Proverbs 11:19

Pro 11:19 As righteousness [tendeth] to life: so he that pursueth evil [pursueth it] to his own death.

Ver. 19. As righteousness tendeth to life.] Heb., Lives; for "godliness hath the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." {1Ti 4:8} And this is that sure reward spoken of in the former verse; for "he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting," {Gal 6:8} which indeed is the only life that deserveth so to be called and counted.

So he that pursueth evil.] That follows it hotfoot - as Asael followed Abner; that is, wholly carried after it, and thinks to have a great catch of it, that works "all uncleanness with greediness." {Eph 4:19} This the prophet calls a "spirit of whoredom," a strong inclination, a vehement impetus to that and other sins, an "adding drunkenness to thirst, rebellion to sin"; till wrath come upon them to the utmost. Hell gapes for such sinners.

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.

Pro_11:19

As righteousness tendeth to life: so he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death.

The reward of righteousness

Life and death are objects of universal interest. Life here is life spiritual and eternal. Death is viewed as involving separation and exclusion from God.

I. Righteousness proves the spiritual life to be begun in our souls; evil shows that our souls are still dead in sin. Naturally we are all dead in sin. There is a life which Gods life-giving Spirit begins in us. One of the most marked indications of its existence is righteousness developing itself in the whole character and conduct.

II. Righteousness is connected with the spiritual nourishment which maintains life; evil with the neglect of such nourishment, which occasions death. Mans spiritual nature must receive spiritual sustenance. The soul that is quickened to righteousness hungers and thirsts after righteousness, and God bestows upon it what it seeks, so as to nourish it and strengthen it.

III. Righteousness leads to courses of action which prolong life; evil, from its very nature, conducts to death. Gods ways tend not only to the preservation and prolongation of life in this world, but to the full enjoyment of life for evermore.

IV. Righteousness associates us with those who are alive to God, thus helping to maintain life in the soul; evil unites us to those who are spiritually dead, and brings us into the same state with them. To be the living among the dead is no easy thing. If voluntarily we associate with the dead, imbibing their spirit, and following their ways, we must be conformed in likeness to them.

V. Righteousness ensures the Divine protection, so that life is guarded and defended; evil incurs Gods wrath, which is death. Life is a brittle thing. The great God who gives it is ready, however, to ward off all the dangers which may menace it. His favour is life; His frown is death.

VI. Righteousness conducts to life everlasting in heaven; evil to eternal death in hell. The world of glory shall be peopled by the righteous. The evil and unbelieving shall inhabit the world of woe. (Anon.)

Pursuing evil

The sure reward in the preceding verse is life in this; and as that reward is sure in the one case, the deceitfulness of the wicked s work lies in its affecting death as its result instead of life. He who pursueth evil may overtake it, and may boast himself in the success of his pursuit. But the very evil that he overtakes shall slay him. It is as if a man were to pursue a serpent, captivated by the beauty of its appearance, in its shifting and glistening hues, but ignorant of the venom of its sting, or its fang, and in the act of laying hold of it, were to receive the deadly wound. Death treads on the very heels of the man who pursueth evil ; and when he overtakes the evil, death overtakes him. (R. Wardlaw.)

The natural history of evil

Every sinner plans and acts against his own personal interest; and fond as he is of life, he is a self-destroyer. He is allured by false appearances, enveloped in sense and sensual delights, and follows a path that ends in destruction.

I. The commencement of moral evil in the human soul. He is born in a state of impurity. Evil is interwoven in the very texture of his being. It commenced with the first family of the human race, and the evil spirit of unrighteousness has been transmitted from father to son. When a man is not properly acquainted with the corruption of his nature, he mistakes a want of opportunity to sin for moral purity of heart, and the absence of temptation for a truly virtuous mind. Evil in actual operation in human life--

1. Springs up in thoughts.

2. Finds expression in overt acts.

II. The progress of moral evil. He that pursueth evil There is not the root only, but also the tree and the growth. A man seldom becomes a sudden profligate. By a continuance in evil the feelings become less affected with its enormity, the conscience is less tender and scrupulous, the base inclinations and passions of the heart gather strength, and temptation finds an easy dupe to every impious proposal. Sin has not a resting-place. It carries within itself the power of perpetual motion. Sin hardens the heart.

