Proverbs 11:19 - Exposition

This verse is not to be connected with the preceding, as in the margin of the Revised Version, "so righteousness," etc; each couplet in these chapters being independent, the connection, such as it is, being maintained by the use of catchwords, such as "righteous," "wicked," "upright," etc. As righteousness tendeth to life. The various uses of the first word כֵן ( ken ) have led to different renderings. The Authorized Version takes it for "as;" the Revised Version as an adjective: He that is steadfast in righteousness. It is, perhaps, better, with Nowack, to regard it as an adverb: "He who is honestly, strictly, of righteousness, is to life." The meaning is plain: real, genuine righteousness hath the promise of this life and of that which is to come ( 1 Timothy 4:8 ). The LXX ; reading בֵן ( ben ), translate, "A righteous son is born for life." He that pursueth evil ( Proverbs 13:21 ); Septuagint, "the persecution of the impious," i.e. that which an impious man inflicts. But the Authorized Version is correct, and the clause means that he who practises evil brings ruin eventually on himself—a warning trite, but unheeded (comp. Proverbs 1:18 ).