the sense of making them lead swiftly and surely to their appointed end (Proverbs 5:22). Others take it in contrast with the next verse: God makes a man's ways level (right), but sin involves him in difficulties from which he cannot extricate himself. The derived sense pondereth (or, weigheth carefully, R.V. marg.) comes from holding the balances in weighing till the two scales are even, and so making level. Comp. Job 31:4.