Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 24:15
Lay not wait, O wicked [man], against the dwelling of the righteous; spoil not his resting place:
15. O wicked man], Or, as a wicked man.
dwelling resting place ] or pasture fold (R.V. marg.); making the picture pastoral.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The teaching of the proverb warns men not to attack or plot against the righteous. They will lose their labor, Though the just man fall (not into sin, but into calamities), yet he riseth up. The point of the teaching is not the liability of good men to err, but Gods providential care over them (compare the margin reference). Seven times is a certain for an uncertain number (compare Job 5:19). In contrast with this is the fate of the evildoers, who fall utterly even in a single distress.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 15. The dwelling of the righteous] tsaddik, the man who is walking unblameably in all the testimonies of God; who is rendering to every man his due.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Lay not wait; do him no injury, either by subtle and secret devices, or, as it follows, by manifest violence.
Against the dwelling of the righteous; against his person, or family, or possession.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15, 16. The plots of the wickedagainst the good, though partially, shall not be fully successful (Ps37:24); while the wicked, falling under penal evil, find no help.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Lay not wait, O wicked [man], against the dwelling of the righteous,…. The church of God, which is the righteous man’s dwelling place, and where he desires and delights to dwell; or his own dwelling house; it may be rendered, “at the dwelling of the righteous” p; lay not wait at his door to observe who goes in and out, and what is done there; and to watch for his halting, and take notice of his infirmities, slips, and falls, and improve them to his disadvantage; and so the Vulgate Latin version, “and lay not wait and seek ungodliness in the house of the righteous”; or lay not wait there for him, as Saul set men to watch the house of David to kill him,
1Sa 19:11; or to take an opportunity and get into it and plunder it, as follows;
spoil not his resting place: by pulling it down, or stripping it of its furniture; by robbing him of the substance in it, and thus disturbing his rest, and destroying the place of it; or the place where he lies down as a sheep in its fold, or as the shepherd in his cottage, of which the words in the text are used; and so denote that as the righteous man is like a sheep, harmless and innocent, those that lay in wait for him and spoil him are no other than wolves.
p “habitaculo”, Pagninus, Montanus, Mercerus; “habitationi”, Michaelis; “mansioni”, Cocceius, Schultens.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
15 Lie not in wait, oh wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous;
Assault not his resting-place.
16 For seven times doth the righteous fall and rise again,
But the wicked are overthrown when calamity falls on them.
The [lying in wait] and [practising violence], against which the warning is here given, are not directed, as at Pro 1:11; Pro 19:26, immediately against the person, but against the dwelling-place and resting-place ( , e.g., Jer 50:6, as also , 3:33) of the righteous, who, on his part, does injustice and wrong to no one; the warning is against coveting his house, Exo 20:17, and driving him by cunning and violence out of it. Instead of , Symmachus and Jerome have incorrectly read daer , and from this misunderstanding have here introduced a sense without sense into Pro 24:15; many interpreters (Lwenstein, Ewald, Elster, and Zckler) translate with Luther appositionally: as a wicked man, i.e., “with mischievous intent,” like one stealthily lurking for the opportunity of taking possession of the dwelling of another, as if this could be done with a good intent: is the vocative (Syr., Targ., Venet.: ), and this address (cf. Psa 75:5.) sharpens the warning, for it names him who acts in this manner by the right name. The reason, 16a, sounds like an echo of Job 5:19. signifies, as at Psa 119:164, seven times; cf. , Pro 17:10. (not ) is perf. consec., as , e.g., Gen 3:22: and he rises afterwards (notwithstanding), but the transgressors come to ruin; , if a misfortune befall them (cf. Pro 14:32), they stumble and fall, and rise no more.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
15 Lay not wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous; spoil not his resting place: 16 For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.
