Proverbs 10:3

The LORD will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish: but he casteth away the substance of the wicked.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(3) The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish.—Comp. David’s experience (Psalm 37:25), and the great promise of our Lord to those who “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). (Comp. also below, Proverbs 13:25.)

He casteth away the substance of the wicked.—Rather, He repels (the word is used in 2Kings 4:27, of Gehazi “thrusting away” the Shunammite) the eager, passionate desire of the wicked. However much they long for it, they get it not, “because they ask amiss” (James 4:3).

Benson Commentary

Proverbs 10:3. The Lord will not suffer the righteous to famish — Will preserve them from famine, according to his promises, Psalm 34:10, (on which see the note,) and elsewhere; but he casteth away the substance — So הות, the word here used, sometimes signifies; or, the wickedness, that is, the wealth gotten by wickedness, as it is rendered Psalm 52:7; of the wicked — Who by that means shall be exposed to want and famine. The instructions in these last two verses about getting, keeping, and using riches aright, very properly follow what was observed, Proverbs 10:1, that a curse may not be entailed upon riches through a contrary conduct respecting them, and descend with them unto our children.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:1 The comfort of parents much depends on their children; and this suggests to both, motives to their duties. 2,3. Though the righteous may be poor, the Lord will not suffer him to want what is needful for spiritual life. 4. Those who are fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, are likely to be rich in faith, and rich in good works. 5. Here is just blame of those who trifle away opportunities, both for here and for hereafter. 6. Abundance of blessings shall abide on good men; real blessings.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Casteth away ... - Better, "overturns, disappoints the strong desire of the wicked." Tantalus-like, they never get the enjoyment they thirst after.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3. (Compare Ps 37:16-20). The last clause is better: "He will repel the greedy desires of the wicked."

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish; will preserve them from famine, according to his promises, Psalm 34:10, and elsewhere, which, as other temporal promises, is not to be understood simply and universally, but with this limitation, except this be necessary for God’s glory, which in all reason should overrule the creatures’ good, and for their own greater benefit. For, to say nothing of eternal felicities which follow every good man’s death, it is certainly in some times and eases a less evil for men to be killed with famine, than to survive to see and feel those miseries which are coming upon them, and upon the land where they live.

The substance, as this word is used, Psalm 52:7, or the wickedness, i.e. the wealth gotten by wickedness; as righteousness, Proverbs 10:2, is by divers understood of an estate got with righteousness.

Of the wicked; who by that means shall be exposed to want and famine.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish,.... Or to perish by famine: not but that good men may be afflicted with it, as Jacob and his sons were, when the famine was in Egypt and in other lands; and as the apostles, particularly the Apostle Paul, were often in hunger and thirst, yet not so as to be destroyed by it; for in "famine" the Lord redeems such from death; though the young lions lack and suffer hunger, they that fear the Lord shall not want any good thing; at least whatever they may suffer this way does not arise from the wrath of God, nor does it nor can it separate from the love of God and Christ, Job 5:20. Moreover, the souls of such shall not be famished for want of spiritual food; shall not have a famine of the word and ordinances; their souls shall be fed, as with marrow and fatness, with the finest of the wheat, and with honey out of the rock: the church, though in the wilderness, is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, Revelation 12:14;

but he casteth away the substance of the wicked; that which is got in a wicked way; as sometimes he causes it to diminish by little and little; at other times he forcibly and suddenly drives it away, and causes it to take wings and fly away; though it has been swallowed down with great greediness and in great abundance, he makes them throw it up again, and casts it out of their belly, whether they will or not, so that it does not profit them, Job 20:15.

Geneva Study Bible

The LORD will {b} not allow the soul of the righteous to famish: but he casteth away the substance of the wicked.

(b) Though he permits the just to want for a time, yet he will send him comfort in due season.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

3. to famish] Comp. Psalm 37:25; and for the soul’s highest hungering, Matthew 5:6.

casteth away the substance] Rather, thrusteth away (as Gehazi would have done the Shunammite, 2 Kings 4:27) the desire, R.V.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish (comp. Proverbs 19:23). The soul is the life (comp. Proverbs 13:25). So the psalmist says (Psalm 37:25), "I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging their bread." Christ speaks of the providence that watches over the lower creatures, and draws thence a lesson of trust in his care of man. concluding, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:26, 33). But he casteth away the substance of the wicked; Septuagint, "He will overthrew the life of the wicked;" Vulgate, "He overturns the plots of sinners." The word rendered "substance" (havvah) is better understood as "desire." God frustrates the eager longing (for food or other good things) of the wicked; they are never satisfied, and get no real enjoyment out of what they crave (comp. Proverbs 13:25). Proverbs 10:3

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Another proverb, the members of which stand in chiastic relation to those of the preceding:

Jahve does not suffer the soul of the righteous to hunger;

But the craving of the godless He disappointeth.

The thought is the same as Proverbs 13:25. There, as also at Proverbs 6:30, the soul is spoken of as the faculty of desire, and that after nourishment, for the lowest form of the life of the soul is the impulse to self-preservation. The parallel הוּה, in which lxx and Ar. erroneously find the meaning of חיּה, life, the Syr. Targ. the meaning of הון, possession, means the desire, without however being related to אוּה (Berth.); it is the Arab. hawan, from הוה, Arab. haway, which, from the fundamental meaning χαίνειν, hiare, to gape, yawn, signifies not only unrestrained driving along, and crashing overthrow (cf. Proverbs 11:6; Proverbs 19:13), but also the breaking forth, ferri in aliquid, whence הוּה, Arab. hawan, violent desire, in Hebr. generally (here and Psalm 52:9, Mich. Proverbs 7:3) of desire without limits and without restraint (cf. the plur. âhawâ, arbitrary actions, caprices); the meanings deduced from this important verbal stem (of which also הוה היה, accidere, and then esse, at least after the Arabic conception of speech, is an offshoot) are given by Fleischer under Job 37:6, and after Fleischer by Eth, Schlafgemach der Phantasie, ii. p. 6f. The verb הדף signifies to push in the most manifold shades, here to push forth, repellere, as 2 Kings 4:27 (cf. Arab. ḥadhaf, to push off equals to discharge); the fut. is invariably יהדּף, like יהגּה. God gives satisfaction to the soul of the righteous, viz., in granting blessings. The desire of the wicked He does not suffer to be accomplished; it may appear for a long time as if that which was aimed at was realized, but in the end God pushes it back, so that it remains at a distance, because contrary to Him. Instead of והות רשׁעים, some editions (Plantin 1566, Bragadin 1615) have והות בּגדים, but, in opposition to all decided testimony, only through a mistaken reference to Proverbs 11:6.