Proverbs 1:19

Pro 1:19 So [are] the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; [which] taketh away the life of the owners thereof.

Ver. 19. Which taketh away the life.] The greater wealth, the greater spoil awaits a man: as a tree with thick and large boughs, every man desires to lop him. Trithemius writeth that the Templars, at the request of Philip, King of France, were put down and extinct, upon the pretext of heresy; but indeed, because they were rich, and Philip sore longed after their possessions. Cyprus for its great wealth became a spoil to the Roman’s auri sacra fames, &c. Dεινος και παντολμος της φιλοχρηματιας ερως. {a} Covetousness is daring and desperate: it rides without reins, as Balaam did after the wages of wickedness, "the mammon of iniquity." {Luk 16:9}

{a} Sixtus Rufus, Virgil, Isidor.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Whereby he concludeth, that the covetous man is a murderer.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 19. Which taketh away the life] A covetous man is in effect, and in the sight of God, a murderer; he wishes to get all the gain that can accrue to any or all who are in the same business that he follows-no matter to him how many families starve in consequence. This is the very case with him who sets up shop after shop in different parts of the same town or neighbourhood, in which he carries on the same business, and endeavours to undersell others in the same trade, that he may get all into his own hand.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(19) So are the ways . . .—The conclusion of the discourse. The same phrase occurs in Job_8:13.

Which taketh away . . .—That is, covetousness takes away the life of him who has this vice in his heart, who is, according to the Hebrew idiom, the “owner” of it. (Comp. similar expressions in Pro_22:24; Pro_23:2, where an “angry” man and a man “given to appetite” are literally an owner of anger and appetite.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19. which taketh away] Rather, It (greed of gain) taketh away the life of them that have it. It is the destruction of those who are possessed by it. The same Heb. phrase, owner or lord of, is rendered him that hath it, in Pro_16:22, Comp. Pro_22:24, an angry man, A.V.; him that is given to anger, R.V. lit. a lord, or owner, of anger, and Pro_23:2, a man given to appetite, lit. an owner of appetite.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

So are the ways of everyone that is greedy of gain,.... That is set upon getting riches in an unlawful way, by robberies and murder; his ways will end in the loss of his own blood and life, and in the loss of his immortal soul; this will be what his wicked ways and course of life will bring him to, and what will his gain profit him then? it would be of no use and service to him could he have gained the whole world;

which taketh away the life of the owners thereof: or who, even every one of those that are greedy of gain, and will be rich at any rate; such stick not to take away the life of the proper owners of that gain, or money they are greedy of, in order to get it into their own possession; and such wicked practices cannot fail of meeting with a just recompence of reward: or "which" covetous gain, or gain gotten in such a wicked manner, will be the cause of the life of the injurious masters and wrong possessors of it being taken away from them, either by the hand of the civil magistrate, or by God himself. These sins of robbery and murder are particularly instanced in, not only because other sins lead unto them, as sabbath breaking, drunkenness, and lewdness, and issue in temporal and eternal ruin; but because they were very common among the Jews at the time that Wisdom, or Christ, was here on earth: to which time the whole passage refers, as appears from the following verses; and that those sins were frequent then is manifest both from Scripture; see Mat 27:38; and from the confessions of the Jews, who say (z) that forty years before the destruction of the temple the sanhedrim were obliged to remove from place to place, because that murderers increased, and they could not judge and condemn them, for fear of being murdered themselves; and it was because of this great increase they were obliged to stop the beheading of the red heifer (a).

(z) T. Bab. Avodah Zarah, fol. 8. 2. (a) Misnah Sotah, c. 9. s. 9.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Not robbery only, but all forms of covetousness are destructive of true life.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Possessors. Of money. (Calmet) --- While they attempt to invade another’s property, they ruin themselves, and come to the gallows. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

So, as is expressed both in the foregoing and following words,

are the ways; the actions and courses, which are so in the tendency and event of them.

That is greedy of pain; that seeks gain by unrighteous and wicked practices. Which; either which greediness; or rather, which gain, by comparing the last words.

