Matthew Henry on Proverbs 29:16
Note, 1. The more sinners there are the more sin there is: When the wicked, being countenanced by authority, grow numerous, and walk on every side, no marvel if transgression increases, as a plague in the country is said to increase when still more and more are infected with it. Transgression grows more impudent and bold, more imperious and threatening, when there are many to keep it in countenance. In the old world, when men began to multiply, they began to degenerate and corrupt themselves and one another. 2. The more sin there is the nearer is the ruin threatened. Let not the righteous have their faith and hope shocked by the increase of sin and sinners. Let them not say that they have cl…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 29:16
(Compare Pro 29:2, Pro 29:12; Psa 12:1-8).
shall see . . . fall--and triumph in it (Psa 37:34-38; Psa 58:10-11).
John Gill on Proverbs 29:16
When the wicked are multiplied,.... Or "are in authority" (r); as the word is rendered, Proverbs 29:2;
transgression increaseth; among the common people, being encouraged by their wicked rulers, whose examples they follow; or as the wicked themselves increase, in numbers, in age, in power, and riches, their sins increase too;
but the righteous shall see their fall, from their places of authority and power, of honour, riches, and grandeur, into a low and despicable condition, into ruin and destruction; and that with pleasure, because of the glory of God, his wisdom, justice, truth, and faithfulness, displayed therein; see Psalm 58:10.
(r) "dominantibus impiis"; some in Mercerus; "quum prae…
Read the whole note in the consoleKeil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 29:16
16 When the godless increase, wickedness increaseth;
But the righteous shall see their fall.
The lxx translation is not bad: πολλῶν ὄντων ἀσεβῶν πολλαὶ γίνονται ἁμαρτίαι (vid., regarding רבה, Pro 29:2, Pro 28:28); but in the main it is only a Binsenwahrheit, as they say in Swabia, i.e., a trivial saying. The proverb means, that if among a people the party of the godless increases in number, and at the same time in power, wickedness, i.e., a falling away into sins of thought and conduct, and therewith wickedness, prevails. When irreligion and the destruction of morals thus increase, the righteous are troubled; but the conduct of the godless carries the judgment in itself, and the rig…