This is spoken, not so much by way of counsel to wicked men (they will not receive instruction, ch. xxiii. 9), but rather in defiance of them, for the encouragement of good people that are threatened by them. See here, 1. The designs of the wicked against the righteous, and the success they promise themselves in those designs. The plot is laid deeply: They lay wait against the dwelling of the righteous, thinking to charge some iniquity upon it, or compass dome design against it; they lie in wait at the door, to catch him when he stirs out, as David’s persecutors, Ps. lix. title. The hope is raised high; they doubt not but to spoil his dwelling-place because he is weak and cannot support it, because his condition is low and distressed, and he is almost down already. All this is a fruit of the old enmity in the seed of the serpent against the seed of the woman. The blood-thirsty hate the upright. 2. The folly and frustration of these designs (1.) The righteous man, whose ruin was expected, recovers himself. He falls seven times into trouble, but, by the blessing of God upon his wisdom and integrity, he rises again, sees through his troubles and sees better times after them. The just man falls, sometimes falls seven times perhaps, into sin, sins of infirmity, through the surprise of temptation; but he rises again by repentance, finds mercy with God, and regains his peace. (2.) The wicked man, who expected to see his ruin and to help it forward, is undone. He falls into mischief; his sins and his troubles are his utter destruction.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Wicked Abusers of the Righteous
Verses 15-16 warn the wicked against oppressing the righteous man. Even though he should be overtaken by trouble seven times, the righteous shall rise up again because the LORD delivers him, Job 5:19; Psa 34:19; Psa 37:24; Mic 7:8; Rom 14:4. The wicked abuser of the righteous falls into mischief, which can be severe, because he is opposing man’s LORD, not just man, Pro 24:8; Pro 11:21; Psa 54:4-5; Psa 140:11-12; Ezr 5:14; Ezr 7:10.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Pro. 24:16. The wicked shall fall. Delitzsch reads, the wicked are overthrown when calamity falls on them, i.e., they do not rise again and again as the just man does.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro. 24:15-16
A SOCIAL AMBUSH
I. A common practice of the wicked man in relation to the good. When we think of an ambush of men lying in wait to spring upon their foes at a fitting opportunity, two hostile parties are at once brought before us, we feel that there must be deep enmity on one side at least, or men would not be at such pains to overthrow their fellow-men. And this is indeed the case in society as a whole. Men are divided into two great parties. On one side stand the lovers of righteousness, and on the other the lovers of sin; and the latter must ever be more or less actively opposed to the former. But their favourite and most common method of attack is that indicated in the text. Wrong-doers are naturally cowards, and in their endeavours to injure better men than themselves they shrink from open attack. They are fully conscious that they could not stand their ground in a fair fight in the open field, and so they try to fall upon their foe in a moment when he is off his guard and in a place where he least expects to meet them. In other words, evil men do not often openly assail either the character or the position of a good man, but by lying words spoken in his absence they try to blacken the first, and by secret schemes to overthrow the second.
II. An utterly useless attempt of the wicked man in relation to the good. It is useless to try to kill a tree by lopping off the branches. Such a process may for a time deprive it of its beauty and stop its growth, but while the root has its hold upon the soil and can draw nourishment to itself from unseen sources beneath the surface it will live, and as soon as the axe has ceased to strike it will begin again to clothe itself in greenness and beauty. So it is with a righteous man. His enemies may succeed in bringing about his temporary overthrow and in depriving his outward life of much comfort, but the springs of his existence are fed from an invisible and unfailing source, and his well-being is not dependent upon external circumstances. And so even if the malice of the wicked is permitted to strip him of some things which made his life more apparently prosperous and secure, there is an inner life which they cannot touch, and which enables him in due time to recover from the wounds which they inflict either upon his character or his circumstances. For This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shall condemn. (Isa. 54:17.)
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro. 24:15. Because it spites the wicked, that the godly dwell in safety, therefore they lay wait against their dwelling, by affliction and miseries seeking to throw it down, and because the virtues of the godly condemn the vices of the wicked, therefore they lay wait and search into their dwelling houses to espy out their faults, because the goodness of the righteous shameth the naughtiness of the wicked, therefore they seek to break in even into their bedchambers and places of rest, and there to discover their errors and infirmities. Solomon forbidding them to do it, showeth it to be their manner to do it.Jermin.
Pro. 24:16. Perhaps you will say, had I fallen only once, I would not be much afraid; but I have often fallen before the enemy, and one day I must perish. But hear what God says:The righteous man falls not once or twice, but many times, and still he rises. Your experience of former deliverances should encourage your hopes of new deliverances, for the salvations of the Lord are never exhausted. In six troubles He will deliver, and in seven there shall no evil touch you.Lawson.
Gods saints are bound to rejoice when they fall into divers temptations. What though they fall into them? not go in step by step, but be precipitated, plunged over head and ears. Say they fall not into one, but into many crossesas they seldom come singleyet be exceeding glad says the apostle, as the merchant is to see his ships come laden in.Trapp.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
15, 16. Falleth seven times The falling, here, is not into sin, but into calamity of any kind. Stuart, who, as a Calvinist, thinks the rising again from moral lapses is also true, yet remarks that the sense here does not point to moral lapses, but to misfortunes. The annotators are generally agreed on this point. The Hebrew verb here used for falling is never used of falling into sin. “Seven times” means an indefinite number several or many. Compare Pro 4:19. The text is sometimes misquoted “seven times a day” and applied as an excuse by men who indulge themselves in sin and yet think themselves good, or wish to be thought so. The point of the teaching is, not the liability of even good men to err, but God’s providential care over them; as in Psa 34:19. So Speaker’s Commentary. Compare Job 5:19; Psa 34:19; Psa 37:24.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
v. 15. Lay not wait, O wicked man,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Lay not wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous; spoil not his resting place: For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief. Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth: Lest the LORD see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.
