Proverbs 29:25

The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(25) The fear of man bringeth a snare.—Even, it may be, the loss of eternal life. (Comp. Matthew 10:28; John 12:25.)

Benson Commentary

Proverbs 29:25. The fear of man — Inordinate fear of harm or suffering from men, which is properly opposed to trust in God, because it arises from a distrust of God’s promises and providence; bringeth a snare — Is an occasion of many sins, and consequently of punishments from God: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord — Walks in God’s ways, and securely relies upon him, to protect him from the designs and malice of wicked men; shall be safe — Shall be preserved from all real evil, through God’s watchful providence over him.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

29:19. Here is an unprofitable, slothful, wicked servant; one that serves not from conscience, or love, but from fear. 20. When a man is self-conceited, rash, and given to wrangling, there is more hope of the ignorant and profligate. 21. Good usage to a servant does not mean indulgence, which would ruin even a child. The body is a servant to the soul; those that humour it, and are over-tender of it, will find it forget its place. 22. An angry, passionate disposition makes men provoking to one another, and provoking to God. 23. Only those who humble themselves shall be exalted and established. 24. The receiver is as bad as the thief. 25. Many are ashamed to own Christ now; and he will not own them in the day of judgment. But he that trusts in the Lord will be saved from this snare.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The confusion and wretchedness in which the fear of what men can do entangles us, is contrasted with the security of one, who not only "fears" the Lord, so as to avoid offending Him, but trusts in Him as his protector and guide.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

25. The fear … snare—involves men in difficulty (compare Pr 29:6).

shall be safe—(Compare Margin; Pr 18:10).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The fear of man, inordinate fear of harm or mischief from men, which is fitly opposed to trust in God, because it comes from a distrust of God’s promise and providence,

bringeth a snare; is an occasion of many sins, and of great danger, both of injuries from men, and of sore punishments from God.

Putteth his trust in the Lord; keeping God’s way, and securely relying upon God to protect him from the designs and rage of wicked men.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The fear of man bringeth a snare,.... Either that which is subjectively in man; not a divine fear, or the fear of God, that grace which is put into the heart, for that leads to no snare, but tends to life; but a human fear, a servile one, a distrust of the power and providence, grace and goodness, of God, which has torment in it; which brings into bondage, and into many distresses and difficulties, and is opposed to trust in the Lord: or objectively, which has man for its object; a fear of losing the favour and friendship of men, of not having honour and applause from them; and a fear of their reproaches and reviling; of the wrath of men, of persecution from them, and of sufferings by them, even death itself; which has been sometimes a snare to ministers of the word, to drop or conceal some truths of it; and to professors of religion, not to embrace, own, and profess them; as many, through fear of the Jews, would not profess Jesus to be the Messiah, though they knew he was, John 7:13; yea, such a fear has been a snare to the best of men, and leads into temptation and sin; as particularly Abraham and Peter, Genesis 12:12;

but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe; that trusts in the Lord as the God of nature and providence, and the God of all grace, for all mercies, spiritual, temporal, and eternal, and leaves himself and case with him; such an one is safe from men, and the fear of them, and from snares and temptations, and sin and mischief, which come by them: or, "shall be lifted up on high" (d); he is upon a high rock, firm and sure; he dwells on high, his place of defence is the munition of rocks; he is in a high tower which is impregnable, in a city of refuge where he is safe; he is as immovable as Mount Zion; he is above the fear of man, or danger from him; he is out of the reach of all his enemies, men or devils; see Proverbs 18:10.

(d) "sublevabitur", V. L. "elevabitur", Pagninus, Montanus; "exaltabitar", Vatablus; "in edito collocatur", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "sublimabitur", Cocceius, Michaelis; "celsa in arce locabitur", Schultens, so Ben Melech.

Geneva Study Bible

The fear of man bringeth a {f} snare: but he who putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe.

(f) He who fears man more than God falls into a snare and is destroyed.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

25. shall be safe] “Heb. shall be set on high” (marg. of A.V. and R.V.), as on an inaccessible rock, or in an impregnable fortress. Comp. Proverbs 18:10.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 25. - The fear of man bringeth a snare. He who, through fear of what man may do to him, think or say of him, does what he knows to be wrong, lets his moral cowardice lead him into sin, leaves duty undone, - such a man gets no real good from his weakness, outrages conscience, displeases God. See our Lord's words (Matthew 10:28; Mark 8:38; and comp. Isaiah 51:12, etc). Whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe (Proverbs 18:10). Such trust carries a man safe through all dangers; fearing to offend God, living as always under his eye, he feels Divine protection, and knows that whatever happens is for the best. The LXX. joins this to the preceding verse, thus: "He who shareth with a thief hateth his own soul; and if, when an oath is offered, they who hear it give, no information, they fearing and reverencing men, are overthrown, but he that trusteth in the Lord shall rejoice." They add another rendering of the last verse, "Ungodliness causeth a man to stumble, but he who trusts in the Lord (ἐπὶ τῷ δεσπότῃ 2 Peter 2:1) shall be saved." Δεσπότης is used for Jehovah in the New Testament, e.g., Luke 2:29; Acts 4:24. Proverbs 29:25

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

25 Fear of man bringeth a snare with it;

     But he that trusteth in Jahve is advanced.

It sounds strange, Hitzig remarks, that here in the Book of an Oriental author one should be warned against the fear of man. It is enough, in reply to this, to point to Isaiah 51:12. One of the two translations in the lxx (cf. Jerome and Luther) has found this "strange" thought not so strange as not to render it, and that in the gnomic aorist: φοβηθέντες καὶ αἰσχυνθέντες ἀνθρώπους ὑπεσκελίσθησαν. And why should not חרדּת אדם be able to mean the fear of man (cowardice)? Perhaps not so that אדם is the gen. objecti, but so that חרדת אדם means to frighten men, as in 1 Samuel 14:15. חרדת אלהים, a trembling of God; cf. Psalm 64:2; פחד איב, the fear occasioned by the enemy, although this connection, after Deuteronomy 2:25, can also mean fear of the enemy (gen. objecti). To יתּן, occasioned equals brings as a consequence with it, cf. Proverbs 10:10; Proverbs 13:15; the synallage generis is as at Proverbs 12:25 : it is at least strange with fem. infinit. and infinitival nouns, Proverbs 16:16; Proverbs 25:14; Psalm 73:28; but חרדּה (trembling) is such a nom. actionis, Ewald, 238a. Regarding ישׂגּב (for which the lxx.1 σωθήσεται, and lxx2 εὐφρανθήσεται equals ישׂמח), vid., at Proverbs 18:10. He who is put into a terror by a danger with which men threaten him, so as to do from the fear of man what is wrong, and to conceal the truth, falls thereby into a snare laid by himself - it does not help him that by this means he has delivered himself from the danger, for he brands himself as a coward, and sins against God, and falls into an agony of conscience (reproach and anguish of heart) which is yet worse to bear than the evil wherewith he was threatened. It is only confidence in God that truly saves. The fear of man plunges him into yet greater suffering than that from which he would escape; confidence in God, on the other hand, lifts a man internally, and at last externally, above all his troubles.