Taketh away the lives of the owners thereof; brings sudden and violent death upon those who had made themselves masters and possessors of such gain.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

19. So are the ways — Such is the natural course and end of every one that is greedy of gain — Literally, a plunderer of plunder, (comp. Pro_15:29,) or rapacious plunderers of property, that do not hesitate to take the life of the owner of it. So the passage is commonly understood; but others, with some plausibility, render, It (that is, the unjust gain) takes away the life of its master or possessor. 1Ti_6:9-10.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

So am the ways of every one that is greedy of gain. The epiphonema or moral of the preceding address. So are the ways, or such is the lot (as Delitzsch), or such are the paths (as Zockler), i.e. so deceitful, so ruinous, are the ways. Ke (chen,) is here used as a qualitative adverb.

Ways; twOjra (ar"khoth), the plural of jraO (orakh), a poet. word, equivalent in the first instance to "way," i.q. (derekh), and metaphorically applied to any one"s ways, his manner of life and its result, and hence lot, as in Job_8:12, and hence the expression coven the three preceding verses. That is greedy of gain (xB xebo, botsea batsa); literally, concupiscentis concupiscentium lucri; i.e. eagerly longing after gain; he who greedily desires riches (avari, Vulgate). Gain; batsa in pause, from xB. (betsa), which takes its meaning from the verb xB (batsa), "to out in pieces, to break," and hence means properly that which is cut or broken off and taken by any one for himself, and so unjust gain anything whatever fraudulently acquired, as in Pro_28:16, where it is translated "covetousness" (Authorized Version); cf. Isa_33:15 Pro_15:27. The idea of greed and covetousness enters largely into the word. Which taketh away the life of the owners thereof. The pronoun "which" does not occur in the original. The nominative to "taketh away" (tQyi, yikkath) is "gain;" the "unjust gain." (betsa) takes away the life of its owners, i.e. of those who are under its power. Owners thereof (wOylB, b"alayo) does not necessarily imply that they are in actual possession of the unjust gain, but rather refers to the influence which the lust for gain exercises over them. The expression in this second hemistich does not mean that the rapacious take the life of their comrades who possess the gain, as Rabbi Salomon; nor as the Vulgate, "the ways of the avaricious man take away the lives of those who possess them." For the phrase, "taketh away the life," as importing a violent taking away, cf. Psa_31:13 1Ki_19:10. The sentiment of the verse is well expressed in 1Ti_6:10, "For the love of money is the root of all evil; which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows."

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Greedy - That seeks gain by wicked practices.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

An epiphonema:

Such is the lot of all who indulge in covetousness;

It takes away the life of its owner.

This language is formed after Job 8:13. Here, as there, in the word ארחות, the ideas of action and issue, manner of life and its result, are all combined. בּצע signifies properly that which is cut off, a piece, fragment broken off, then that which one breaks off and takes to himself - booty, gain, particularly unjust gain (Pro 28:16). בּצע בּצע is he who is greedy or covetous. The subject to יקּח is בּצע, covetousness, πλεονεξία (see Isa 57:17). As Hoses, Job 4:11, says of three other things that they taken away לב, the understanding (νοῦς), so here we are taught regarding unjust gain or covetousness, that it takes away נפשׁ, the life (ψυχή) (לקח נפשׁ, to take away the life, Kg1 19:10; Psa 31:14). בּעליו denotes not the possessor of unjust gain, but as an inward conception, like בעל אף, Pro 22:24, cf. Pro 23:2; Pro 24:8; Ecc 10:11, him of whom covetousness is the property. The sing. נפשׁ does not show that בּעליו is thought of as sing.; cf. Pro 22:23, Ps. 34:23; but according to Pro 3:27; Pro 16:22; Ecc 8:8, this is nevertheless probable, although the usage without the suffix is always בּעל בּצע, and not בּעלי (of plur. intens. בּעלים).

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

So are the ways of everyone who commits robbery Heb. בצע בצע, who commits robbery. It is beautiful and precious to him, and it is free to him. But his end will be that... it will take away the life of its owner His own life, for he has now become the owner of the money that he stole from his neighbor.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.