Proverbs 21:12 - Exposition

The righteous man wisely considereth the house of the wicked: but God overthroweth the wicked for their wickedness. The Authorized Version introduces the words "but God" in order to eke out the sense desired; the Revised Version, for the same reason, has, "how the wicked are overthrown;" and both versions signify that the good man contemplates the fortunes and seeming prosperity of the wicked, and, looking to the end of these men, sees how hollow is their success and what a fatal issue awaits them. The Vulgate refers the passage to the zeal of the righteous for the salvation of sinners—a thought quite foreign to the present subject—thus: Excogitat justus de domo impii, ut detrahat impios a malo, "The righteous man reflects concerning the house of the wicked how he may deliver them from evil. " The Hebrew is literally, A righteous one looketh on the house of the wicked : he precipitates the wicked to destruction. There is no change of subject in the two clauses, and "a righteous One" ( tsaddik ) is God, put indeterminately to excite the greater awe (comp. Job 34:17 ). The Lord keeps the sinners under his eye, that he may punish them at the fit moment (comp. Proverbs 22:12 ; Job 12:19 ). The notion of God's moral government of the universe prevails most strongly in every pronouncement of the writer. The LXX . interprets "the house" as heart and conscience, and renders, "A righteous man understands the hearts of the godless, and despises the impious in their wickednesses;" he sees through their outward felicity, knows well its unreality, and despises them for the low aims and pursuits which satisfy them.