III. the completion of moral evil. It has its seed-time, its growth, and its harvest.

1. The completion of sin is the death of reputation.

2. The death of enjoyment.

3. The death of the body.

4. The death of the soul. (Thomas Wood.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

It is here shown that righteousness, not only by the divine judgment, will end in life, and wickedness in death, but that righteousness, in its own nature, has a direct tendency to life and wickedness to death. 1. True holiness is true happiness; it is a preparative for it, a pledge and earnest of it. Righteousness inclines, disposes, and leads, the soul to life. 2. In like manner, those that indulge themselves in sin are fitting themselves for destruction. The more violent a man is in sinful pursuits the more eagerly bent he is upon his own destruction; he awakens it when it seemed to slumber and hastens it when it seemed to linger.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Inference from Pro 11:18 (compare Pro 11:5-6; Pro 10:16).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 19. Righteousness tendeth to life] True godliness promotes health, and is the best means of lengthening out life; but wicked men live not out half their days.

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

(19) As righteousness tendeth to life.—Rather, genuine righteousness tendeth to life.

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

19. As] The Heb. word means so, but has also the sense of firm, stedfast, and is so used of character, Gen_42:11; Gen_42:19; Gen_42:31; Gen_42:33-34.

Render:

He that is stedfast in righteousness is so unto life.

And he that pursueth evil doeth so unto his own death.

The rendering of R.V. marg., So (in like manner), connecting this proverb with that of the preceding verse, is less forcible and less in accordance with the style of this Book.

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.

As righteousness tendeth to life,.... Or, is unto life: not mere outward acts of moral righteousness; these may be done where there is no principle of spiritual life, and are no other than dead works, and will never bring to everlasting life; indeed the best righteousness of man's is no justification of life, nor can it entitle to it, nor is meritorious of it. Godliness, or true holiness, has the promise of this life and that to come, Ti1 4:8; and so here in the Hebrew text it is, "unto lives" (x), in the plural number. Internal grace, or powerful godliness, which is the new man that is created in righteousness, gives a meetness for everlasting life, and issues in it; particularly the righteousness of Christ, as that is a perfectly justifying one; it makes a man alive in a law sense, and gives a title and claim to eternal life;

so he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death; or, it is "to his own death"; it issues in that: not he that is overtaken in a fault, or falls into sin through the infirmity of the flesh and the force of temptation, but such who eagerly follow after it and overtake it; who give up themselves unto it, weary themselves in committing it, draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope; these often by their sins bring diseases upon them, which end in a corporeal death; or by means of which they come into the hand of the civil magistrate, and are capitally punished; and, however, die the second death, or an eternal one, the just wages of sin, Rom 6:23.

(x) "ad vitas", Montanus.

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

That pursueth evil; who are not overtaken by sin, as a good man may be, Gal 6:1, but studiously design it, and follow after the occasions of it earnestly, and greedily, and industriously.

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

19. As righteousness tendeth, etc. — The sentence is elliptical, and may be paraphrased thus: Righteousness leads him that practices it to life and happiness; and he that pursueth evil, pursueth it to his own death. Moral good and moral evil produce their natural results. This is the divine law. The apostle (in Gal_6:8) applies the principle in all its breadth: “He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” This and the preceding proverb seem to be related. The apostle probably had his eye on both. The Septuagint seems to have read the first word כןas בן, and instead of “as,” or so, “righteousness,” it translates accordingly, a righteous son.

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

This verse is not to be connected with the preceding, as in the margin of the Revised Version, "so righteousness," etc., each couplet in these chapters being independent, the connection, such as it is, being maintained by the use of catchwords, such as "righteous," "wicked," "upright," etc. As righteousness tendeth to life. The various uses of the first word ke (ken) have led to different renderings. The Authorized Version takes it for "as;" the Revised Version as an adjective: He that is steadfast in righteousness. It is, perhaps, better, with Nowack, to regard it as an adverb: "He who is honestly, strictly, of righteousness, is to life." The meaning is plain: real, genuine righteousness hath the promise of this life and of that which is to come. (1Ti_4:8) The LXX, reading be (ben), translate, "A righteous son is born for life." He that pursueth evil; (Pro_13:21) Septuagint, "the persecution of the impious," i.e. that which an impious man inflicts. But the Authorized Version is correct, and the clause means that he who practises evil brings ruin eventually on himself a warning trite, but unheeded. (comp. Pro_1:18)

The tendencies of conduct.

