Proverbs 19:23

The fear of the LORD tendeth to life: and he that hath it shall abide satisfied; he shall not be visited with evil.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(23) The fear of the Lord tendeth to life.—To life in this world, the reward of uprightness promised to the Israelites of old (Isaiah 37:29); and to life in the next (Mark 10:30).

He shall not be visited with evil.—(Comp. Leviticus 26:6.) A higher blessing is promised in the New Testament; not immunity from trouble, for trouble may be needed for advance in holiness (Romans 8:28), but protection in it (1Peter 3:13; Romans 8:35, sqq.).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

19:19. The spared and spoiled child is likely to become a man of great wrath. 20. Those that would be wise in their latter end, must be taught and ruled when young. 21. What should we desire, but that all our purposes may agree with God's holy will? 22. It is far better to have a heart to do good, and want ability for it, than to have ability for it, and want a heart to it. 23. Those that live in the fear of God, shall get safety, satisfaction, and true and complete happiness. 24. Indolence, when indulged, so grows upon people, that they have no heart to do the most needful things for themselves. 25. A gentle rebuke goes farthest with a man of understanding. 26. The young man who wastes his father's substance, or makes his aged mother destitute, is hateful, and will come to disgrace.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Shall abide satisfied - Better, one that is satisfied hath a sure abiding-place. The word "abide" has, most probably, here as elsewhere, its original sense of "passing the night." Even in the hour of darkness he shall be free from fear.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

23. The fear … life—(Compare Pr 3:2).

abide—or, "remain contented" (1Ti 4:8).

not visited with evil—(Pr 10:3; Ps 37:25), as a judgment, in which sense visit is often used (Ps 89:32; Jer 6:15).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Shall abide satisfied; shall want nothing, and shall be fully contented with God’s favour and blessing.

With evil; with any destructive affliction.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The fear of the Lord tendeth to life,.... "Godliness", of which the fear of the Lord is a principal part, has "the promise of this life and that to come", 1 Timothy 4:8, the fear of God is the beginning of a spiritual life; and it leads to eternal life, as Gersom observes, and is connected with it;

and he that hath it shall abide satisfied; with his lot and portion in this life; with the good things of it he has, being content therewith and "godliness with contentment is great gain", 1 Timothy 6:6, such a man has enough; he has all things in a spiritual sense; he is full of the blessings of goodness; he is blessed with all spiritual blessings; his mouth is satisfied, and his mind is filled with good things; and so he rests and abides night after night, and day after day;

he shall not be visited with evil; nothing shall hurt him; all his afflictions, his worst things, his evil ones: work together for his good; and they shall never separate from the love of God, nor anything that befalls him in this life, Romans 8:28; see Psalm 91:10.

Geneva Study Bible

The fear of the LORD tendeth to life: and he that hath it shall abide satisfied; he shall not be visited with evil.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 23. - 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 (Leviticus 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." Proverbs 19:23

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

23 The fear of Jahve tendeth to life;

     Satisfied, one spendeth the night, not visited by evil.

The first line is a variation of Proverbs 14:27. How the fear of God thus reacheth to life, i.e., helps to a life that is enduring, free from care and happy, 23b says: the promises are fulfilled to the God-fearing, Deuteronomy 11:15 and Leviticus 26:6; he does not go hungry to bed, and needs fear no awakening in terror out of his soft slumber (Proverbs 3:24). With ו explic., 23a is explained. לין שׂבע means to spend the night (the long night) hungry. as לין ערוּם, Job 24:7, to pass the night in nakedness (cold). נפקד, of visitation of punishment, we read also at Isaiah 29:6, and instead of בּרע, as it might be according to this passage, we have here the accus. of the manner placing the meaning of the Niph. beyond a doubt (cf. Proverbs 11:15, רע, in an evil manner). All is in harmony with the matter, and is good Heb.; on the contrary, Hitzig's ingenuity introduces, instead of שׂבעו, an unheard of word, ושׂרע, "and he stretches himself." One of the Greeks excellently translates: καὶ ἐμπλησθεὶς αὐλισθήσεται ἄνευ ἐπισκοπῆς πονηρᾶς. The lxx, which instead of רע, γνῶσις, translates thus, דּע, discredits itself. The Midrash - Lagarde says of its translation - varies in colour like an opal. In other words, it handles the text like wax, and forms it according to its own taste, like the Midrash with its "read not so, but so."