Proverbs 14:26

In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence: and his children shall have a place of refuge.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(26) His children.—Either, the children of the man who fears the Lord, as the blessing of Abraham (Genesis 17:7-8) and David (Jeremiah 33:20-21) descended to their children; or the pronoun may refer to God’s children, i.e., those who look up to Him as a father, an expression which occurs in the Old Testament (e g., Psalm 73:15), but is brought forward more prominently in the New Testament.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

14:18. Sin is the shame of sinners; but wisdom is the honour of the wise. 19. Even bad men acknowledge the excellency of God's people. 20. Friendship in the world is governed by self-interest. It is good to have God our Friend; he will not desert us. 21. To despise a man for his employment or appearance is a sin. 22. How wisely those consult their own interest, who not only do good, but devise it! 23. Labour of the head, or of the hand, will turn to some good account. But if men's religion runs all out in talk and noise, they will come to nothing. 24. The riches of men of wisdom and piety enlarge their usefulness. 25. An upright man will venture the displeasure of the greatest, to bring truth to light. 26,27. Those who fear the Lord so as to obey and serve him, have a strong ground of confidence, and will be preserved. Let us seek to this Fountain of life, that we may escape the snares of death. 28. Let all that wish well to the kingdom of Christ, do what they can, that many may be added to his church. 29. A mild, patient man is one that learns of Christ, who is Wisdom itself. Unbridled passion is folly made known. 30. An upright, contented, and benevolent mind, tends to health. 31. To oppress the poor is to reproach our Creator. 32. The wicked man has his soul forced from him; he dies in his sins, under the guilt and power of them. But godly men, though they have pain and some dread of death, have the blessed hope, which God, who cannot lie, has given them. 33. Wisdom possesses the heart, and thus regulates the affections and tempers. 34. Piety and holiness always promote industry, sobriety, and honesty. 35. The great King who reigns over heaven and earth, will reward faithful servants who honour his gospel by the proper discharge of the duties of their stations: he despises not the services of the lowest.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

His children - Probably, the children whom the Lord adopts, and who are true to their adoption.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

26. The blessings of piety descend to children (Pr 13:22; 20:7; Ex 20:6).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Strong confidence; a sure ground of confidence; or a strong refuge, as the next clause explains it.

His children; either,

1. God’s children. Or,

2. The children of them that fear God, who are sufficiently understood out of the former clause.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence,.... Such who fear the Lord may be confident that he has a love to them, a delight in them; that his eye is upon them, and his heart towards them; and will communicate every needful good to them, and protect and defend them: or the Lord himself that is feared, who is the object of fear, called the fear of Isaac, Genesis 31:42; he is a strong tower, a place of defence to those that fear him and trust in him, Proverbs 18:10;

and his children shall have a place of refuge; the children of God, as those that fear him are; the Lord is a place of refuge to them, from the avenger of blood, from the vindictive justice of God; from the storm and tempest of divine wrath, and from the curses of a righteous law; as well as from the rage and persecutions of men.

Geneva Study Bible

In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence: and his children shall have a place of refuge.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

26. his] i.e. the Lord’s. Ewald and others render, to his children (who feareth Jehovah) he (Jehovah) will be &c. Comp. R.V. marg.: the children of him that hath it (sc. the fear of the Lord) shall have, &c.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 26. - In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence. The fear of God casts out all fear of man, all despairing anticipations of possible evil, and makes the believer confident and bold. St. Gregory ('Moral.,' 5:33), "As in the way of the world fear gives rise to weakness, so in the way of God fear produces strength. In truth, our mind so much the more valorously sets at naught all the terrors of temporal vicissitudes, the more thoroughly that it submits itself in fear to the Author of those same temporal things. And being stablished in the fear of the Lord, it encounters nothing without it to fill it with alarm, in that whereas it is united to the Creator of all things by a righteous fear, it is by a certain powerful influence raised high above them all." Comp. Psalm 27:1 and St. Paul's words, "If God be for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31). Septuagint, "In the fear of the Lord is hope of strength." And his children shall have a place of refuge (Psalm 46:1). There is an ambiguity as to whose children are meant. The LXX. renders, "And to his children he will leave a support." Thus many refer the pronoun to the Lord named in the first clause - God's children, those who love and trust him, and look up to him as a Father, an expression used more specially in the New Testament than in the Old. But see Psalm 73:15, and passages (e.g. Hosea 11:1) where God calls Israel his son, a type of all who are brought unto him by adoption and grace. Others, again, refer the pronoun to "the fear of the Lord," "its children," which would be quite in conformity with Hebrew idiom; as we have "sons of wisdom," "children of obedience," equivalent to "wise," "obedient," etc. But most modern commentators explain it of the children of the God-fearing man, comparing Exodus 20:6 and Psalm 103:17. Such a one shall confer lasting benefits upon his posterity (ch. 13:22; 20:7). So God blessed the descendants of Abraham and David; so he shows mercy unto thousands i.e. the thousandth generation of them that love him and keep his commandments (see Genesis 17:7, etc.; Exodus 34:7; 1 Kings 11:12, etc.; Jeremiah 33:20, etc.). Proverbs 14:26

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

26 In the fear of Jahve lies a strong ground of confidence,

     And the children of such an one have a refuge.

The so-called בּ essentiae stands here, as at Psalm 68:5; Psalm 55:19; Isaiah 26:4, before the subject idea; the clause: in the fear of God exists, i.e., it is and proves itself, as a strong ground of confidence, does not mean that the fear of God is something in which one can rely (Hitzig), but that it has (Proverbs 22:19; Jeremiah 17:7, and here) an inheritance which is enduring, unwavering, and not disappointing in God, who is the object of fear; for it is not faith, nor anything else subjective, which is the rock that bears us, but this Rock is the object which faith lays hold of (cf. Isaiah 28:16). Is now the וּלבניו to be referred, with Ewald and Zckler, to 'ה? It is possible, as we have discussed at Genesis 6:1.; but in view of parallels such as Proverbs 20:7, it is not probable. He who fears God entails in the Abrahamic way (Genesis 18:19) the fear of God on his children, and in this precious paternal inheritance they have a מחסה (not מחסה, and therefore to be written with Masoretic exactness מחסּה), a fortress or place of protection, a refuge in every time of need (cf. Psalm 71:5-7). Accordingly, ולבניו refers back to the 'ירא ה, to be understood from 'ביראת ה (lxx, Luther, and all the Jewish interpreters), which we find not so doubtful as to regard on this account the explanation after Psalm 73:15, cf. Deuteronomy 14:1, as necessary, although we grant that such an introduction of the N.T. generalization and deepening of the idea of sonship is to be expected from the Chokma.