Matthew Henry on Proverbs 24:19-20
Here, 1. He repeats the caution he had before given against envying the pleasures and successes of wicked man in their wicked ways. This he quotes from his father David, Psa 37:1. We must not in any case fret ourselves, or make ourselves uneasy, whatever God does in his providence how disagreeable soever it is to our sentiments, interests, and expectations, we must acquiesce in it. Even that which grieves us must not fret us; nor must our eye be evil against any because God is good. Are we more wise or just than he? If wicked people prosper, we must not therefore incline to do as they do. 2. He gives a reason for this caution, taken from the end of that way which wicked man walk in. Envy not…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 24:19
(Psa 37:1, Psa 37:38; Psa 18:28).
John Gill on Proverbs 24:19
Fret not thyself because of evil men,.... Because of their outward prosperity and worldly happiness, any more than rejoice at their adversity; neither do the one nor the other; where the one prevails, the other does also; by the frequent repetition of this advice, it looks as if this evil is what good men are prone to, and which was very common in Solomon's time, and in the time of his father David, from whom he seems to have borrowed these words, Psalm 37:1; see Proverbs 23:17;
neither be thou envious at the wicked; though they may stand when thou fallest, or be in prosperity when thou art in adversity; the reasons follow.
Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 24:19-20
Warning against envying the godless for their external prosperity:
19 Be not enraged on account of evil-doers,
Envy not the godless;
20 For the wicked men shall have no future,
The light of the godless is extinguished.
Ver. 19 is a variation of Psa 37:1; cf. also Pro 3:21 (where with בכל־דרכיו following the traditional תבחר is more appropriate than תתחר, which Hupfeld would here insert). תּתחר is fut. apoc. of התחרה, to be heated (to be indignant), distinguished from the Tiphel תּחרה, to be jealous. The ground and occasion of being enraged, and on the other side, of jealousy or envy, is the prosperity of the godless, Psa 73:3; cf. Jer 12:1. This anger at the apparently unrighteous division o…
