Proverbs 24:22

For their calamity shall rise suddenly; and who knoweth the ruin of them both?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(22) The ruin of them both—i.e., the rebels against God and the king.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

24:17,18. The pleasure we are apt to take in the troubles of an enemy is forbidden. 19,20. Envy not the wicked their prosperity; be sure there is no true happiness in it. 21,22. The godly in the land, will be quiet in the land. There may be cause to change for the better, but have nothing to do with them that are given change. 23-26. The wisdom God giveth, renders a man fit for his station. Every one who finds the benefit of the right answer, will be attached to him that gave it. 27. We must prefer necessaries before conveniences, and not go in debt.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Both - Those who fear not God, and those who fear not the king.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

22. their calamity, &c.—either what God and the king inflict, or what changers and their company suffer; better the first.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Who knoweth? who can conceive how sore and sudden it will be?

The ruin of them both; of them that fear not God, and of them that fear not the king, for they have two potent and terrible enemies; and therefore if they will not obey them out of conscience, as their duty binds them, yet they should do it at least for their own sakes, and for fear of those severe punishments which they will certainly inflict upon rebels.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For their calamity shall rise suddenly,.... And come upon those that fear not God, and rebel against the king and the state, and innovate in matters of religion; and especially that bring in damnable heresies, and, while they cry Peace, peace, and are pleasing themselves with their new schemes and prosperous success, swift and sudden destruction comes upon them, 2 Peter 2:1;

and who knoweth the ruin of them both? of those that fear not the Lord, nor the king; or of those who are given to change, and innovate in things civil and religious; and of those who meddle with them and join themselves to them: the ruin of themselves and families, in a civil sense, is great and inexpressible, who rebel against their prince, and endeavour to change and subvert the present government; and the ruin of the souls of men, both of the deceivers and the deceived, is beyond all conception and expression.

Geneva Study Bible

For their calamity shall rise suddenly; and who knoweth the ruin of them {g} both?

(g) Meaning, either of the wicked and seditious, as in Pr 24:19,21 or of them who do not fear God or obey their king.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

22. of them both] i.e. those who are given to change, whether against God or against the king (Proverbs 24:21); ruinam utriusque quis novit? Vulg. Others understand, the destruction inflicted by them both, sc. both God and the king. Comp. calamity from God, lit. the calamity of (inflicted by) God, Job 31:23. Another rendering, of their years, i.e. which shall bring to an end their life is noticed in R.V. margin.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 22. - For their calamity shall rise suddenly. Though these dissidents seem to succeed for a time, yet retribution shall fall suddenly upon them. And who knoweth the ruin of them both? This seems to mean the two classes, those who dishonour God and those who dishonour the king; but no such distinction is made in the previous verse; the rebels are classed under one category. Wordsworth renders, "the stroke of vengeance from them both," i.e. from God and the king. Otherwise, we must give another signification to שׁניהם, and, with the Syriac and many modern commentators, take it in the sense of "years," which שְׁנֵיהֶם will bear, as Job 36:11, and translate, "The destruction [equivalent to 'end'] of their years, who knoweth?" No one can tell when the crisis of their fate shall come; but it will arrive some day, and then the time of their prosperity will be at an end. Septuagint, "For they (God and the king) will suddenly punish the ungodly; and who shall know the vengeance of both (τὰς τιμωρίας ἀμφοτέρων)?" After this the LXX. inserts three proverbs not found now in the Hebrew, which, however, Ewald ('Jahrb. der Bibl. Wissensch.,' 11:17, etc.) considers to have been translated from a Hebrew original: "A son that keepeth the commandment shall be safe from destruction (Proverbs 29:27, Vulgate), and he hath fully received it (the word). Let no lie be spoken by the tongue of the king; and no he shall proceed from his tongue. The king's tongue is a sword, and not of flesh; and whosoever shall be delivered unto it shall be destroyed; for if his anger be inflamed, he consumes men with their nerves, and devours men's bones, and burns them up as a flame, so that they are not food for the young eagles." The allusion at the end is to animals killed by lightning. Here follows the series of proverbs (Proverbs 30:1-14) called in the Hebrew, "The words of Agur." The second part of "the words of Agur," and "the words of Lemuel" (Proverbs 30:15-31:9) follow in the Greek after Proverbs 24:34 of the Hebrew. Delitzsch explains the matter thus: In the copy from which the Alexandrines translated, the appendix (Proverbs 30-31:9) was divided into two parts, half of it standing after "the words of the wise" (Proverbs 22:17-24:22), and half after the supplement containing further sayings of wise men (Proverbs 24:23-34). Proverbs 24:22

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

A warning against rebellious thoughts against God and the king:

21 My son, honour Jahve and the king,

     And involve not thyself with those who are otherwise disposed;

22 For suddenly their calamity ariseth,

     And the end of their years, who knoweth it?

