Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 12:3
A man shall not be established by wickedness: but the root of the righteous shall not be moved.
Verse 3. A man shall not be established by wickedness] Evil is always variable: it has no fixed principle, except the root that is in the human heart; and even that is ever assuming new forms. Nothing is permanent but goodness; and that is unchangeable, because it comes from GOD. The produce of goodness is permanent, because it has God’s blessing in it: the fruit of wickedness, or the property procured by wickedness, is transitory, because it has God’s curse in it. The righteous has his root in God; and therefore he shall not be moved.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
By wickedness; by any sinful courses by which he useth to secure or stablish himself; whereby he implies that he shall be rooted up.
Shall not be moved, to wit, out of its place. He shall stand fast, and flourish, like a well-rooted tree.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3. Wickedness cannot givepermanent prosperity.
root . . . not be movedfirmas a flourishing tree (Psa 1:3;Psa 15:5; Jer 17:8).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
A man shall not be established by wickedness,…. Not any man, though he may be established in his wickedness, so as not to be rooted out of it; yet he cannot be so established by it as not to be removed from a prosperous state and condition into an unhappy and distressed one; he may seem to be in a firm and settled state of prosperity, amidst all his wickedness; be like a green bay tree, spreading itself, and seemingly immovable, when on a sudden it is blown down and rooted up, and is no more: so Babylon will seem to be in a settled state of grandeur, ease, and rest, and say, “I sit a queen, and shall see no sorrow”; when in one day, and in one hour, her destruction shall come upon her, Re 18:7;
but the root of the righteous shall not be moved; they are rooted and grounded in the love of God, which is immovable; they are rooted and built up in Christ, and so are as Mount Zion, which can never be removed; the root of the matter, or of grace, is in them, which can never be lost; while others wither away, because they have no root in them, these abide; and though they may be shaken with the persecutions of men, the temptations of Satan, the errors of the wicked, and their own corruptions, yet they afresh take root again downward, and bring forth fruit upward.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
3 A man does not stand by wickedness,
But the root of the righteous remains unmoved.
In there lies the idea of want of inward stay ( vid., at Psa 1:1); in a manner of thought and of conduct which has no stay in God and His law, there can be expected no external endurance, no solidity. The righteous, on the contrary, have their root in God; nothing can tear them from the ground in which they are rooted, they are as trees which no storm outroots. The very same thought is clothed in other words in Pro 10:25, and another statement regarding the root of the righteous is found at Pro 12:12.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
3 A man shall not be established by wickedness: but the root of the righteous shall not be moved.
Note, 1. Though men may advance themselves by sinful arts, they cannot by such arts settle and secure themselves; though they may get large estates they cannot get such as will abide: A man shall not be established by wickedness; it may set him in high places, but they are slippery places, Ps. lxxiii. 18. That prosperity which is raised by sin is built on the sand, and so it will soon appear. 2. Though good men may have but little of the world, yet that little will last, and what is honestly got will wear well: The root of the righteous shall not be moved, though their branches may be shaken. Those that by faith are rooted in Christ are firmly fixed; in him their comfort and happiness are so rooted as never to be rooted up.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Sure Foundation
Verse 3 The righteous endure because they are securely planted upon an immovable foundation. The wicked are doomed because they refuse the stable foundation, Jesus Christ, Pro 10:25; Luk 6:47-49; 1Co 3:11; Act 4:10-12.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro. 12:3
A RIGHT DESIRE AND THE MEANS OF ITS ATTAINMENT
I. There has always been a desire in men for establishmentfor fixedness.
1. It is a good and God-given aspiration, and manifests itself in many ways. Men rightly desire to have a settled homea spot on earth to which they may attach themselves and from which they cannot be driven. This is a desire especially strong in the western and northern nations, and has been a powerful element in their development. Men desire a permanent and certain income, and the desire to obtain it is a great motive power to induce them to acquire knowledge of mechanical arts and professions. Men desire to earn a fixed reputation, and the desire acts as a moral power in the world.
2. It is a desire very old in its manifestation. Very early in the history of our race we have an instance of mans desire for fixedness of position on the earth, and for a permanent reputation. It was this that prompted the men of Shinar to say one to another, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the earth (Gen. 11:4). They desired to have a centre of unity in the worlda spot where they could settle down together and establish a name that would outlive them. The building of Babel is a parable of what has been going on ever since, and will go on until the end of time. The building is not of bricks and mortar, but the desire is the same.
II. Men can only have this desire satisfied in one way. The men who purposed to build the tower of Babel used wrong means to fulfil a lawful desire. It was right to aspire towards reaching the fixedness of heaven, but that cannot be done with bricks were they never so many or so well burnt. They did make a name, but not the name they desired. And so it is with men now. They want to gain for themselves a permanent resting place and a lasting name, and they think to attain their desire by linking themselves with something belonging only to earth, they desire to reach the heavenly with the earthly. And if they could use all the clay upon the globe to make their bricks they would find their tower fall far short of reaching heaven. All life without God is a life of wickedness, and such a life cannot be an establishment because it is contrary to Divine law. But this desire towards the immutable is intended by God to lead man to turn his face towards those things which cannot be shaken (Heb. 12:27), that righteous character which fits a man for the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (2Co. 5:1), which can be obtained by union with Him who is immutableThe same yesterday, to-day, and for ever (Heb. 13:8). Men may build upon a foundation which shall not be removed, they may send their roots deep down into an eternal abiding place by falling in with the conditions laid down by Christ Himself in Mat. 5:24-25.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Established may have reference not to the stability of his fortunes, but to that of his mindto tranquil self-possession and firmness. Even if, in the providence of God, his substance should fail, he himself remains unshaken and entire in all his best blessings, and in all his hopes.Wardlaw.
