+II. The wicked woman.+ 1. _She is, pre-eminently, a covenant-breaker._ The ribs of a vessel hold and keep together the whole structure, and enable it to keep its cargo safe. If the ribs give way, all goes to pieces, and the precious things which have been stored up within the ship are lost in the ocean. Human society is belted together--kept from going to pieces--by covenants. They are the ribs which keep together the State. The marriage covenant holds the first place. The woman whose character is here depicted has broken the bonds of this most sacred covenant--to which God was a witness (the covenant of an institution of His own ordination)--and has taken to the "strange" way of the devil. Well may she be called a _strange_ woman. That a woman should be guilty of such a crime--should choose such a course of life, so opposed to all that is pure and womanly--is indeed a mystery. 2. _She is a destroyer, not only of herself, but of others._ When the river has broken through its proper boundaries there is a _present_ and _continual_ destruction, of which the bursting of its banks was only the beginning. This woman in the past broke the moral boundaries of her life, and is now not content to go to ruin herself, but tries to take others with her. To this end are her false and flattering words, of which we shall hear more in chapter v. 3. _She carries her victims beyond hope of recovery._ There are no rules without exceptions. We know that there are those who have for a time been under the influence of such characters, and have returned to the paths of virtue and honour. But these are rare exceptions. In the main, it is, alas! true that "none that go unto her return again." A vessel founders at sea, and we say that the crew is lost, although one survivor may have been rescued. We speak of an army being destroyed if one escapes to tell the tale. Where one who has taken hold on her paths struggles back to life and purity, thousands go down with her to death, bodily, social, and spiritual. _OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._ Verse 12. To _snatch_ (see "Critical Notes"). "The way of evil." The terms begin gently. It is only the gentle aspects that are dangerous at first. These are so fascinating that it requires us to be _snatched_ to keep us out of the ways of darkness.--_Miller._ Verse 13. Among the pests of men, none are such virulent pests of everything that is good as those that once made a profession of religion, but have _left the way of uprightness._ The stings of conscience which such persons experience, instead of reclaiming them, tend only to irritate their spirits, and inflame them into fierce enmity against religion.--_Lawson._