Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 11:7
When a wicked man dieth, [his] expectation shall perish: and the hope of unjust [men] perisheth.
7. unjust men] iniquity, R.V. Comp. Hos 9:4, where the expression “bread of mourners” (the same Heb. word) may be “the emblem of utter impurity,” because everything connected with death involved ceremonial defilement. See note there in this Series.
Others render, with R.V. marg., strong men, or better, strength, i.e. wealth or worldly resources. The expectation of (i.e. based upon) such strength shall perish. Comp. for the sentiment Pro 11:4 above.
The proverb obviously implies, as a matter of popular knowledge and belief, that there is an expectation which does not perish at death; an expectation, which for the true children of Abraham, as for Abraham himself (Heb 11:9-10), reached beyond remembrance on earth in fame or family, “to all generations” (Psa 49:11).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Significant words, as showing the belief that when the righteous died, his expectation (i. e., his hope for the future) did not perish. The second clause is rendered by some, the expectation that brings sorrow.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 11:7
The hope of unjust men perisheth.
The terrible in human history
There are two terrible events in this text.
I. Death meeting the wicked man. The wicked man dieth.
1. Death does not wait for reformation of character.
2. The greatest enemies of God and His universe are overcome. There is a stronger power than that of the wicked.
II. Hope leaving the human soul. What is dearer to the soul than hope? The soul lives in and by hope. Shakespeare Says, The miserable hath no medicine, but only hope. When the wicked man dieth, he loses this hope. Hope of liberty, of improvement, of honour, of happiness. He dieth, and carrieth nothing away. (D. Thomas, D.D.)
The hope of the wicked
Men derive almost the whole of their happiness from hope. The wicked man laughs at the righteous because he lives by hope; but the wicked man himself does the same. The present situation of the wicked man never yields him the pleasure which he wishes and expects, but there is ever something in view, in which, could he but obtain it, he would find rest. If his hopes are deferred, his heart is sick; if they are accomplished he is still unsatisfied; but he comforts himself with some other hope, like a child, who thinks he sees a rainbow on the top of a neighbouring hill, and runs to take hold of it, but sees it as far removed from him as before. Thus the life of a wicked man is spent in vain wishes and toils and hopes, till death kills at once his body, his hope, and his happiness. (G. Lawson.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 7. When a wicked man dieth] HOPE is a great blessing to man in his present state of trial and suffering; because it leads him to expect a favourable termination of his ills. But hope was not made for the wicked; and yet they are the very persons that most abound in it! They hope to be saved, and get at last to the kingdom of God; though they have their face towards perdition, and refuse to turn. But their hope goes no farther than the grave. There the wicked man’s expectation is cut off, and his hope perishes. But to the saint, the penitent, and the cross-bearers in general, what a treasure is hope! What a balm through life!
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
His expectation shall perish; all his hope and felicity, which he placed wholly in earthly things, is lost and gone with him.
The hope of unjust men; so it is a repetition of the same thing in other words. Or, as divers render it, the hope of their strengths, i.e. which they place in their carnal strengths, their riches, children, friends, &c. So this is added by way of aggravation.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. expectation . . . perishfordeath cuts short all his plans (Lu16:25).
hope of unjustbetter,”hope of wealth,” or “power” (compare Isa40:29, Hebrew). This gives an advance on the sentiment ofthe first clause. Even hopes of gain die with him.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
When a wicked man dieth, [his] expectation shall perish,…. His expectation of a longer life, of getting more riches, attaining to more honour, enjoying more pleasure here, and of having happiness hereafter, and of being delivered from wrath to come; he will then find, when he comes to die, that his expectations in this world are vain, and those which respect happiness in another world are ill-grounded; or when he dies, the expectation of others that depended on him, trusted in him, and looked for great things from him, will then be at an end;
and the hope of unjust [men] perisheth; which is as the giving up of the ghost, and expires when a man does; it is only in this life, or however it ceases when that does; he has no hope in his death, as the righteous man has; if he does not live without hope in the world, he has none when he goes out of it, or that will be of any use unto him: moreover, the hope of “unjust” men to oppress and injure others ceases when they die, Job 3:17. The word rendered unjust men is by some h understood of strength, substance, riches; and so the meaning may be, that such a hope that is placed in strength and riches perishes at death. Jarchi interprets it of children, which are a man’s substance; as if the sense was, that the hope of the children of such persons is then cut off.
h “expectatio virium”, Gejerus; “spes in viribus collocata”, Michaelis; “spes confidentium in divitiis”, Munster; so some in Vatablus; “divitiarum”, Pagniaus, Baynus; “roborum”, Montanus, Amama.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Three proverbs regarding destruction and salvation:
7 When a godless man dies, his hope cometh to nought,
And the expectation of those who stand in fulness of strength is destroyed.
