Proverbs 10:30

The righteous shall never be removed: but the wicked shall not inhabit the earth.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(30) The righteous shall never be removed.—See above on Proverbs 2:21, and Psalm 37:29.

But the wicked shall not inhabit the earth.—Rather, The godless abide not in the land. They often have to become vagabonds, like Cain, for their crimes. This, too, was the great punishment threatened by Moses and all the prophets, which at last fell upon the Jews, and is still in force.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:29. The believer grows stronger in faith, and obeys with increased delight. 30. The wicked would be glad to have this earth their home for ever, but it cannot be so. They must die and leave all their idols behind. 31,32. A good man discourses wisely for the benefit of others. But it is the sin, and will be the ruin of a wicked man, that he speaks what is displeasing to God, and provoking to those he converses with. The righteous is kept by the power of God; and nothing shall be able to separate him from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The wicked shall rot inhabit - The other and higher side of the same law of the divine government appears in Matthew 5:5.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

30. (Compare Pr 12:3; Ps 37:9-11; 102:28).

earth—or, "land of promise."

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The righteous shall never be removed; they shall live long and happily here, when this is most expedient for them, and eternally in heaven.

The wicked shall not inhabit the earth; they shall not have so much as a long and quite abode upon earth, unless where this is a curse and mischief to them, and much less shall they have any possession in heaven.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The righteous shall never be removed,.... They may be removed from place to place in this world, through the persecutions of their enemies, or through one providence or another, as they often are; they may be removed from a state of outward prosperity to a state of adversity, as Job was; they may be removed from spiritual and comfortable frames of soul to carnal or uncomfortable ones; for good frames are very precarious and uncertain things; and they will be removed out of this world into another; here they have no continuing city: but they shall never be removed from the love of God, nothing can separate them from that; they are set as a seal on his heart, and are engraven on the palms of his hands, and there is no removing them from thence; they may be waiver about their interest in the love of God; they may be without the manifestations and discoveries of it to their souls; they may be under the hidings of God's face; they may be at a distance from his house and ordinances, or may not enjoy the presence of God in them for a time; yet not separated from his affections; they shall never be removed out of the hands of Christ, into which they are put for security, and out of which none can pluck them, men or devils; how should they, since they are in those hands that made the heavens and the earth, support all in being, and hold the reins of government? Was it possible they could be removed from hence, it would impeach the wisdom of God, who has put them there; argue weakness in Christ, and suppose danger to them. Nor can they be removed out of the family of God; sons of God abide in his house for ever; they are no more foreigners and strangers; once children, no more servants; they may be corrected and chastised, yet be children; they may judge themselves unworthy of the relation, and be ready to conclude that their spots are not the spots of God's children, and fear they are none of them, and yet the relation continues: nor will they ever be removed from their state of justification, by which they are denominated righteous, into a state of condemnation; for full satisfaction is given to law and justice for them; their justification is complete, it is from all sin; the righteousness by which they are justified is everlasting, and even their faith which receives it shall never fail; to which may be added, that they are secured from wrath to come, and entitled to eternal life. In a word, they are on the sure foundation of electing grace; they are in the immovable covenant of grace; they are on the Rock of ages, Christ Jesus; all the divine Persons and perfections are on their side; they are kept by the power of God, through faith, unto salvation; see Psalm 55:22;

but the wicked shall not inhabit the earth; but a very little while, as Gersom observes; and the time of their abode on earth is so short, as scarce to be called an inhabitation of it. Moreover, they shall not inhabit the earth the righteous will, even the new earth, which none but righteous persons shall inhabit, 2 Peter 3:13; see Psalm 37:9.

Geneva Study Bible

The righteous shall {n} never be removed: but the wicked shall not inhabit the earth.

(n) They enjoy in this life by faith and hope, their everlasting life.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

30. the earth] Comp. Matthew 5:5; or, the land (sc. of Canaan), as R.V. Comp. Proverbs 21:21-22; Exodus 20:12. The law holds good, though its sphere of action may vary.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 30. - The righteous shall never be removed (Proverbs 2:21; Proverbs 12:3, 21; Psalm 10:6; Psalm 37:29). This is in agreement with the temporal promise made to the patriarchs and often renewed, as in the fifth commandment. St. Paul says (1 Timothy 4:8), "Godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life which now is, and of that which is to come." The wicked shall not inhabit (or, abide not in) the land. The punishment of exile was threatened upon the Jews for their disobedience, and they are still suffering this retribution (Leviticus 26:33; Deuteronomy 4:27; Isaiah 22:17). Christ gives the other aspect of God's moral government when he says (Matthew 5:5), "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." Proverbs 10:30

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

30 The righteous is never moved;

     But the godless abide not in the land.

Love of home is an impulse and emotion natural to man; but to no people was fatherland so greatly delighted in, to none was exile and banishment from fatherland so dreadful a thought, as it was to the people of Israel. Expatriation is the worst of all evils with which the prophets threatened individuals and the people, Amos 7:17, cf. Isaiah 22:17.; and the history of Israel in their exile, which was a punishment of their national apostasy, confirms this proverb and explains its form; cf. Proverbs 2:21., Psalm 37:29. בּל is, like Proverbs 9:13, the emphatic No of the more elevated style; נמוט, the opposite of נכון, Proverbs 12:3; and שׁכן signifies to dwell, both inchoative: to come to dwell, and consecutive: to continue to dwell (e.g., Isaiah 57:15, of God who inhabiteth eternity). In general, the proverb means that the righteous fearlessly maintains the position he takes; while, on the contrary, all they who have no hold on God lose also their outward position. But often enough this saying is fulfilled in this, that they, in order that they may escape disgrace, became wanderers and fugitives, and are compelled to conceal themselves among strangers.