He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks;
The verse shows one going straight after the seducer to ruin, as an ox goes to slaughter and as a fool goes to punishment in the stocks. That ruin comes by gradual entanglement, beginning with seemingly small liberties and proceeding step by step until sacred things are mixed with lust and unholy practices and the soul is corrupted. The going is under a bewitching pull straight into a prepared snare, as when a minister knowingly entered sexual temptation and stood in danger of spiritual ruin.
Going willingly and foolishly into temptation and inviting it weakens moral power and brings shame and confusion. Such going may even invite the devil to tempt, and those who do so weaken their moral strength and bring shame and confusion upon themselves. Without inward strength, through trusting in self rather than in God and lacking firm principles of duty, a person is led to evil as readily as an ox to slaughter. So it is when one yields to an invitation to drink with irreligious companions despite the danger and is afterward laughed at for easy compliance.
The ox going to slaughter pictures those absorbed in careless self-indulgence and deceived by Satan, who in pursuit of pleasure and bodily passions march blindly toward death, heedless of the destruction coming upon those who reject Christ. Continuing blindly in self-indulgence, giving oneself to drinking, sensual passions and other selfish pursuits, is going toward death as helplessly as an ox going to slaughter, and ends in destruction and judgment. Those absorbed in selfish pleasure and indulgence in vice move blindly toward death and sudden destruction like an ox going to slaughter, and none escape the punishment when the Lord rises to judge the earth, whose blood and slain will be disclosed. The fool going to correction pictures an unthinking ruinous course, as in submitting to the painful deformity of fashionable tight-lacing, which left girls pale and languid and unable to breathe, walk naturally, or move with grace.
The verse shows one going straight after the seducer to ruin, as an ox goes to slaughter and as a fool goes to punishment in the stocks. That ruin comes by gradual entanglement, beginning with seemingly small liberties and proceeding step by step until sacred things are mixed with lust and unholy practices and the soul is corrupted. The going is under a bewitching pull straight into a prepared snare, as when a minister knowingly entered sexual temptation and stood in danger of spiritual ruin.
Going willingly and foolishly into temptation and inviting it weakens moral power and brings shame and confusion. Such going may even invite the devil to tempt, and those who do so weaken their moral strength and bring shame and confusion upon themselves. Without inward strength, through trusting in self rather than in God and lacking firm principles of duty, a person is led to evil as readily as an ox to slaughter. So it is when one yields to an invitation to drink with irreligious companions despite the danger and is afterward laughed at for easy compliance.
The ox going to slaughter pictures those absorbed in careless self-indulgence and deceived by Satan, who in pursuit of pleasure and bodily passions march blindly toward death, heedless of the destruction coming upon those who reject Christ. Continuing blindly in self-indulgence, giving oneself to drinking, sensual passions and other selfish pursuits, is going toward death as helplessly as an ox going to slaughter, and ends in destruction and judgment. Those absorbed in selfish pleasure and indulgence in vice move blindly toward death and sudden destruction like an ox going to slaughter, and none escape the punishment when the Lord rises to judge the earth, whose blood and slain will be disclosed. The fool going to correction pictures an unthinking ruinous course, as in submitting to the painful deformity of fashionable tight-lacing, which left girls pale and languid and unable to breathe, walk naturally, or move with grace.