Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 23:18
For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.
18. an end ] See Pro 24:14; Pro 24:20; in both which places A.V. renders the same Heb. word, reward, as it does here in the margin, and as R.V. does in all three places in the text. It is perhaps better to retain in all these places the significant literal rendering, a future, a hereafter: “or, sequel, or, future, Heb. latter end,” R.V. marg. here. “You will scarcely fail,” writes Maurer, “to recognise here a sure hope of immortality; seeing that many unrighteous men prosper and righteous men are miserable, even to the end of their earthly lives.” Psalms 73. is a sermon on this text. The LXX. however, render here, and the same Heb. word , Psalms 37. (36. in LXX.) 38.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Pro 23:18
Surely there is an end.
The end
Let religion be the very atmosphere in which you live and move and have your being; and the reason for this is, surely there is an end.
I. The solemn certainty which nobody can deny.
1. All our actions, thoughts, feelings, capabilities, everything about us, relations and all the rest of it, will come to a close, and leave behind them consequences that never come to a close. Behind everything something else lies, and that afterwards is made by the present, and is an outcome of it. The fleeting events and fugitive thoughts and feelings and actions of our daily life, that pass away and are forgotten, all leave behind them consequences which grow and grow for ever and ever.
2. Everything we do here will mould our character and help to make ourselves, and will spring up after many days. That is true of life and of the great hereafter beyond life.
II. The bright possibilities which go along with this text. The hereafter to which the end of life is the narrow portal shall more than fulfil all thy expectations. Take Christ for your Saviour, and Master, and then swift-footed time may work His will; when this wide earth and all its fleeting scenes will change, you will be brought to the fulfilment of all your hopes, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)
Duties and reasons
The words of the text contain–
I. Duties.
1. The avoidance of envy. Envy is that affection which causes grief at the happiness and prosperity of others. It is associated with maliciousness. It is derived from a Latin word signifying not to see. The name is therefore characteristic. Why should not sinners be envied? Because it is foolish to do so. It is a false supposition that they are happy because they possess temporal advantages. Because it is unjust. Because it is un-Christian. We are taught by God to pity and pray for sinners.
2. A reverence for God. This fear is not slavish, that urges us to flee from danger, but filial, Divinely wrought in the soul.
II. Reasons. All obligations are founded on reasons.
1. There is an end to the sinners prosperity. There is an end to every Christians trials.
2. God here promises to realise the expectations of those who fear Him. What do they expect? Their temporal wants supplied. Deliverance from dangers. Help in trouble. Grace to restrain from sin, to sanctify their souls, and to prepare them for heaven. These expectations shall not be cut off. (T. Harland.)
The afterwards and our hope
The Book of Proverbs seldom looks beyond the limits of the temporal, but now and then the mists lift and the wider horizon is disclosed. Our text is one of these exceptional instances, and is remarkable, not only as expressing confidence in the future, but as expressing it in a very striking way. Surely there is an end, says our Authorised Version, substituting in the margin, for end, reward. The latter word is placed in the text of the Revised Version. But neither end nor reward conveys the precise idea. The word so translated literally means something that comes after. So it is the very opposite of end ; it is really that which lies beyond the end–the sequel, or the future–as the margin of the Revised Version gives alternately, or, more simply still, the Afterwards. Surely there is an afterwards behind the end. And then the proverb goes on to specify one aspect of that afterwards: Thine expectation–or, better, because more simply, thy hope–shall not be cut off. And then, upon these two convictions it builds the plain, practical exhortation: Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.
