Proverbs 3:24

Verse 24. When thou liest down] In these verses (Pr 3:23-26) the wise man describes the confidence, security, and safety, which proceed from a consciousness of innocence. Most people are afraid of sleep, lest they should never awake, because they feel they are not prepared to appear before God. They are neither innocent nor pardoned. True believers know that God is their keeper night and day; they have strong confidence in him that he will be their director and not suffer them to take any false step in life, Pr 3:23. They go to rest in perfect confidence that God will watch over them; hence their sleep, being undisturbed with foreboding and evil dreams, is sweet and refreshing, Pr 3:24. They are not apprehensive of any sudden destruction, because they know that all things are under the control of God; and they are satisfied that if sudden destruction should fall upon their wicked neighbour, yet God knows well how to preserve them, Pr 3:25. And all this naturally flows from the Lord being their confidence, Pr 3:26.

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

Pro 3:24 When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet.

Ver. 24. Thou shalt not be afraid.] See this exemplified in David; {Psa 3:5-6} Peter; {Act 12:6} and Mr Rogers, our late protomartyr, who when he was warned suddenly to prepare for the fire, he then being sound asleep in the prison, scarce with much shaking could be awaked. {a}

Thy sleep shall be sweet.] As knowing that God - thy keeper {Psa 121:4-5} - doth wake and watch for thee. {Psa 121:1} Wicked men’s sleep is often troublesome, through the workings of their evil consciences; as our Richard III, after the murder of his own two innocent nephews, had fearful dreams, insomuch that he did often leap out of his bed in the dark, and catching his sword, which always lay naked stuck by his side, he would go distractedly about the chamber, everywhere seeking to find out the cause of his own occasioned disquiet. {b} So Charles IX of France, after the bloody massacre of Paris, was so inwardly terrified, that he was every night laid to sleep, and wakened again with a set of musicians. {c}

{a} Acts and Mon., fol. 1356.

{b} Daniel’s Hist. of Eng.

{c} Thuan, lib. lvii.

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_3:24

Yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet.

The peaceful slumbers of the righteous

Slumber is the common privilege of thousands undistinguished by any great virtue. But slumber may be the ordinary effect of nature. While there is no physical ailment or deep sorrow to hinder it; it is the natural result of weariness and daily toil. The slumbers of the text are those which come through freedom from fear.

I. The security of a good mans rest. The body demands rest. To withhold this rest, or to give it reasonable limits, is moral suicide. When the good man lies down he is not to be afraid. Afraid of what? Of bodily danger and accidents and calamities. It is an instinct to have more fear in the darkness than in the light. It is in the night that we dread the outbreak of the smouldering spark; it is the night which favours the robbers murderous purpose; it is the night which adds terrors to the lightning flash and to the storm. The promise of the text supplies a rational warrant for calm security. You may sleep and take your rest, for He that keepeth Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The powers of evil shall not destroy further than may be consistent with the Divine designs of mercy, or with an overruling purpose for good. It is a promise that in lying down we need not be afraid of death. When we close our eyes in slumber we know not in which of two worlds we may wake again. We can only overcome the fear of death by knowing that we have a part in Him who is the destroyer of death. How may we lay down and not be afraid? Only by endeavouring that, whether we wake in one world or another, we may have Christ with us at our rising.

II. Thy sleep shall be sweet. This is a second privilege of the good.

1. Sleep is sweetened by the thought of duties attempted, if not duties done. We are all unprofitable servants, but that is no reason why we should be slothful servants.

2. Sleep is sweet through an enjoyed sense of the Divine forgiveness. It cannot be a healthy sleep which men enjoy while the pillow is pressed by a weight of unpardoned, unrepented sin.

3. Sleep may be sweetened by kind and charitable thoughts towards all mankind. Cultivate those dispositions which minister to a holy and gentle charity. Conclusion. You must share in the good mans labour if either in this life or in that which is to come you would share in the good mans rest. Sleep to the labouring man is sweet, so also is the sleep of the labouring Christian. His struggles with sin, his contest with the world, the labour of keeping the heart right, and the hands pure, and the eye single, and the ways direct--these are things which make rest needful for him, which give refreshment to his slumbers and repose to his rest. And this warfare of the Christian every day, followed by a night of rest, is but a type of the whole warfare of time followed by the Sabbath rest of eternity. (Daniel Moore, M.A.)