We have already remarked in the Introduction that is a favourite word of the Chokma, and the terminological distinction of different classes and properties of men ( vid., pp. 40, 42); we read, Pro 6:12, , and here, as also Job 20:29; Job 27:13, , cf. Pro 21:29, , but generally only is used. A godless man, to whom earthly possessions and pleasure and honour are the highest good, and to whom no means are too base, in order that he may appease this his threefold passion, rocks himself in unbounded and measureless hopes; but with his death, his hope, i.e., all that he hoped for, comes to nought. The lxx translate , which is the converse of that which is here said, 7a: the hope of the righteous expects its fulfilment beyond the grave. The lxx further translate, ( ) ; but the distich in the Hebr. text is not an antithetic one, and whether may signify the wicked (thus also the Syr., Targ., Venet., and Luther), if we regard it as a brachyology for , or as the plur. of an adj. , after the form (Elazar b. Jacob in Kimchi), or wickedness (Zckler, with Hitzig, “the wicked expectation”), is very questionable. Yet more improbable is Malbim’s (with Rashi’s) rendering of this , after Gen 49:3; Psa 78:51, and the Targ. on Job 18:12, of the children of the deceased; children gignuntur ex robore virili , but are not themselves the robur virile . But while is nowhere the plur. of fo . in its ethical signification, it certainly means in Psa 78:51, as the plur. of , manly strength, and in Isa 40:26, Isa 40:29 the fulness of strength generally, and once, in Hos 9:4, as plur. of in its physical signification, derived from its root-meaning anhelitus (Gen 35:18, cf. Hab 3:7), deep sorrow (a heightening of the , Deu 26:14). This latter signification has also been adopted: Jerome, expectatio solicitorum ; Bertheau, “the expectation of the sorrowing;” Ewald, ”continuance of sorrow;” but the meaning of this in this connection is so obscure, that one must question the translators what its import is. Therefore we adhere to the other rendering, “fulness of strength,” and interpret as the opposite of , Isa 40:29, for it signifies, per metonymiam abstracti pro concr., those who are full of strength; and we gain the meaning that there is a sudden end to the expectation of those who are in full strength, and build their prospects thereon. The two synonymous lines complete themselves, in so far as gains by the associated idea of self-confidence, and the second strengthens the thought of the first by the transition of the expression from the fut. to the preterite (Fl.). has, for the most part in recent impressions, the Mugrash; the correct accentuation, according to codices and old impressions, is ( vid., Baer’s Torath Emeth, p. 10, 4).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
7 When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish: and the hope of unjust men perisheth.
Note, 1. Even wicked men, while they live, may keep up a confident expectation of a happiness when they die, or at least a happiness in this world. The hypocrite has his hope, in which he wraps himself as the spider in her web. The worldling expects great matters from his wealth; he calls it goods laid up for many years, and hopes to take his ease in it and to be merry; but in death their expectation will be frustrated: the worldling must leave this world which he expected to continue in and the hypocrite will come short of that world which he expected to remove to, Job xxvii. 8. 2. It will be the great aggravation of the misery of wicked people that their hopes will sink into despair just when they expect them to be crowned with fruition. When a godly man dies his expectations are out-done, and all his fears vanish; but when a wicked man dies his expectations are dashed, dashed to pieces; in that very day his thoughts perish with which he had pleased himself, his hopes vanish.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Death of Wicked
(Pro 11:7)
Verse 7 declares that the hope, expectation, of the wicked perish at death. Although Proverbs does not deal specifically with the state of the wicked “after death,” this verse and Pro 14:32 Imply a hope that the wicked forfeit at death, as did the rich man in Luk 16:19-26.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Pro. 11:7. His and men are not in the original, and the verse is variously rendered. Stuart reads, When the wicked die, all the hopes perish; and when they are afflicted, their expectation of recovery or alleviation will be frustrated. ZcklerWith the death of the wicked hope cometh to nought, and the unjust expectation has perished. MillerBy the death of a wicked man hope is lost, and the expectation of sorrowing ones is lost already.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro. 11:7
THE DEATH OF THE WICKED
I. An inevitable event in relation to a wicked man. When a wicked man dieth. He must die. It is appointed unto men,to the good and to the badonce to die. (Heb. 9:27).
