Proverbs 24:15-16

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 Proverbs 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 Psalms 34:19. So Speaker’s Commentary. Compare Job 5:19; Psalms 34:19; Psalms 37:24.