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

Pro 3:24-26. When thou liest down thou shalt not be afraid — Of fire, or thieves, or any of the terrors of the darkness, knowing that when thou and all thy friends are asleep, yet He that keepeth Israel, and every true-born Israelite, neither slumbers nor sleeps, and that to him thou hast committed thyself, and taken shelter under the shadow of his wings. Yea, thou shalt lie down — And shalt not need to sit up to keep guard; and, being laid down, thou shalt sleep, and not have thine eyes held waking by care or fear; and thy sleep shall be sweet — Refreshing to thee, not being disturbed by any alarms from without, or apprehensions from within. The way to have a good night is to sleep with a good conscience; and the sleep, as of the labouring man, so of the wise and godly man, is sweet. Be not afraid — That is, thou shalt not be afraid. For that it is a promise seems most probable from the context; only, for greater emphasis, it is delivered in the form of a precept; as if he had said, I require thee not to be afraid; it is both thy duty and privilege; of sudden fear — For sudden and unexpected evils are most frightful and grievous; and fear is here put for the evils feared. Neither of the desolation of the wicked — Which befalls them, when the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; and thou mayest be ready to fear, lest thou shouldst be involved in the common calamity; but fear not, for God will then hide thee in his chambers, Isa 26:20-21. For the Lord shall be thy confidence — A sufficient and sure ground of confidence; and shall keep thy foot from being taken — In the snares either of sin or of mischief.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

When thou liest down thou shalt not be afraid,.... That is, when thou liest down on thy bed at night in order to take sleep, having committed thyself into the hands of a faithful Creator and covenant God and Father, and of Christ the Redeemer and Wisdom of God; thou shalt not be afraid of thieves breaking in to hurt thy person or rob thee of thy property, or of fire to consume thy dwelling and substance, and of nocturnal apparitions and diabolical spectres deceiving thy sight and disturbing thy mind: or when thou art "asleep" (e), for so the word also signifies; thou shall not be surprised out of it with any of the above things, or terrified in it with uneasy imaginations, anxious cares, and distressing dreams;

yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet; free of all uneasy thoughts and cares, sound and refreshing, pleasant and comfortable, like that of the labouring man, Ecc 5:12; see Psa 4:8. This epithet of "sweet" is often given to "sleep" in poetic writings (f).

(e) "dormieris", V. L. "eum dormies", Vatablus. (f) , Homer. Odyss. 7. v. 289. & 19. v. 511. Theocrit. Idyll. 11. v. 22, 23.

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

Free from distracting cares and terrors, which ofttimes haunt sinners even in their sleep, because thy mind shall be composed and serene through the sense of God’s favour and providence, and the conscience of thine own integrity.

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

24. Sleep… sweet — The preceding verse describes the safety and prosperity of more active life; this one, the security and pleasantness of repose. The truly wise man — the virtuously wise — knows that the Lord is his guardian, that he that keepeth him shall neither slumber nor sleep. Comp. Psa_127:1-2; Jer_31:26.

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

When thou liest down thou shalt not be afraid. This is beautifully illustrated by what David says in Psa_4:8, "I will both lay me down in peace and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety." No fear is to be apprehended where Jehovah is Protector. (see Psa_3:5, 6 46:1-3 91:1-5 121:5-8) When, (im) is rendered "if" by the Vulgate, LXX, Targum Jonathan. Thou liest down; tish"kav, "thou shalt lie down," kal future, like shakavta, kal perfect, in the corresponding hemistich, is from shakav, "to lie down," specially to lay one"s self down to sleep, as in Gen_19:4 Psa_3:6. Vulgate, si dormieris; cf. Pro_6:22, "when thou sleepest" b"shok"b"ka). The LXX rendering, "if thou sittest" (kayh ), arises from reading bveTe (teshev) for bkvTi (tish"kav) Yea, thou shalt lie down; b"shok"b"ta, as before, with prefixed, equivalent to the future, as in the Authorized Version; LXX, kayeudhv . Shall be sweet; arvah, from arav, "to be sweet," or "pleasant," perhaps "well mixed," as arev, equivalent to "to mix." Thy sleep shall be full of pleasing impressions, not restless, as in Deu_28:66 and Job_7:4, but sweet, because of the sense of safety, and from confidence in God, as well as from a good conscience. (cf. Job_11:18, "Thou shalt take thy rest in safety," from which the idea is probably taken)

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

and when you lie down, your sleep shall be sweet Your sleep shall be sweet when you sleep, that you will not fear sudden terror.

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.