1. This inevitable event is most undesired by the wicked man. The certainty of any coming event will make it to be dreaded in proportion as it is felt that its advent must be followed by unpleasant consequences. The man who knows that nothing can save him from becoming a bankrupt at no distant period feels the certainty of the fact to be a most unwelcome thought. The man who knows that on a certain day of reckoning he will be unable to meet his liabilities, and that the day will as surely arrive as the planets will hold on their way in the heavens, can only look forward to the future with the most gloomy apprehensions. That coming day is ever hanging over his present, and imparting a sting to every hour in which he allows his thoughts to dwell upon it. The certainty of death is a most painful subject of contemplation for a wicked man. Conscience tells him that he has no resources wherewith to meet the demands of that dayhe knows that he is unfit to face that most ruthless of all creditors, and the knowledge that nothing can turn aside his footsteps is often a bitter drop in the cup of his present apparent prosperity and security.
2. The wicked man takes refuge from the thought of the certainty of the event in the uncertainty of the time when it will take place. He indulges in hopes, and expectations, concerning the present life, because of the indefiniteness of its length. Although he knows that death must come one day, he hopes that it may be many years hence. The rich fool in our Lords parable knew that he must die some dayhe admitted that certainty. But he made the uncertainty of the time an excuse for taking present ease. He refused to take into account the possibility that the summons had gone forth: This night thy soul shall be required of thee.
3. The certainty of the death of the wicked is a most painful subject of thought to good men. They look at the present condition of the ungodly, and, knowing the indispensable and intimate connection between present character and future happiness or misery, the certainty of the death of the wicked man is often a more saddening thought to them than to the man himself. The contemplation of such an event must give pain to a soul in harmony with God and goodness.
4. Yet, looked at with regard to his relation with others, the certainty of the death of the wicked is most desirable. If one portion of the body has become so diseased that the whole body is likely to suffer from it, a severance between the diseased part and the sound body must take place, however painful the operation may be. The loss of the part is indispensable to the salvation of the rest. There have been, and there are, men who are so morally diseased that their removal from the world is to be desired for the sake of others. It must be regarded as a blessing for the world that the death of the wicked is certain. The death of one wicked man is sometimes the means of bringing peace to many to whom his existence was a curse. There are men who do the best thing for the world when they leave ittheir exit from it is the greatest benefit they have ever conferred upon it.
II. The wicked man is in his worst condition when he has most need of being in his best. It is at death that his expectation and hope perish. The time when we approach a crisis in our history is a time when we need to be most furnished with all the resources that will be demanded to meet it. It was more necessary that David should be filled with faith and courage when he went forth to meet Goliath than when he was keeping his sheep in his fathers fields. When a youthful candidate for academical honour comes to the day of his examination, he needs to concentrate all his past days of study into one focus. If on that day all his mental powers are not at their very best, he is likely to be overwhelmed with disappointment instead of to be crowned with honour. It is sad indeed to be dragged down by fear and despair at the moment when we need all the inspiration of confidence and hope to bear us up. The day of death is the great crisis to which all human life is tendingit is the day when a man needs every possible support to enable him to meet the solemn fact with which he stands face to face. Hope of a blessed immortality should then bear us up. We ought to be able to say, I know in whom I have believed; I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand (2Ti. 4:6). But this is the hour when a wicked mans hope takes wing and flies away. He is at his worst when he needs to be at his best.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Men derive almost the whole of their happiness from hope. The wicked man laughs at the righteous because he lives by hope; but the wicked man himself does the same with this difference, that whilst the hopes of the one are coeval with eternity, those of the other are bounded by time. The present situation of the wicked man never yields him the pleasure which he wishes and expects. if his hope is deferred, his heart is sick; if it is accomplished, he is still unsatisfied; but he comforts himself with some other hope, like a child who sees a rainbow on the top of a neighbouring hill, and runs to take hold of it, but sees it as far removed from him as before. Thus the life of a wicked man is spent in vain wishes, and toils, and hopes, till death kills at once his body, his hope, and his happiness.Lawson.
