Proverbs 10:27

The fear of the LORD prolongeth days: but the years of the wicked shall be shortened.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(27) The fear of the Lord prolongeth days.—The special Old Testament blessing for obedience (comp. Proverbs 9:11), often fulfilled now, too, in the case of those who live on to old age, in the quiet fulfilment of duty; while others are shortening their lives by excessive anxieties, or the pursuit of pleasure.

Benson Commentary

Proverbs 10:27-28. The fear of the Lord prolongeth days — For it gives those who are influenced by it a title to the promise of long life, as well as to other promises; it gladdens their hearts, which does good like a medicine, Proverbs 17:22; and it preserves them from those wicked practices which tend to the shortening of a man’s days. The hope of the righteous shall be gladness — Though at present it be mixed with doubts, and fears, and disappointments, yet at last it shall be accomplished and turned into enjoyment; but the expectation of the wicked, &c. — Shall be utterly frustrated, and so shall end in sorrow.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:22. That wealth which is truly desirable, has no vexation of spirit in the enjoyment; no grief for the loss; no guilt by the abuse of it. What comes from the love of God, has the grace of God for its companion. 23. Only foolish and wicked men divert themselves with doing harm to others, or tempting to sin. 24. The largest desire of eternal blessings the righteous can form, will be granted. 25. The course of prosperous sinners is like a whirlwind, which soon spends itself, and is gone. 26. As vinegar sets the teeth on edge, and as the smoke causes the eyes to smart, so the sluggard vexes his employer. 27,28. What man is he that loves life? Let him fear God, and that will secure to him life enough in this world, and eternal life in the other.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The teeth set on edge by the sour wine used by peasants Ruth 2:14; Psalm 69:21, the eye irritated by wood-smoke, these shadow the annoyance of having a messenger who will loiter on the way.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

27. (Compare Pr 9:11; Ps 55:23).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Prolongeth days; partly because it gives them a title to the promise of long life, as well as to other promises; partly because it gladdeth the heart, which doth good like a medicine, Proverbs 17:22, and preserves a man from those wicked practices which tend to the shortening of the days.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The fear of the Lord prolongeth days,.... Not beyond the time fixed in the unalterable purposes and decrees of God, Job 14:5; but longer than some others, or than those that fear the Lord expect to live; or longer than, according to the course of nature, and the weakness of their constitutions, it could be thought they should live. Long life is promised to them that fear the Lord; godliness has the promise of this life and of that to come; the fear of the Lord is the means of preserving persons from those things which are pernicious to the health of men, and so of prolonging their days; as well as it has length of days, for ever and ever, even eternal life, annexed to it; see Psalm 34:11;

but the years of the wicked shall be shortened; through diseases, which their sins bring upon them, which cut them off before they have lived out half their days; or by means of which, their sins, they come into the hand of the civil magistrate, and die before their time; or are taken off in their full strength by the immediate judgment of God, as were Ananias and Sapphira; and so they die in the midst of their days; and before the time, which, according to the course of nature, and the common period of life, in all human probability they might have arrived unto, Psalm 55:23.

Geneva Study Bible

The fear of the LORD prolongeth days: but the years of the wicked {m} shall be shortened.

(m) The time of their prosperity will be short because of their great fall, though they seem to live long.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

27. Comp. Proverbs 3:2.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 27. - The fear of the Lord prolongeth days. The premise of long life as the reward of a religious conversation is often found in our book, where temporal retribution is set forth (see Proverbs 3:2; Proverbs 9:11; Proverbs 14:27). Shall be shortened, as Psalm 55:23; Ecclesiastes 7:17. Proverbs 10:27

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

From this point the proverbs fall into the series connecting themselves with Proverbs 10:25 :

27 The fear of Jahve multiplies the days of life;

     But the years of the godless are shortened.

This parable, like Proverbs 10:25, also corresponds with the O.T. standpoint, having in view the present life. The present-life history confirms it, for vice destroys body and soul; and the fear of God, which makes men contented and satisfied in God, is truly the right principle of longevity. But otherwise also the pious often enough die early, for God carries them away מפני הרעה from the face of the evil, Isaiah 57:1.; or if they are martyrs for the truth (Psalm 44:23, cf. Psalm 60:6), the verification of the above proverb in such cases moves forward (Wisd. 4:7ff.) into eternity, in which the life of the pious continues for ever, while that of the godless loses itself with his death in the state of everlasting death. Proverbs 9:11, cf. Proverbs 3:2, resembles 27a. Instead of תּקצרנה, תקצרנה was to be expected; but the flexion does not distinguish the transitive קצר (Arab. ḳaṣara) and intransitive קצר (Arab. ḳaṣura) as it ought.