The verb שׁנה, proceeding from the primary idea of folding (complicare, duplicare), signifies transitively to do twice, to repeat, Proverbs 17:9; Proverbs 26:11, according to which Kimchi here inappropriately thinks on relapsing; and intransitively, to change, to be different, Esther 1:7; Esther 3:8. The Syr. and Targ. translate the word שׁטיי, fools; but the Kal (טעמו) שׁנה occurs, indeed, in the Syr., but not in the Heb., in the meaning alienata est (mens ejus); and besides, this meaning, alieni, is not appropriate here. A few, however, with Saadia (cf. Deutsch-Morgenlndische Zeitschr. xxi. 616), the dualists (Manichees), understand it in a dogmatic sense; but then שׁונים must be denom. of שׁנים, while much more it is its root-word. Either שׁונים means those who change, novantes equals novarum rerum studiosi, which is, however, exposed to this objection, that the Heb. שׁנה, in the transitive sense to change, does not elsewhere occur; or it means, according to the usus loq., diversos equals diversum sentientes (C. B. Michaelis and others), and that with reference to 21a: הממרים דבריהם ומצותם (Meri, Immanuel), or משׁנים מנהג החכמה (Ahron b. Joseph). Thus they are called (for it is a common name of a particular class of men) dissidents, oppositionists, or revolutionaries, who recognise neither the monarchy of Jahve, the King of kings, nor that of the earthly king, which perhaps Jerome here means by the word detractoribus ( equals detractatoribus). The Venet. incorrectly, σὺν τοῖς μισοῦσι, i.e., שׂונאים. with ב at Proverbs 14:10, התערב meant to mix oneself up with something, here with עם, to mix oneself with some one, i.e., to make common cause with him.

The reason assigned in Proverbs 24:22 is, that although such persons as reject by thought and action human and divine law may for a long time escape punishment, yet suddenly merited ruin falls on them. איד is, according to its primary signification, weighty, oppressive misfortune, vid., i. 27. In יקוּם it is thought of as hostile power (Hosea 10:14); or the rising up of God as Judge (e.g., Isaiah 33:10) is transferred to the means of executing judgment. פּיד ( equals פּוד of פוד or פיד ro פו, Arab. fâd, fut. jafûdu or jafı̂du, a stronger power of bâd, cogn. אבד) is destruction (Arab. fied, fı̂d, death); this word occurs, besides here, only thrice in the Book of Job. But to what does שׁניהם refer? Certainly not to Jahve and the king (lxx, Schultens, Umbreit, and Bertheau), for in itself it is doubtful to interpret the genit. after פיד as designating the subject, but improper to comprehend God and man under one cipher. Rather it may refer to two, of whom one class refuse to God, the other to the king, the honour that is due (Jerome, Luther, and at last Zckler); but in the foregoing, two are not distinguished, and the want of reverence for God, and for the magistrates appointed by Him, is usually met with, because standing in interchangeable relationship, in one and the same persons. Is there some misprint then in this word? Ewald suggests שׁניהם, i.e., of those who show themselves as שׁונים (altercatores) towards God and the king. In view of קמיהם, Exodus 32:25, this brevity of expression must be regarded as possible. But if this were the meaning of the word, then it ought to have stood in the first member (איד שׁניהם), and not in the second. No other conjecture presents itself. Thus שׁניהם is perhaps to be referred to the שׁונים, and those who engage with them: join thyself not with the opposers; for suddenly misfortune will come upon them, and the destruction of both (of themselves and their partisans), who knows it? But that also is not satisfactory, for after the address שׁניכם was to have been expected, 22b. Nothing remains, therefore, but to understand שׁניהם, with the Syr. and Targ., as at Job 36:11; the proverb falls into rhythms פּתאם and פּיד, שׁונים and שׁניהם. But "the end of their year" is not equivalent to the hour of their death (Hitzig), because for this פּידם (cf. Arab. feid and fı̂d, death) was necessary; but to the expiring, the vanishing, the passing by of the year during which they have succeeded in maintaining their ground and playing a part. There will commence a time which no one knows beforehand when all is over with them. In this sense, "who knoweth," with its object, is equivalent to "suddenly ariseth," with its subject. In the lxx, after Proverbs 24:22, there follow one distich of the relations of man to the word of God as deciding their fate, one distich of fidelity as a duty towards the king, and the duty of the king, and one pentastich or hexastich of the power of the tongue and of the anger of the king. The Heb. text knows nothing of these three proverbs. Ewald has, Jahrb. xi. 18f., attempted to translate them into Heb., and is of opinion that they are worthy of being regarded as original component parts of chap. 1-29, and that they ought certainly to have come in after Proverbs 24:22. We doubt this originality, but recognise their translation from the Heb. Then follows in the lxx the series of Prov; Proverbs 30:1-14, which in the Heb. text bear the superscription of "the Words of Agur;" the second half of the "Words of Agur," together with the "Words of Lemuel," stand after Proverbs 24:34 of the Heb. text. The state of the matter is this, that in the copy from which the Alexandrines translated the Appendix 30:1-31:9, stood half of it, after the "Words of the Wise" [which extend from Proverbs 22:17 to Proverbs 24:22], and half after the supplement headed "these also are from wise men" [Proverbs 24:23-34], so that only the proverbial ode in praise of the excellent matron [Proverbs 31:10] remains as an appendix to the Book of Hezekiah's collection, chap. 25-29.