Proverbs 20:25 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

It is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is holy He is insnared in a crime, who takes away, and applies to his own use, any thing consecrated to God, and intended to be used in support of his worship and service; or who alienates any holy thing, and employs it to a secular purpose, which is here called devouring it: and after vows to make inquiry After a man hath made vows, to consider whether he can possibly, or may lawfully, keep them; or to inquire of others for ways to break them, and to satisfy his conscience in so doing. “There are two pieces of profaneness,” says Bishop Patrick, in his paraphrase on this verse, “which entangle him that is guilty of them in great troubles, nay, often bring ruin upon him: 1st, When he makes no distinction between things holy and common; but converts that which was consecrated to God (the first-fruits, suppose, or such like sacred thing) to his own proper use; and, 2d, When he vows, in his distress, to give something unto God, but having obtained his desires, studies how he may be loosed from his obligations.”