I. The certainty of the hereafter. My text, of course, might be watered down and narrowed so as to point only to sequels to deeds realised in this life. And then it would be teaching us simply the very much-needed lessons that even in this life whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap. But it seems to me that we are entitled to see here, as in one or two other places in the Book of Proverbs, a dim anticipation of a future life beyond the grave. Now, the question comes to be, Where did the coiners of proverbs, whose main interest was in the obvious maxims of a prudential morality, get this conviction? They did not get it from any lofty experience of communion with God, like that which in the seventy-third Psalm marks the very high-water mark of Old Testament faith in regard to a future life. They did not get it from any clear definite revelation, such as we have in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but they got it from thinking over file facts of this present life as they appeared to them, looked at from a standpoint of a belief in God, and in righteousness. And so they represent to us the impression that is made upon a mans mind, if he has the eye that has kept watch oer mans mortality, that is made by the facts of this earthly life, viz., that it is so full of onward-looking, prophetic aspect, so manifestly and tragically, and yet wonderfully and hopefully, incomplete and fragmentary in itself, that there must be something beyond in order to explain, in order to vindicate the life that now is. You sometimes see a row of houses, the end one of which has, in its outer gable wall, bricks protruding here and there, and holes for chimney-pieces that are yet to be put in. And just as surely as that external wall says that the row is half-built, and there are some more tenements to be added to it, so surely does the life that we now live here, in all its aspects almost, bear upon itself the stamp that it, too, is but initial and preparatory. You sometimes see, in the booksellers catalogue, a book put down volume one; all that is published. That is our present life–volume one, all that is published. Surely there is going to be a sequel, volume two. What is the meaning of the fact that of all the creatures on the face of the earth only you and I, and our brethren and sisters, do not find in our environment enough for our powers? What is the meaning of the fact that lodged in mens natures there lies that strange power of painting to themselves things that are not as though they were? So that minds and hearts go out wandering through eternity, and having longings and possibilities which nothing beneath the stars can satisfy, or can develop? The meaning of it is this: surely there is a hereafter. God does not so cruelly put into men longings that have no satisfaction, and desires which never can be filled, as that there should not be, beyond the gulf, the fair land of the hereafter. Every human life obviously has in it, up to the very end, the capacity for progress. There may be masters in workshops who take apprentices, and teach them their trade during the years that are needed, and then turn round and say, I have no work for you, so you must go and look for it somewhere else. That is not how God does. When He has trained His apprentices He gives them work to do. Surely there is a hereafter. But that is only part of what is involved in this thought. It is not only a state subsequent to the present, but it is a state consequent on the present, and the outcome of it. To-day is the child of all the yesterdays, and the yesterdays and to-day are the parent of to-morrow. The past, our past, has made us what we are in the present, and what we are in the present is making us what we shall be in the future. And when we pass out of this life we pass out, notwithstanding all changes, the same men as we were. And so we carry ourselves with us into that future life, and what a man soweth that shall he also reap. Oh! that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their afterwards.
II. Now, secondly, my text suggests the immortality of hope. Thine expectation–or rather, as I said, thy hope–shall not be cut off. This is a characteristic of that hereafter. What a wonderful saying that is which also occurs in this Book of Proverbs, The righteous hath hope in his death! Ah! We all know how swiftly, as years increase, the things to hope for diminish, and how, as we approach the end, less and less do our imaginations go out into the possibilities of the sorrowing future. And when the end comes, if there is no afterward, the dying mans hopes must necessarily die before he does. If when we pass into the darkness we are going into a cave with no outlet at the other end, then there is no hope, and you may write over it Dantes grim word: All hope abandon, ye who enter here. The righteous hath hope in his death. Thine expectation shall not be cut off. But, further, that conviction of the afterward opens up for us a condition in which imagination is surpassed by the wondrous reality. Here, I suppose, nobody ever had all the satisfaction out of a fulfilled hope that he expected. The fish is always a great deal larger and heavier when we see it in the water than when it is lifted out and scaled. But there does come a time, if you believe that there is an afterwards, when all we desired and painted to ourselves of possible good for our craving spirits shall be felt to be but a pale reflex of the reality, like the light of some unrisen sun on the snowfields, and we shall have to say the half was not told to us.
