“The highway of the upright is to depart from evil: he that keepeth his way preserveth his soul.” (Proverbs 16:17)

This short verse is nestled in the exact center of the book of Proverbs, underscoring its importance. The pattern for righteous living is described as a well-traveled road (“highway”). The first phrase uses the Hebrew word sur, which is a qal infinitive and assumes a righteous person’s propensity to turn away from evil.

The second phrase employs two different words for “guard.” The word notser (keepeth) means “one who guards his way.” The next is shomer (preserveth), meaning “one who guards his life.” This parallelism underscores the axiom “guarding one’s path results in preserving one’s life.”¹

But pride is the roadblock to keeping to this “highway” (16:18-19). Humility, then, becomes a precious and necessary virtue for the growing saint. “Receive with meekness [humility] the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:21–22).

Additionally, Christians are continually led by the Holy Spirit, enabling them to internalize and apply the written Word of God, which guards their souls from inner sinful appetites that plague the growing believer (Romans 8–9; Ephesians 5:18). The upright believer seeks to avoid all forms of evil and diligently keeps to this righteous living (Proverbs 3:7; Ecclesiastes 12:13), walking circumspectly down life’s highway as a means of glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ (Psalm 119:105). CCM

1. Jamieson, R., A. R. Fausset, and D. Brown. 1997. Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, vol. 1. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 397.