It is sad to be drawn into ruin by desire (see last verse); because it breeds only hope, and that is sure to perish. The world passes away, and the desire of it (1Jn. 2:17).Miller.
There have been some who have questioned whether the doctrine of a future state was understood under the former dispensation. They have regarded that economy as to such an extent carnal, worldly, and temporary, as to have excluded from it all reference to that subject. I might show, from many passages, the falsity of such a sentiment. In this verse we have one of them. Nothing can be clearer than that, were there not such a future state, the expectation and hope of righteous and wicked alike must perish together, and that the very distinction so evidently made here between the one and the other proceeds upon the assumption of a state beyond the present.Wardlaw.
He died, perhaps, in strong hopes of heaven, as those seem to have done that came rapping and bouncing at heavens gates, with Lord, Lord, open to us, but were sent away with a Depart, I know you not (Mat. 7:22). His most strong hope shall come to nothing. He made a bridge of his own shadow and thought to go over it, but is fallen into the brook. He thought he had taken hold of God; but it is but with him as with a child that catcheth at the shadow on the wall, which he thinks he holds fast. But he only thinks so.Trapp.
He never had good by any hope, which hath not the fruition of his hope at death. Though a man should never obtain his desire in any earthly thing during his life, yet, if he enjoy salvation after this life, he hath failed of nothing. Though a man should miss of nothing that his heart could wish for, while breath is in his body, yet if he be damned, when the soul goeth out of his body, he hath never gained anything.Dod.
Hope and expectation are long-lived things; though weak, and sick and blind, yet they hold out. They live with the longest liver, and seldom die in any, until they die themselves in whom they are. But the hope of the wicked doth not only die, but perish, that is, is lost in some unlooked-for, unthought-of manner.Jermin.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
7. Wicked man dieth This is a difficult verse. Stuart renders, “When a wicked man dieth his hope shall perish, and the expectation of the afflicted perishes.” Conant: “When a wicked man dies expectation shall perish, yea, the hope of wickedness perishes;” so also Noyes, substantially. Stuart gives the meaning thus: “When the wicked see all their hopes of pleasure, riches, etc., perish, and when they are sick and afflicted, their expectations of recovery or alleviation will be frustrated.” So the Vulgate and Bertheau. Whether the Seventy had a different version before them, or whether, having the same difficulty as other translators, they made out of this verse, as they sometimes do, a proverb to suit themselves, we cannot say. But their version is different, and gives a good Christian sense with an antithesis not found in the Hebrew text: “When a righteous man dies, his hope does not perish, but the exultation of wicked men perishes,” that is, when they die. The versions and critics vary, and nothing entirely satisfactory has yet been reached. Zockler translates: “With the death of the wicked his hope cometh to naught, and the unjust expectation hath perished.” Compare Pro 10:28; Psalms 49.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Pro 11:7 When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish: and the hope of unjust men perisheth.
Pro 11:7
Pro 11:7 Word Study on “expectation” Strong says the Hebrew word “expectation” ( ) (H8615) literally means, “a cord,” and it is also used figuratively to mean, “expectancy.” The Enhanced Strong says this Hebrew word is used 34 times in the Old Testament, being translated in the KJV as, “hope 23, expectation 7, line 2, the thing that I long for 1, expected 1.”
The Hebrew word ( ) comes from the primitive root ( ) (H6960) meaning, “to bind together, to collect,” and it is used figuratively, “to collect.” The Enhanced Strong says this Hebrew word is used 49 times in the Old Testament, being translated in the KJV as, “wait 29, look 13, wait for 1, look for 1, gathered 1, misc 4.”
Pro 11:7 Word Study on “perish..perisheth” Strong says the Hebrew word “perish” ( ) (H6), which is used two times in this verse, is a primitive root that means, “to wander away,” thus, “to lose oneself,” and it implies, “to perish.” The Enhanced Strong says this Hebrew word is used 184 times in the Old Testament, being translated in the KJV as, “perish 98, destroy 62, lose 10, fail 2, surely 2, utterly 2, broken 1, destruction 1, escape 1, flee 1, spendeth 1, take 1, undone 1, void 1.”
