Proverbs 19:23 - Exposition

The fear of the Lord tendeth to life ( Proverbs 14:27 ). True religion, obedience to God's commandments, was, under a temporal dispensation, rewarded by a long and happy life in this world, an adumbration of the blessedness that awaits the righteous in the world to come. And he that hath it shall abide satisfied. The subject passes from "the fear" to its possessor. Perhaps better, and satisfied he shall pass the night, which is the usual sense of לוּן ( lun ) , the verb here translated "abide" (so Proverbs 15:31 ). God will satisfy the good man's hunger, so that he lays him down in peace and takes his rest (comp. Proverbs 10:3 ). Vulgate , In plenitudine commorabitur, "He shall dwell in abundance." He shall not be visited with evil, according to the, promises (Le Proverbs 26:6 : Deuteronomy 11:15 , etc.). Under our present dispensation Christians expect not immunity from care and trouble, but have hope of protection and grace sufficient for the occasion, and conducive to edification and advance in holiness. The LXX . translates thus: "The fear of the Lord is unto life for a man; but he that is without fear ( ὁ δὲ ἄφοβος ) shall sojourn in places where knowledge is not seen;" i.e. shall go from bad to worse, till he ends in society where Divine knowledge is wholly absent, and lives without God in the world. The Greek interpreters read דּע ( dea ), "knowledge," instead of רע ( ra ), "evil."