Proverbs 24:15

24:1,2 Envy not sinners. And let not a desire ever come into thy mind, Oh that I could shake off restraints! 3-6. Piety and prudence in outward affairs, both go together to complete a wise man. By knowledge the soul is filled with the graces and comforts of the spirit, those precious and pleasant riches. The spirit is strengthened for the spiritual work and the spiritual warfare, by true wisdom. 7-9. A weak man thinks wisdom is too high for him, therefore he will take no pains for it. It is bad to do evil, but worse to devise it. Even the first risings of sin in the heart are sin, and must be repented of. Those that strive to make others hateful, make themselves so. 10. Under troubles we are apt to despair of relief. But be of good courage, and God shall strengthen thy heart. 11,12. If a man know that his neighbour is in danger by any unjust proceeding, he is bound to do all in his power to deliver him. And what is it to suffer immortal souls to perish, when our persuasions and example may be the means of preventing it? 13,14. We are quickened to the study of wisdom by considering both the pleasure and the profit of it. All men relish things that are sweet to the palate; but many have no relish for the things that are sweet to the purified soul, and that make us wise unto salvation. 15,16. The sincere soul falls as a traveller may do, by stumbling at some stone in his path; but gets up, and goes on his way with more care and speed.

Lay not wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous,.... The church of God, which is the righteous man's dwelling place, and where he desires and delights to dwell; or his own dwelling house; it may be rendered, "at the dwelling of the righteous" (p); lay not wait at his door to observe who goes in and out, and what is done there; and to watch for his halting, and take notice of his infirmities, slips, and falls, and improve them to his disadvantage; and so the Vulgate Latin version, "and lay not wait and seek ungodliness in the house of the righteous"; or lay not wait there for him, as Saul set men to watch the house of David to kill him, 1 Samuel 19:11 ; or to take an opportunity and get into it and plunder it, as follows; spoil not his resting place: by pulling it down, or stripping it of its furniture; by robbing him of the substance in it, and thus disturbing his rest, and destroying the place of it; or the place where he lies down as a sheep in its fold, or as the shepherd in his cottage, of which the words in the text are used; and so denote that as the righteous man is like a sheep, harmless and innocent, those that lay in wait for him and spoil him are no other than wolves. (p) "habitaculo", Pagninus, Montanus, Mercerus; "habitationi", Michaelis; "mansioni", Cocceius, Schultens.

Proverbs 24:15-16 . Lay not wait, &c., against the dwelling of the righteous — Against his person, or family, or possessions. Do him no injury, either by subtle and secret devices, or, as it follows, by manifest violence. For a just man falleth — Into calamities, of which he evidently speaks both in the foregoing verse, and in the opposite and following branch of this verse; and in this sense the same word, נפל , is used in the next verse, and in many other places. It is never applied to sin; but, when set in opposition to the word riseth up, implies affliction or calamity, as Micah 7:8 ; Amos 8:4 ; Jeremiah 25:27 ; Psalm 34:19-20 . These words are commonly, not only in sermons, but in books, applied to the falling into sin; and, that men may the more securely indulge themselves in their sins, and yet think themselves good men, they have added something to them; for the words are commonly cited thus: A just man falleth seven times a day, which last words, a day: or, in a day, are not in any translation of the Bible, much less in the original, but only in some corrupt editions of the vulgar Latin, which, against the plain scope of the context, and the meaning of the words, seems to understand this place of falling into sin. See Bishop Patrick. But the plain meaning is that which is given above, and seven times is put for frequently. The righteous fall frequently into trouble.

The teaching of the proverb warns men not to attack or plot against the righteous. They will lose their labor, "Though the just man fall (not into sin, but into calamities), yet he riseth up." The point of the teaching is not the liability of good men to err, but God's providential care over them (compare the margin reference). "Seven times" is a certain for an uncertain number (compare Job 5:19 ). In contrast with this is the fate of the evildoers, who fall utterly even in a single distress.

Verses 15, 16. - A warning against plotting for the ruin of a good man's house, with a view doubtless of profiting by the disaster. Verse 15. - Lay not wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous. רָשָׁע ( rasha ) is vocative (comp. Ezekiel 33:8 ); taken appositionally, as in Revised Version margin, "as a wicked man," it is senseless; for how could he lay wait in any other character? Spoil not his resting-place. "Spoil," as Proverbs 19:26 (where see note). Drive him not from his house by violence and chicanery. Vulgate, "Seek not impiety in the house of the righteous;" do not attempt to cloak your insidious designs by detecting some evil in the good man, and making yourself the instrument of retribution, as if you were doing God service in afflicting him ( John 16:2 ). Septuagint, "Bring not an ungodly man into the pasture ( νομῇ ) of the righteous, neither be thou deceived by the feasting of the belly." Proverbs 24:15

15 Lie not in wait, oh wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous; Assault not his resting-place. 16 For seven times doth the righteous fall and rise again, But the wicked are overthrown when calamity falls on them. The ארב [lying in wait] and שׁדּד [practising violence], against which the warning is here given, are not directed, as at Proverbs 1:11; Proverbs 19:26, immediately against the person, but against the dwelling-place and resting-place (רבץ, e.g., Jeremiah 50:6, as also נוה, 3:33) of the righteous, who, on his part, does injustice and wrong to no one; the warning is against coveting his house, Exodus 20:17, and driving him by cunning and violence out of it. Instead of רשׁע, Symmachus and Jerome have incorrectly read רשׁע daer, and from this misunderstanding have here introduced a sense without sense into Proverbs 24:15; many interpreters (Lwenstein, Ewald, Elster, and Zckler) translate with Luther appositionally: as a wicked man, i.e., "with mischievous intent," like one stealthily lurking for the opportunity of taking possession of the dwelling of another, as if this could be done with a good intent: רשׁע is the vocative (Syr., Targ., Venet.: ἀσεβές), and this address (cf. Psalm 75:5.) sharpens the warning, for it names him who acts in this manner by the right name.