Pro 11:7 Word Study on “hope” Strong says the Hebrew word “hope” ( ) (H8431) It means, “expectation.” The Enhanced Strong says this Hebrew word is used 6 times in the Old Testament, being translated in the KJV as, “hope 6.”
The Hebrew word ( ) comes from the primitive root ( ) (H3176) meaning, “to wait,” and it implies, “to be patient, to hope.” The Enhanced Strong says this Hebrew word is used 42 times in the Old Testament, being translated in the KJV as, “hope 22, wait 12, tarry 3, trust 2, variant 2, stayed 1.”
Pro 11:7 Comments – Pro 11:7 literally reads, “In (the) death of a wicked man expectation shall perish and the hope of the unjust perishes.”
A wicked man’s hope is in this life. Our hope as Christians is in eternal life. Thus, when a wicked man dies, none of his hopeful expectations are realized, but rather disappointment and horror. His hope for anything comes to a complete end; it dies. In contrast, when a righteous man dies, his hopes are just beginning to be realizes, and far beyond his expectations and will continue throughout eternity. Note similar verses:
Job 27:8, “For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul?”
Pro 10:28, “The hope of the righteous shall be gladness: but the expectation of the wicked shall perish.”
Pro 14:32, “The wicked is driven away in his wickedness: but the righteous hath hope in his death.”
In the parable of the rich fool how the rich man’s hopes were in the things of this world, for he said to himself, “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” But once he died, his hope of good things died with him. (Luk 12:13-21)
In the story of the rich man and Lazarus, we see how poor Lazarus’s hope was realized in his death, while the expectations of the rich man perished at his death (Luk 16:19-31).
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
v. 7. When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Pro 11:7. And the hope of unjust men perisheth His vain hope shall perish. Houbigant. Even his highest hope most grievously perisheth. Schultens. The LXX preserve the contrast in the verse more strongly: The just man dying, his hope doth not perish; but the boasting of a wicked man doth perish.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Pro 11:7 When a wicked man dieth, [his] expectation shall perish: and the hope of unjust [men] perisheth.
Ver. 7. When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish. ] He died, perhaps, in strong hopes of heaven, as those seem to have done that came rapping and bouncing at heaven gates, with “Lord, Lord, open unto us,” but were sent away with a Non novi vos; “Depart, I know you not.” Mat 7:22-23
And the hope of unjust men.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
man. Hebrew. ‘adam. App-14.
expectation shall perish. Illustrations: Balaam’s (Num 23:10; Num 31:8); Absalom’s (2Sa 18. Compare Pro 20:20). Compare also Job 21:7-13 and Psa 73:19. Luk 12:16-20.
expectation. Hebrew. kavah. See note on Pro 10:28.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Pro 11:7
Pro 11:7
“When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish; And the hope of iniquity perisheth.”
The Spanish Bible renders this: “Cuando el malvado muere, Mueren con el sus esparanzas e ilusiones. “When the evil one dies, there dies with him his hopes and expectations (illusions).”
Pro 11:7. Compare with Pro 10:28. Get this lesson: there is nothing good beyond death for the wicked. Death dashes his earthly hopes to the ground, and eternity holds nothing good for him.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Pro 10:28, Pro 14:32, Exo 15:9, Exo 15:10, Job 8:13, Job 8:14, Job 11:20, Psa 146:4, Eze 28:9, Luk 12:19, Luk 12:20
Reciprocal: Psa 112:10 – desire Pro 11:23 – expectation Joh 8:21 – and shall die
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 11:7-8. When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish All his hope and felicity, which he placed wholly in earthly things, are lost and gone with him; and the hope of unjust men, &c. This clause, according to this translation, is a mere repetition of the former: but the word , here rendered unjust men, is generally translated strengths, or powers, as indeed it properly means. Divers, therefore, interpret the clause, The hope of their strengths, that is, which they place in their riches, children, friends, and other carnal props and defences, perisheth. So this is added by way of aggravation. The righteous are delivered out of trouble When, perhaps, he hardly expected it, or even was ready to despair of it; and the wicked cometh in his stead Is, by Gods providence, brought into the same miseries, which the wicked either designed against, or had formerly inflicted on the righteous, but which were now lately removed from them. Thus Mordecai was saved from the gallows, Daniel from the lions den, and Peter from the prison, and their persecutors came in their stead. Israel was delivered out of the Red sea, and the Egyptians drowned in it.