Thorns and snares - Various difficulties, trials, and sufferings.

Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward,.... Who walks contrary to the will and law of God; such a man meets with troubles, which are as thorns, grieving and distressing to him; and is taken in snares, and brought into difficulties, out of which he is not easily extricated; the thorns of affliction, and the snares of Satan: by the one his way is hedged up, and in the other his feet are taken;
he that doth keep his soul shall be far from them; he that is concerned for the good of his soul, is careful for the welfare of that, and takes heed to his ways where and how he walks, will be far both from the way of the froward, and from the thorns and snares which are in his way.

The way of sin is vexatious and dangerous. But the way of duty is safe and easy.

he that . . . them--Those who properly watch over their own souls are thus preserved from the dangers which attend the way of perverse men (Proverbs 16:17).

5 Thorns, snares, are on the way of the crooked;
He that guardeth his soul, let him keep far from them.
Rightly the Venet. ἄκανθαι παγίδες ἐν ὁδῷ στρεβλοῦ. The meaning of צנּים (plur. of צן, or צנּה, the same as צנינים) and פּחים (from פּח, Arab. faḥ), stands fast, though it be not etymologically verified; the placing together of these two words (the lxx obliterating the asyndeton: τρίβολος καὶ παγίδες) follows the scheme שׁמשׁ ירח, Habakkuk 3:11. The עקּשׁ־לב (perverse of heart, crooked, Proverbs 17:20; Proverbs 11:20) drives his crooked winding way, corresponding to his habit of mind, which is the contrast and the perversion of that which is just, a way in which there are thorns which entangle and wound those who enter thereon, snares which unexpectedly bring them down and hold them fast as prisoners; the hedge of thorns, Proverbs 15:19, was a figure of the hindrances in the way of the wicked themselves. The thorn and snares here are a figure of the hindrances and dangers which go forth from the deceitful and the false in the way of others, of those who keep their souls, i.e., who outwardly and morally take heed to their life (Proverbs 16:17; Proverbs 13:3, pred. here subj.), who will keep, or are disposed to keep, themselves from these thorns, these snares into which the deceitful and perverse-hearted seek to entice them.