Proverbs 23:17

“Let not thine heart envy sinners, etc.] Their present prosperity and happiness, the pleasure, profit, and honour, they seem to enjoy; all which is but a shadow, fading had temporary; and yet good men are apt to envy it in their hearts, if they do not express it with their lips; and are ready to murmur and think it hard that they should be in straitened circumstances while the wicked are in flourishing ones; and inwardly fret and are uneasy at it, which they should not, (<193701>Psalm 37:1,7 73:2); or do not “emulate” or “imitate”f626 them, or do as they do, thinking thereby to enjoy the same prosperity and happiness; choose not their ways, nor desire to be with them, to have their company,…”

“(Compare Margin). The prosperity of the wicked is short.”

“Another continuous exhortation rather than a collection of maxims. Proverbs 23:16 The teacher rejoices when the disciple’s heart Proverbs 23:15 receives wisdom, and yet more when his lips can utter it. Reins - See Job 19:27 note. Proverbs 23:17 Envy sinners - Compare in Psalms 37:1; Psalms 73:3; the feeling which looks half-longingly at the prosperity of evil doers. Some connect the verb “envy” with the second clause, “envy not sinners, but envy, emulate, the fear of the Lord.” Proverbs 23:18 Or, For if there is an end (hereafter), thine expectations shall not be cut off. There is an implied confidence in immortality. Proverbs 23:20 Riotous eaters of flesh - The word is the same as “glutton”…”

“23:17-18 Saying 14: Sometimes sinners prosper, but the wise will see that to fear the Lord is what ultimately rewards (see 1:7).”

“not: Pro 3:31, Pro 24:1; Psa 37:1-3, Psa 73:3-7 be thou: Pro 15:16, Pro 28:14; Psa 111:10, Psa 112:1; Ecc 5:7, Ecc 12:13, Ecc 12:14; Act 9:31; Co2 7:1; Pe1 1:17 Proverbs 23:18”

“The poet now shows how one attains unto wisdom - the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God: 17 Let not thine heart strive after sinners, But after the fear of Jahve all the day. 18 Truly there is a future, And thy hope shall not come to naught. The lxx, Jerome, the Venet., and Luther, and the Arab. interpreters, render 17b as an independent clause: "but be daily in the fear of the Lord." That is not a substantival clause (cf. Pro 22:7), nor can it be an interjectional clause, but it may be an elliptical clause (Fleischer: from the prohibitive אל־תקנא is to be taken for the second parallel member the v. subst. lying at the foundation of all verbs); but why had the author omitted היה dettim?…”