Proverbs 15:15

All the days of the afflicted are evil: but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(15) All the days of the afflicted are evil.—Another caution against over-anxiety. The “afflicted” here evidently means, not one who has to bear great misfortunes, but one who makes the worst of everything, to whom the “clouds return after the rain” (Ecclesiastes 12:2); while one who is “of a merry heart” does just the contrary.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

15:14. A wise man seeks to gain more wisdom, growing in grace and in the knowledge of Christ. But a carnal mind rests contented, flattering itself. 15. Some are much in affliction, and of a sorrowful spirit. Such are to be pitied, prayed for, and comforted. And others serve God with gladness of heart, and it prompts their obedience, yet they should rejoice with trembling.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Afflicted - The affliction meant here is less that of outward circumstances than of a troubled and downcast spirit. Life to the cheerful is as one perpetual banquet, whether he be poor or rich. That which disturbs the feast is anxiety, the taking (anxious) thought" of Matthew 6:34.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

15. The state of the heart governs the outward condition.

evil—sad, contrasted with the cheerfulness of a feast.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Of the afflicted; of the troubled in mind or heart, as this general expression may very fitly be restrained from the following clause.

Are evil; tedious and uncomfortable; he takes no content in any time or thing.

Of a merry heart, Heb. of a good heart, i.e. composed, and quiet, and contented.

Hath a continual feast; hath constant satisfaction and delight in all conditions, yea, even in affliction.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

All the days of the afflicted are evil,.... And some are afflicted all their days, from their youth up; so that not only the days of old age are evil days, in which they have no pleasure, but even the days of their youth; all their days, as Jacob says, "few and evil have the days of the years of my life been", Genesis 47:9; because they had been filled up with affliction and trouble of one sort or another. Or, "all the days of the poor" (f); either in purse, who want many of the good things of life; or in knowledge, as Gersom and Aben Ezra observe;

but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast; a heart that has "the kingdom of God" in it, which lies "not in meat and drink, but in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost", Romans 14:17, which has the love of God shed abroad in it by the Spirit, where Christ dwells by faith; and that lives by faith on him, and on the provisions of his grace; all this is a constant continual feast to a gracious soul, made joyful hereby.

(f) "pauperis", V. L. Pagninus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Mercerus, Michaelis.

Geneva Study Bible

All the days of the afflicted are evil: but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 15. - All the days of the afflicted are evil. "The days of the poor are evil," says the Talmud ('Dukes,' 73); but in our verse the contrasted clause restricts the sense of "the afflicted" to mental, not material, evil. The Vulgate pauperis gives a wrong impression. The persons intended are such as take a gloomy view of things, who are always in low spirits, and cannot rise superior to present circumstances. These never have a happy moment; they are always taking anxious thought (Matthew 6:25), and forecasting evil. The LXX., reading עיני for עני, translates, "At all times the eyes of the evil expect evil." But he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast. The cheerful man's condition is a banquet unceasingly, a fixed state of joy and contentment. Septuagint, "But the righteous are at peace always;" Vulgate, "A secure mind is like a perpetual feast." "For," says St. Gregory ('Moral,' 12:44), "the mere repose of security is like the continuance of refreshment. Whereas, on the other hand, the evil mind is always set in pains and labours, since it is either contriving mischiefs that it may bring down, or fearing lest these be brought down upon it by others." Our own proverb says, "A contented mind is a continual feast." Proverbs 15:15

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

15 All the days of the afflicted are evil;

     But he who is of a joyful heart hath a perpetual feast.

Regarding עני (the afflicted), vid., 21b. They are so called on whom a misfortune, or several of them, press externally or internally. If such an one is surrounded by ever so many blessings, yet is his life day by day a sad one, because with each new day the feeling of his woe which oppresses him renews itself; whoever, on the contrary, is of joyful heart (gen. connection as Proverbs 11:13; Proverbs 12:8), such an one (his life) is always a feast, a banquet (not משׁתּה, as it may be also pointed, but משׁתּה and תּמיד thus adv., for it is never adj.; the post-bib. usage is תּמידין for עולות תּמיד). Hitzig (and also Zckler) renders 15b: And (the days) of one who is of a joyful heart are.... Others supply לו (cf. Proverbs 27:7), but our rendering does not need that. We have here again an example of that attribution (Arab. isnâd) in which that which is attributed (musnad) is a condition (hal) of a logical subject (the musnad ilêhi), and thus he who speaks has this, not in itself, but in the sense of the condition; the inwardly cheerful is feasts evermore, i.e., the condition of such an one is like a continual festival. The true and real happiness of a man is thus defined, not by external things, but by the state of the heart, in which, in spite of the apparently prosperous condition, a secret sorrow may gnaw, and which, in spite of an externally sorrowful state, may be at peace, and be joyfully confident in God.