Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa Mga Kawikaan 7:25

This is the answer to these questions. People transgress due to four causes: slovenliness, heresy, desire, taking liberties,⁷⁵The Hebrew expression here is “love of freedom.” I believe the point of the cause of sin is that the person is of the opinion that he can do whatever he wants. as it says: “They say, ‘by our tongues we shall travail; with lips such as ours who shall be our master?” (Ps. 12:5) God causes adversity because of these spiritual illnesses in order to cause them to turn in repentance so that they can be saved.
• Slovenliness: A person who sinks into a deep slumber causing him to forget the Lord. For such a person the travail is to face the dangers of the sea, as the sailors said to Jonah: “How can you be sleeping so soundlessly? Get up and call to your God!” (Jonah 1:6)
• Heresy: Someone who leaves the path of truth, as Solomon said in his parable: “Let your mind not wander down her⁷⁶The passage is speaking of the person who goes in search of wanton women. Ettlinger interprets this as a reference to heresy. ways; do not stray unto her paths.” (Prov. 7:25) The travails for such a person is to wander in the wilderness, off the king’s path, so that he is far from his path and is both spiritually hungry and thirsty.
• Desire: Of this person the Psalmist says “All food was loathsome to them; they reached the gates of death.” Their punishment is that they are unable to enjoy any of the simple pleasures because of illness.
• Taking liberties: The punishment for such a person is that he is imprisoned in a jail, a place of darkness.

כי תשטה — Our Rabbis have taught (Midrash Tanchuma, Nasso 5): “Adulterers do never sin until a spirit of madness enters into them”, as it written, of her כי תשטה “if she becomes mad” (taking תִשְׂטֶה in the sense of תִשְׂטֶה, i.e. to become a שׁוֹטֶה, and so, too, of him Scripture writes, (Proverbs 6:32) “Whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding”. — But the plain sense of the verse is that כי תשטה means: if she deviates from the path of modesty and thereby becomes suspect in his eyes. The word is similar to, (Proverbs 4:15) “turn away (שְׂטֵה) from it, and pass by”; (Proverbs 7:25) “Let not your heart turn (יַשְׂטְ) to her ways”.