We have a beautiful comment in the enlargement of part of these verses in the Prophet, Mic 7:5-10 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Pro 24:15 Lay not wait, O wicked [man], against the dwelling of the righteous; spoil not his resting place:
Ver. 15. Lay not wait, O wicked man, &c. ] E Y , as that heathen said – God dwells with the righteous; molest him not therefore, beat not up his quarters. The Scythians, saith he in Plutarch, a though they have no music or vines among them, yet they have gods. So, whatever the saints want, they want not God’s gracious presence with them. And if wicked men had but so much knowledge of God as Pilate’s wife had in a dream, they would take heed of having anything to do with these just men.
a Plut., S. .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
wicked = lawless. Hebrew. rasha’. App-44. (singular), Pro 24:16 (plural)
the righteous = a just one.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Pro 24:15-16
Pro 24:15-16
“Lay not wait, O wicked man, against the habitation of the righteous; Destroy not his resting place: For a righteous man falleth seven times, and riseth up again; But the wicked are overthrown by calamity.”
This warning is pointed squarely at the wicked, stressing the fact that God Himself blesses, preserves and protects his true followers. Christ himself promised to be with his followers “even unto the end of the world” (Mat 28:18-20); and in spite of the fact that this is not a blanket exemption from the trials and misfortunes of life, what is stated here is a true and faithful promise of God’s eternal preference for the righteous.
Pro 24:15. The wicked are described as lying in wait for the righteous, seeking his ruination (Psa 37:32). Whoever does this qualifies for the title wicked man used here. Every persecutor of the righteous would be included in what is said here.
Pro 24:16. The righteous will have many trials, but he will prevail through the special help of God. Notice these interesting verses: Many are the afflictions of the righteous; But Jehovah delivereth him out of them all (Psa 34:19); Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; For Jehovah upholdeth him with his hand (Psa 37:24); Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, Jehovah will be a light unto me (Mic 7:8); He will deliver thee in six troubles; Yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee (Job 5:19). In other words, as our expressions go, you cant keep a good man down; he may be down, but he isnt out. But notice that when the wicked fall, he is not promised to come back, for he has no personal God to whom to look for restoration.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Lay: Pro 1:11, 1Sa 9:11, 1Sa 22:18, 1Sa 22:19, 1Sa 23:20-23, Psa 10:8-10, Psa 37:32, Psa 56:6, Psa 59:3, Psa 140:5, Jer 11:19, Mat 26:4, Act 9:24, Act 23:16, Act 25:3
spoil: Pro 22:28, Isa 32:18
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 24:15-16. Lay not wait, &c., against the dwelling of the righteous Against his person, or family, or possessions. Do him no injury, either by subtle and secret devices, or, as it follows, by manifest violence. For a just man falleth Into calamities, of which he evidently speaks both in the foregoing verse, and in the opposite and following branch of this verse; and in this sense the same word, , is used in the next verse, and in many other places. It is never applied to sin; but, when set in opposition to the word riseth up, implies affliction or calamity, as Mic 7:8; Amo 8:4; Jer 25:27; Psa 34:19-20. These words are commonly, not only in sermons, but in books, applied to the falling into sin; and, that men may the more securely indulge themselves in their sins, and yet think themselves good men, they have added something to them; for the words are commonly cited thus: A just man falleth seven times a day, which last words, a day: or, in a day, are not in any translation of the Bible, much less in the original, but only in some corrupt editions of the vulgar Latin, which, against the plain scope of the context, and the meaning of the words, seems to understand this place of falling into sin. See Bishop Patrick. But the plain meaning is that which is given above, and seven times is put for frequently. The righteous fall frequently into trouble. But the wicked shall fall into mischief Into unavoidable and irrecoverable destruction, ofttimes in this life, and infallibly in the next.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
To make a point, the speaker spoke to his son as though he were addressing a wicked man in this saying. This device gives the warning more force since the wicked man’s main concern is his own self-interest. The point is that the righteous is resilient because he trusts in God. Furthermore, God defends the righteous. Virtue triumphs in the end. [Note: Whybray, The Book . . ., p. 140.]