Proverbs 14:16

A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(16) A wise man feareth.—(Comp. Proverbs 3:7.)

The fool rageth.—Gives way to passionate excitement, and “is confident” in his own wisdom; he has no “quietness and confidence” (Isaiah 30:15) in God.

Benson Commentary

Proverbs 14:16. A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil — He trembles at God’s judgments when they are either inflicted or threatened; and shuns sin, which is the procuring cause of all calamities; but the fool rages — Frets against God, or is enraged against his messengers who declare the threatening; or, as the Hebrew, מתעבר, should rather be translated here, transgresseth, or goeth on in sin constantly and resolutely; which is fitly opposed to departing from evil; as his being confident, in the next clause, that is, secure and insensible of danger, till God’s judgments overtake him, is opposed to fearing. Bishop Patrick’s interpretation is, “A wise man, being admonished of his error, and of his danger, is afraid of incurring the divine displeasure; and instantly starts back from that evil way into which he was entering, or wherein he was engaged: but a fool storms at those that would stop him in his course, and proceeds boldly and securely to his own ruin.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

14:1 A woman who has no fear of God, who is wilful and wasteful, and indulges her ease, will as certainly ruin her family, as if she plucked her house down. 2. Here are grace and sin in their true colours. Those that despise God's precepts and promises, despise God and all his power and mercy. 3. Pride grows from that root of bitterness which is in the heart. The root must be plucked up, or we cannot conquer this branch. The prudent words of wise men get them out of difficulties. 4. There can be no advantage without something which, though of little moment, will affright the indolent. 5. A conscientious witness will not dare to represent anything otherwise than according to his knowledge. 6. A scorner treats Divine things with contempt. He that feels his ignorance and unworthiness will search the Scriptures in a humble spirit. 7. We discover a wicked man if there is no savour of piety in his discourse. 8. We are travellers, whose concern is, not to spy out wonders, but to get to their journey's end; to understand the rules we are to walk by, also the ends we are to walk toward. The bad man cheats himself, and goes on in his mistake. 9. Foolish and profane men consider sin a mere trifle, to be made light of rather than mourned over. Fools mock at the sin-offering; but those that make light of sin, make light of Christ. 10. We do not know what stings of conscience, or consuming passions, torment the prosperous sinner. Nor does the world know the peace of mind a serious Christian enjoys, even in poverty and sickness. 11. Sin ruins many great families; whilst righteousness often raises and strengthens even mean families. 12. The ways of carelessness, of worldliness, and of sensuality, seem right to those that walk in them; but self-deceivers prove self-destroyers. See the vanity of carnal mirth. 14. Of all sinners backsliders will have the most terror when they reflect on their own ways. 15. Eager readiness to believe what others say, has ever proved mischievous. The whole world was thus ruined at first. The man who is spiritually wise, depends on the Saviour alone for acceptance. He is watchful against the enemies of his salvation, by taking heed to God's word. 16. Holy fear guards against every thing unholy. 17. An angry man is to be pitied as well as blamed; but the revengeful is more hateful.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Simple - In the bad sense (compare Proverbs 1:22).

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

16. (Compare Pr 3:7; 28:14).

rageth—acts proudly and conceitedly.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Feareth; trembleth at God’s judgments, when they are either inflicted or threatened.

From evil; from sin, which is the procuring cause of all calamities.

Rageth; fretteth against God, or is enraged against his messengers who bring the threatening, or disquieteth himself in vain or, transgresseth, as this verb in its simple form and first conjugation commonly signifies; or, goeth on in sin constantly and resolutely, according to the emphasis which this conjugation commonly adds to the simple verb. And this is most fitly opposed to

departing from evil; as being

confident is opposed to fearing. Is confident; secure and insensible of his danger till God’s judgments overtake him.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil,.... He fears God, and is careful not to offend him; wherefore he departs from sin, stands at a distance from it, abstains from all appearance of it; being influenced by the goodness and grace of God unto him, he fears the Lord and his goodness, and therefore avoids all occasions of sinning against him: his motive is not merely fear of punishment, as Jarchi, but a sense of goodness; and now, as it is through the influence of divine fear that men depart from evil; so to do this shows a good understanding, and that such a man is a wise man, Proverbs 16:6;

but the fool rageth, and is confident; he fears neither God nor men, he sets his mouth against both; he "rages" in heart, if not with his mouth, against God and his law, which forbid the practice of such sins he delights in; and against all good men, that admonish him of them, rebuke him for them, or dissuade him from them: and "is confident" that no evil shall befall him; he has no concern about a future state, and is fearless of hell and damnation, though just upon the precipice of ruin; yet, as the words may be rendered, "he goes on confidently", nothing can stop him; he pushes on, regardless of the laws of God or men, of the advices and counsels of his friends, or of what will be the issue of his desperate courses in another world.

Geneva Study Bible

A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

16. rageth] Or, beareth himself insolently, R.V. The rendering however, rageth, or loses his temper, is borne out by Psalm 78:21; Psalm 78:59, where both A.V. and R.V. render the same Heb. word, was wroth.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 16. - A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil (Proverbs 22:3). In Proverbs 3:7 we had, "Fear the Lord, and depart from evil;" but here the idea is different. A wise man fears the evil that lurks in everything, and examines and ponders actions by the standard of religion, and is thus saved from many evils which arise from hastiness and inadvertence. The fool rageth, and is confident (Proverbs 21:24; Proverbs 28:26). The fool easily falls into a rage, and has no control over himself, and is confident in his own wisdom, in contrast to the wise man, who has trust in God, and is calm and thoughtful (Isaiah 30:15). Revised Version, "beareth himself insolently, and is confident;" but, as Nowack remarks, the word (mithabber), where it occurs elsewhere, means, "to be excited," "to be in a passion" (comp. Proverbs 21:24; Proverbs 26:17; Psalm 78:21, 59, 62), and this usual signification gives a good meaning here. Vulgate, transilit, "he overleaps" all laws and restrictions. The LXX., by transposition of the letters, reads mithareh, and translates μίγνυται," The fool trusting to himself mixes himself up with sinners." Proverbs 14:16

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

16 The wise feareth and departeth from evil;

     But the fool loseth his wits and is regardless.

Our editions have ירא with Munach, as if חכם ירא were a substantive with its adjective; but Cod. 1294 has חכם with Rebia, and thus it must be: חכם is the subject, and what follows is its complex predicate. Most interpreters translate 16b: the fool is over-confident (Zckler), or the fool rushes on (Hitzig), as also Luther: but a fool rushes wildly through, i.e., in a daring, presumptuous manner. But התעבּר denotes everywhere nothing else than to fall into extreme anger, to become heated beyond measure, Proverbs 26:17 (cf. Proverbs 20:2), Deuteronomy 3:26, etc. Thus 16a and 16b are fully contrasted. What is said of the wise will be judged after Job 1:1, cf. Psalm 34:15; Psalm 37:27 : the wise man has fear, viz., fear of God, or rather, since האלהים is not directly to be supplied, that careful, thoughtful, self-mistrusting reserve which flows from the reverential awe of God; the fool, on the contrary, can neither rule nor bridle his affections, and without any just occasion falls into passionate excitement. But on the other side he is self-confident, regardless, secure; while the wise man avoids the evil, i.e., carefully goes out of its way, and in N.T. phraseology "works out his own salvation with fear and trembling."