III. And now, finally, notice the bearing of all this on the daily present. Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long. Why, if there were no future, it would be just as wise, just as blessed, just as incumbent upon us to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long. But, seeing that there is that future, and seeing that only in it will hope rise to fruition, and yet subsist as longing, surely there comes to us a solemn appeal to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long, which, being turned into Christian language, is to live by habitual faith, in communion with, and love and obedience to, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Surely, surely the very climax of folly is shutting the eyes to that future that we all have to face, and to live here ignoring it and God, and cribbing, cabining, and confining all our thoughts within the narrow limits of the things present and visible. Surely there is an afterwards, and if thou wilt be in the fear of the Lord all the day long, then for evermore thy hope shall not be cut off. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 18. Surely there is an end] yesh acharith, there is another life; “and thy expectation” of the enjoyment of a blessed immortality “shall not be cut off.” The Old MS. Bible reads thus: For thou schalt hav hop in the last: and thin abiiding schal not ben taken awei. “For the ende is not yet come; and thy pacient abydinge shal not be in vayne.” – COVERDALE.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
An end; an expected and happy end for such as fear God, which was required, Pro 23:17. Or,
a reward, as this Hebrew word is rendered, Pro 24:20.
Thine expectation shall not be cut off; thou shalt certainly enjoy that good which thou expectest, as the wicked shall lose that happiness which they enjoy.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
18. an endor, “hereafter,”another time, when apparent inequalities shall be adjusted (comparePs 37:28-38).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For surely there is an end,…. Both of the prosperity of the wicked, which is but for a short time; and of the afflictions of the righteous, which are but as it were for a moment; and therefore there is no reason to envy the one, nor to be fretful under the other; the end to a good man will be peace and prosperity for ever: there is a “reward” b, as some render it here, for the righteous, though not of debt, but of grace; upon which account they have ground to expect much here and hereafter;
and thine expectation shall not be cut off; or “hope” c; as an hypocrite’s is; for the hope of a saint is well founded upon the person and righteousness of Christ, and is an anchor sure and steadfast; his expectation of grace, and every needful supply of it, while in this life, and of eternal glory and happiness in the world to come, shall not perish; but he shall enjoy what he is hoping, expecting, and waiting for.
b “merces”, Pagninnus, Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Gejerus so Ben Melech. c “spes tua”, Pagninus, Montanus, Mercerus, Gejerus, Michaelis.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(18) An end, which shall be peace (Psa. 37:37), corresponding to the manifestation of the sons of God (Rom. 8:19), when we shall be like God (1Jn. 3:2).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
18. Surely there is an end This translation is not entirely satisfactory; for, although , ( ahharith,) does sometimes mean an end or termination, as that which comes after or last, yet it has also other meanings, embracing that which is after, or the hereafter, etc. Dr. A. Clarke renders: “There is another life.” Stuart: “For if there is a hereafter,” that is, as sure as there is, etc. Muenscher: “For surely there is a reward;” that is, something occurring after and in consequence of a pious life. Noyes, the same substantially. The pious man looks for a blessed future, and his expectations shall not be cut off. This is one of the few passages in which Solomon is supposed to refer to a future life. Like other ethical writers, even Christian, he confines his motives for action chiefly to this world. Comp. Pro 11:7; Pro 14:32; Pro 24:14.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
v. 18. For surely there is an end,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Pro 23:18. For surely there is an end Hebrew acherith, a future state. This is one of the places where some have rendered acherith by a reward, and Le Clerc among the rest. But to limit the reward to this world, as that learned critic every where does, is to make a sort of new world of the present, rather than admit the supposition or belief of another. See Peters on Job, p. 293. Calmet observes, that nothing can afford a man greater comfort in his last moments, than the testimony of his conscience, that he has continued in the fear of the Lord, and in an entire departure from evil.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Pro 23:18 For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.
Ver. 18. For surely there is an end, ] viz., Of their pomp and prosperity. Dum faenea quadam felicitate temporaliter floreant, as Augustine a hath it: while as grass they flourish, and then deflourish.
And thine expectation shall not be cut off.
a Aug., Eph 120.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
an end = a hereafter, or latter end.
expectation. Hebrew. tikvah. See note on Pro 10:28.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
surely: Psa 37:37, Jer 29:11, Luk 16:25, Rom 6:21, Rom 6:22
end: or, reward, Pro 24:14, Heb 10:35
thine: Psa 9:18, Jer 29:11, Phi 1:20
Reciprocal: Rth 2:12 – recompense Dan 6:20 – servest Eph 6:8 – whatsoever Heb 11:26 – for he had
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
23:18 For surely there is an end; {h} and thy expectation shall not be cut off.
(h) The prosperity of the wicked will not continue.