She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.
She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her. "Lay hold" (machaziquim) - literally, lay hold with a tenacious grasp, not to be severed from her: from a Hebrew root 'strong.' Compare Proverbs 11:30; Proverbs 13:12; Proverbs 15:4, for similar references to "the tree of life." Wisdom brings life to her possessors, as the tree of life in Paradise would have done to our first parents, but that they forfeited it (Genesis 2:9; Genesis 3:22-24). Wisdom - i:e., the saying knowledge of God in Christ, or Christ Himself-restores us to the life eternal which we lost in Adam. The fruit of other trees appeases hunger for a time: this tree forever. It saves not merely from death, but from disease (Revelation 22:2; Revelation 22:14; Revelation 2:7; Ezekiel 47:12).
And happy is every one that retaineth her. "Happy" is in the Hebrew singular, but the participle is plural: literally, 'they that retain her are each one happy.' In one sense, it is we who lay hold upon (cf. 1 Timothy 6:12) and retain her in our close embrace (for it is not the careless and superficial, but the earnest and persevering, that reach heaven). But in another sense it is she that lays hold of and retains us, if we be hers (Philippians 3:12, end; Isaiah 65:1).