I ALL ACTIONS HAVE AN IMMEDIATE AND A REMOTE RESULT.

II IT IS THE FINAL RESULT THAT MUST BE CONSIDERED IN ESTIMATING DIFFERENT COURSES OF CONDUCT.

III THERE ARE TWO IDEAL TERMINI TO CONDUCT LIFE AND DEATH. An old proverb says, "We know not who live or die." But we may know towards which issue certain habits are tending.

IV TENACIOUS RECTITUDE IS THE WAY OF LIFE; BLIND PURSUIT OF THE OBJECTS OF PASSION, THE WAY TO DEATH. J.

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

19 Genuine righteousness reaches to life,

And he who pursues evil does it to his death.

The lxx translate υἱὸς δίκαιος, and the Syrian follows this unwarrantable quid pro quo; the Bible uses the phrase בן־עולה and the like, but not בן־צדקה. The Graec. Venet. (translating οὕτω) deprives the distich of its supposed independence. The Targ. renders כּן with the following ו as correlates, sic ... uti; but כן in comparative proverbs stands naturally in the second, and not in the first place (vid., p. 10). Without doubt כן is here a noun. It appears to have a personal sense, according to the parallel וּמרדּף, on which account Elster explains it: he who is firm, stedfast in righteousness, and Zckler: he who holds fast to righteousness; but כן cannot mean "holding fast," nor does מכונן; - "fast" does not at all agree with the meaning of the word, it means upright, and in the ethical sense genuine; thus Ewald better: "he who is of genuine righteousness," but "genuine in (of) righteousness" is a tautological connection of ideas. Therefore we must regard כן as a substantival neuter, but neither the rectum of Cocceius nor the firmum of Schultens furnishes a naturally expressed suitable thought. Or is כּן a substantive in the sense of 2 Kings 7:31? The word denotes the pedestal, the pillar, the standing-place; but what can the basis refer to here (Euchel)? Rather read "aim" (Oetinger) or "direction" (Lwenstein); but כן does not take its meaning from the Hiph. הכין. One might almost assume that the Chokma-language makes כּן, taliter, a substantive, and has begun to use it in the sense of qualitas (like the post-bibl. איכוּת), so that it is to be explained: the quality of righteousness tendeth to life. But must we lose ourselves in conjectures or in modifications of the text (Hitzig, כּנּס, as a banner), in order to gain a meaning from the word, which already has a meaning? We say דּבּר כּן, to speak right (Num 27:7), and עשׂות כּן, to do right (Ecc 8:10); in both cases כּן means standing = consisting, stedfast, right, recte. The contrast is לא־כן, Kg2 7:9, which is also once used as a substantive, Isa 16:6 : the unrighteousness of his words. So here כן is used as a substantive connected in the genitive, but not so that it denotes the right holding, retaining of righteousness, but its right quality - שׁל־צדקה אמתּה, as Rashi explains it, i.e., as we understand it: genuineness, or genuine showing of righteousness, which is not mere appearance without reality. That כּנים denotes such people as seek to appear not otherwise than what they truly are, is in favour of this interpretation. Such genuine righteousness as follows the impulse of the heart, and out of the fulness of the heart does good, has life as its result (Pro 19:23), an inwardly happy and externally a prosperous life; on the other hand, he who wilfully pursues evil, and finds in it satisfaction, brings death upon himself: he does it to his death, or if we make (which is also possible) רדּף the subject: it tends to his death. Thus in other words: Love is life; hatred destroys life.

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.)

v. 19. As righteousness tendeth to life, or, "genuine righteousness," flowing from the fullness of a heart sound in faith, will result in a truly happy life, bringing happiness to all who practice it; so he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death, that is the consequence of his act.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

the one who

"the person who"

pursues evil

"chases after evil" or "seeks to do evil"

whose hearts are perverse

"Heart" represents the feelings, attitudes and motivations of a person. AT: "who have wicked thoughts" (See: Metonymy)

translationWords

life

evil

die

Yahweh

heart

perverse

blameless

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

The truth of charity Heb. כן, the truth of charity is that its end is for life, as in (Num. 27:7): “The daughters of Zelofchad speak right (כן).”

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.