A man, being wicked, how shall he expect anything, except that he shall be disturbed? While the saint, though shaken in leaf and bough, and storm-tossed, and, perhaps, broken in his branches, yet shall not be shaken in his root.Miller.
Ahab strove to establish himself in despite of the threatened curse of God. He increased his family, trained them with care under the tutelage of his choicest nobility. And surely one, at least, out of seventy, might remain to inherit his throne. But this was the vain striving of the worm with his Maker. One hour swept them all away (1Ki. 21:21, with 2Ki. 10:1-7). The device of Caiaphas, also, to establish his nation by wickedness, was the means of its overthrow (Joh. 11:49-50, with Mat. 21:43-44).Bridges.
A man shall not be established by wickedness, for he lays his foundation upon firework, and brimstone is scattered upon his housetop: if the fire of God from heaven but flash upon it, it will all be aflame immediately. He walks all day upon a mine of gunpowder; and hath God with His armies ready to run upon the thickest bosses of his buckler, and to hurl him to hell. How can this man be sure of anything? Cain built cities, but could not rest in them; Ahab begat seventy sons, but not one successor to the kingdom. Sin hath no settledness. But the righteous, though shaken with winds, are rooted as trees; like a ship at anchor, they wag up and down, yet remove not.Trapp.
We shall lose our labour in seeking any sinful helps. We shall but make quicksand our foundation, and mud our stonework, and stubble and reeds our strongest timber. It is time for us to pull down our own ruinous building, lest it fall upon our heads. For though it be so slight, and as weak as a cobweb, to be a cover over us, yet it is very heavy, and as weighty as a mountain to press us under it.Dod.
Many are established in wickedness, and cannot be removed from it, but none shall ever be established by it.Jermin.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
3. Root of the righteous The righteous are here figuratively compared to a tree deeply rooted, and able to resist the storms, and continue unmoved in a flourishing condition. Not so the wicked. Compare Psa 1:3-4; Pro 10:25; Isa 61:4; Isa 27:6; Jer 17:8; Eph 3:17; Col 2:7.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
v. 3. A man shall not be established by wickedness,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
A man shall not be established by wickedness: but the root of the righteous shall not be moved. A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband: but she that maketh ashamed is as rottenness in his bones. The thoughts of the righteous are right: but the counsels of the wicked are deceit. The words of the wicked are to lie in wait for blood: but the mouth of the upright shall deliver them. The wicked are overthrown, and are not: but the house of the righteous shall stand. A man shall be commended according to his wisdom: but he that is of a perverse heart shall be despised. He that is despised, and hath a servant, is better than he that honoureth himself, and lacketh bread.
The man here said to be despised, but who hath the servant of Jehovah for his portion, is preferable to the self-righteous who is destitute of the bread of life. Isa 42:1 ; Mat 20:27-28 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Pro 12:3 A man shall not be established by wickedness: but the root of the righteous shall not be moved.
Ver. 3. A man shall not be established by wickedness. ] For he lays his foundation upon firework, and brimstone is scattered upon his house top: if the fire of God from heaven but flash upon it, it will be all a flame immediately. He walks all day upon a mine of gunpowder; and hath God with his armies ready to run upon the thickest bosses of his buckler, and to hurl him to hell. How can this man be sure of anything? Cain built cities, but could not rest in them. Ahab begat seventy sons, but not one successor in the kingdom. Phocas having built a mighty wall, heard from heaven: “Though thy walls were as high as heaven, sin is under it, and will subvert it.” a A . Sin hath no settledness.
But the root of the righteous shall not be moved.
a , .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
man. Hebrew. adam. App-14.
wickedness = lawlessness. Hebrew. rasha’.
the righteous = righteous ones.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Pro 12:3
Pro 12:3
“A man shall not be established by wickedness; But the root of the righteousness shall not be moved.”
“A man cannot make himself secure by wickedness, nor can the good man’s roots be disturbed.” No project, nor any man, can be securely established upon anything other that righteousness. The great merchant princes of America have all been men of integrity. Wickedness does not work, not even in business.
Pro 12:3. Compare this verse with Pro 12:7 and Pro 10:25. A tree is something that is established; it is there from year to year. So are the righteous, but the wicked are often cut off (Psa 37:1-2). Saul and his house lost out through disobedience (1Sa 15:23). Davids house was established through obedience (2Sa 7:12-16). Wickedness may prosper for the moment but not forever (consider Ananias and Sapphira of Act 5:1-10 ad Haman of Est 5:11-12; Est 7:8).
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
shall not be established: Pro 10:25, Job 5:3-5, Job 15:29, Job 20:5-9, Job 27:16-18
the root: Pro 12:12, Psa 15:5, Psa 125:1, Psa 125:2, 1Sa 25:33, Eph 3:17, Col 2:7
Reciprocal: Psa 13:4 – when Mat 13:21 – root Luk 8:13 – and these
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 12:3. A man shall not be established by wickedness By any sinful course, however craftily devised, and apparently well calculated to answer that end. For the power and prosperity which are raised by sin are built on the sand. But the root of the righteous shall not be moved Namely, out of its place. They shall stand fast and flourish like well-rooted trees.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
12:3 A man shall not be established by wickedness: but the {a} root of the righteous shall not be moved.
(a) They are so grounded in the favour of God, that their root will prosper continually.